by strymeckirules 19 Replies latest social current
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683
this article proves that there are and have been certain posters that show up to spew propaganda.
we knew this was a possiblility, but now it is documented in the media. this is happening now.
all our favorite avid posters are probably involved.
so now that we know they are here, we can call them on it.
let see how many come and make a reply to this.
Fakes in comment forums and social networks can erode trust in what we see online Continue reading the main story
Trust in information on the web is being damaged by the huge numbers of people paid by companies to post comments online, say researchers.
Fake posters can "poison" debate and make people unsure about who they can trust, the study suggests.
Some firms have created tens of thousands of fake accounts to flood chat forums and skew debate.
The researchers say there are reliable ways to spot fakes and urge websites to do more to police users.
The researchers from Canada and China say paying people to post comments is an "interesting strategy in business marketing" but it is not a benign activity.
"Paid posters may create a significant negative effect on the online communities, since the information from paid posters is usually not trustworthy," they wrote.
Battles
In some cases, rival companies have used competing armies of workers to wage comment wars that confused members of the public looking for unbiased information.
The researchers say the fake comments can overwhelm some users, causing them to find it hard to trust any information found online.
They give the example of a spike in activity on a World of Warcraft chat forum on the Chinese website Baidu.
A thread titled "Junpeng Jia, your mother asked you to go back home for dinner!" received over 300,000 replies over a two day period.
A PR company later claimed it had employed 800 individuals to run 20,000 separate accounts on the site to help maintain interest in the videogame while it was down for maintenance.
Growing problem
While the practice of flooding forums with fake comments is most widespread in China, where such posters are called the Internet Water Army, it is becoming common in other nations too.
The US military is known to use fakes to infiltrate chat forums to gather information about potential terror groups.
Similarly many Facebook pages are plagued by bogus friends and "social bots" that are used to stage debates.
Many marketing firms also seed forums with comments in a bid to create "viral" interest in a company or event.
However, fakes can be spotted by analysing their patterns of activity and the words they use, say the researchers.
Fakes are more likely to start new comment threads, make inane comments rather than add to a debate, and repeat former comments with minor changes, the study suggests.
The researchers say they are refining software tools to help website administrators tackle the "painful" problem.
"Corporate espionage"...
Or perhaps in this case, corporate propaganda.... And corporate disinformation...
Slimy sleazeballs...
Wow . . . some of my best friends here may be just software.
I mentioned this in the last troll/spammer thread about thin/heavy women. People are being paid to join DB and post spam . DB's have fought bots/crawlers etc. Those could somewhat be stopped by making registration very personal and time consuming. now they have real folks actually registering.
Heck yeah!!!
And maybe even your favorite dragon...???!!!
pages are plagued by bogus friends and "social bots" that are used to stage debates
fakes can be spotted by analysing their patterns of activity and the words they use
Fakes are more likely to start new comment threads, make inane comments rather than add to a debate
Otherwise known as a Mankkeli.
i was waiting for someone to mention that name here.
picture perfect if you ask me. and eggnogg, and maze a few others i've noticed.
Thanks for the info!
Works with blogs and Newspaper online outlets as well. Easy way to manipulate SEO. Each worker has a dozen FB accounts and Google account "Identities".
A sister who worked at Bethel legal as a paralegal, told me a couple of Bethelites were doing some of this..that was over five years ago. If I ran a multi billion dollar corporation..I would assign more than a couple to lurk and derail any REALLY potentially damaging threads and leave the fluff stuff alone or just join in. I was surprized how some posters who never lived at Bethel could be SO certain such a things was paranoia on other threads...
In the past I have rolled my eyes and wondered if the GB has dementia..then the Mrs reminds me they have accumilated BILLIONS...How much is in my checking account?...oouch...
My 2cents.
Back to dinner..night all!
I don't think people are naive about the Internet. If they are naive, there is a daily barrange of articles, tv appearances, etc. to warn people to take heed. The Internet is so special because of the free flows of ideas. Being aware it happens is enough for me. Overintrusive measures to police the Internet will destroy its value. It is the same policy that existed before the Internet.
