People getting paid to post disinformation

[Leigh]

"Fake forum comments are 'eroding' trust in the web"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683

Interesting article on the BBC site regarding people who are paid to post erroneous or derogatory information on fora such as ours.

I've seen posts that might well fall into this category.

I put this in the Business forum because our professional members may be targeted for this type of detrimental behavior.

- Leigh

[Sideshow Bob]

How much does it pay? :-)

Gale

[jp]

This is the sort of thing media likes to scare people with. They've been doing it for as long as the Internet has been popular. The media is good at scaring (warning) people.

Of course anytime there is a forum with anonymous or informal signup processes, there will be a variety of motivations to post, some of which are stupid, some of which are wrong. It's not eroding trust, but helping people understand human behavior.

The media's interest in beating this dead horse is as old as the Internet. There have been plenty of reporters and upper level people who don't embrace the Internet, or only embrace it where it benefits their media organization. The Internet has been real hard on their business of being a conduit of advertising mixed with valuable information. They'll knock it any chance they can with cheap shots. They've come from a school where public information was only shared by the media, and those people had skills and standards that ensured quality, reliability, and impartiality. Sorry, but that's wishful thinking for the media, not reality.

Plenty of media folks are living up to basic journalism standards, and plenty of independent people on the web can exercise the same journalism skills (or lack there of). It's a last ditch effort of media to say, "I can be more trusted and relevant", but they are using FUD to do it.

[polyglot]

While there is certainly media FUD about this, it's absolutely a phenomenon that's occurring. I can't see it happening much in photo forums (why bother?) but it's very common and problematic on politically-oriented forums. You can find any number of craigslist ads etc advertising for people to do this and it's nearly all right-wing american PACs who are paying for it.

The going rate is a fraction of US minimum wage, which is unsurprising considering that it's mostly bored teenagers or 3rd-world people with an internet connection. Depends how fast you think you can type.

Some example advertisements looking for paid posters.

[r.e.]

jp498,

The BBC is a public broadcaster. It can't have an interest in bashing the internet in order to increase advertising revenue because its funding does not come from advertising. Indeed, it is actively involved in integrating its programming with the internet, and is one of the world's most visited sites.

You might have a look at the research paper. There is a link to it at the end of the BBC article. The research was conducted by three members of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and a member of the Department of Computer Science at Peking University in Beijing. Here is the paper: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/...111.4297v1.pdf

[ROL]

And then there is the tangential phenomena of posters who are only "active" when they have a workshop, software, or commercial enterprise to promote. But then you can take this very post with a grain of salt (on your turkey leg), since I have long suspected that everyone treats any "information" from li'l 'ole me as B.S. anyway... Happy Thanksgiving

[Leigh]

The media's interest in beating this dead horse is as old as the Internet. There have been plenty of reporters and upper level people who don't embrace the Internet, or only embrace it where it benefits their media organization. The Internet has been real hard on their business of being a conduit of advertising mixed with valuable information. They'll knock it any chance they can with cheap shots. They've come from a school where public information was only shared by the media, and those people had skills and standards that ensured quality, reliability, and impartiality.

Man, you are so out of touch it's painful to even read your nonsense.

- Leigh

[Heroique]

What?

Receiving compensation to spread disinformation through popular communication channels?

A slow news day for the BBC. ;^)

[Brian Ellis]

While there is certainly media FUD about this, it's absolutely a phenomenon that's occurring. I can't see it happening much in photo forums (why bother?) but it's very common and problematic on politically-oriented forums. You can find any number of craigslist ads etc advertising for people to do this and it's nearly all right-wing american PACs who are paying for it.

The going rate is a fraction of US minimum wage, which is unsurprising considering that it's mostly bored teenagers or 3rd-world people with an internet connection. Depends how fast you think you can type.

Some example advertisements looking for paid posters.

Just curious - what's the basis for your statement that it's "nearly all right-wing american (sic) PACs" who are paying for it?" In looking quickly at the link you provided I didn't see anything political and nothing indicating that any devious right-wing American PACs were involved.

[ic-racer]

The concept does not seem any more dishonest than the usual forms of advertising seen on TV or on the rest of the internet.