Guardian - Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house

[pampango]

Former workers tell how hundreds of bloggers are paid to flood forums and social networks at home and abroad with anti-western and pro-Kremlin comments


55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg, said to be the headquarters of Russia’s ‘troll army’.

Just after 9pm each day, a long line of workers files out of 55 Savushkina Street, a modern four-storey office complex with a small sign outside that reads “Business centre”. Having spent 12 hours in the building, the workers are replaced by another large group, who will work through the night. The nondescript building has been identified as the headquarters of Russia’s “troll army”, where hundreds of paid bloggers work round the clock to flood Russian internet forums, social networks and the comments sections of western publications with remarks praising the president, Vladimir Putin, and raging at the depravity and injustice of the west.

“We had to write ‘ordinary posts’, about making cakes or music tracks we liked, but then every now and then throw in a political post about how the Kiev government is fascist, or that sort of thing,” she said. “I would go home at the end of the day and see all the same news items on the television news. It was obvious that the decisions were coming from somewhere,” said Marat.

The trolls were firmly instructed that there should never be anything bad written about the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) or the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), and never anything good about the Ukrainian government.

After two months of working in the troll agency, Marat began to feel he was losing his sanity, and decided he had to leave. From the snatched conversations over coffee, he noted that the office was split roughly 50/50 between people who genuinely believed in what they were doing, and those who thought it was stupid but wanted the money. Occasionally, he would notice people changing on the job. “Of course, if every day you are feeding on hate, it eats away at your soul. You start really believing in it. You have to be strong to stay clean when you spend your whole day submerged in dirt,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house

It sounds like most of their trolls work in Russian on Russian sites. There aren't that many who work in English so I doubt any of them have shown up on DU. At least I hope not.

[moondust]

1. One general indicator

of a paid troll is that their posts are all pretty much the same: "pro" this or "anti" that. They don't get paid to talk about soccer matches or the weather so they don't.

I'm sure Pooty can afford to pay his trolls very, very well.

[snooper2]

2. he doesn't have to pay some of them LOL

They hate everything West so much they will support murdering assholes on the other side of the World-

[moondust]

3. Vodka for everybody!

[Hekate]

4. Fascinating. And yes, they are here.

This article in The Guardian just confirms what some of us have suspected.