Russia's army of online "trolls" at front line of campaign to shape opinion at home, in West

[LanternWaste]

Deep inside a four-story marble building in St. Petersburg, hundreds of workers tap away at computers on the front lines of an information war, say those who have been inside. Known as "Kremlin trolls," the men and women work 12-hour shifts around the clock, flooding the Internet with propaganda aimed at stamping President Vladimir Putin's world vision on Russia, and the world.

The Kremlin has always dabbled in propaganda, but in the past year its troll campaign has gone into overdrive, adding hundreds of online operatives to help counter Western pressure over its role in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The program is drawing Serbia away from its proclaimed EU membership path and closer to the Russian orbit, and is targeting Germany, the United States and other Western powers. The operation has worried the European Union enough to prompt it to draw up a blueprint for fighting Russia's disinformation campaign, although details have not yet been released.

St. Petersburg journalist Andrei Soshnikov, who was one of the first to report on the "troll factory," said about 400 people work in the building. A video he posted on YouTube this spring gave a rare glimpse inside the building; in one room trolls were shown sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at their computers. The operation moved into the building when it expanded in March 2014, the month Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and provoked the first round of Western economic sanctions.

Soshnikov, a reporter at the weekly Moi Rayon, or My Region, said there has been a new push in recent months to hire more English-speaking trolls as part of an effort to sway public opinion in the United States.

more at...
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/05/29/russia-steps-up-propaganda-push-with-online-kremlin-trolls





I doubt this is news to anyone, but it does tend to explain some of the more passionate defenses of Moscow's actions these days.

[pampango]

1. Moscow Times: Soldier in Russia's Troll Army Sues Her Ex-Employer

A former Internet "troll" who had been hired to promote political views online is suing her former employer in an attempt to draw attention to Russia's "information war" technologies, a news report said Friday.

The grounds for the lawsuit filed by Lyudmila Savchuk, which is expected to be heard by a St. Petersburg city court next month, is the employer's failure to provide any labor contract or other paperwork supporting her hiring and eventual dismissal, Kommersant reported.

Since her dismissal, Savchuk has been organizing a public movement against online trolling called "Informatsionny Mir" — a name that can be translated both as "Information World" and "Information Peace — in contrast with the so-called information war. "There are both opposition activists and supporters of the government among us, but we all believe that such methods of information war are unacceptable," she said, Kommersant reported.

Lawyer Darya Sukhikh from St. Petersburg-based human rights organization Kommanda-29 (Team-29), which is representing Savchuk, was quoted as saying the lawsuit was "just a pretext to force this rather secretive organization into public view," allowing lawyers to demand the organization's documents.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/soldier-in-russias-troll-army-sues-her-ex-employer/522585.html

As you posted, this is not exactly 'news' but it does explain a lot.

[Blue_Tires]

2. k+r

[NuclearDem]

3. The Signal is going west.

[NCTraveler]

4. And boy do they have an audience ready and willing to eat it up. nt.