Social Media Manipulation The New Normal In Alberta

[PsYcNeT]

CBC published an interesting article yesterday:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...tics-1.4128312

In search of 'James Galan': How seemingly fake social media accounts permeate Alberta politics

James Galan" is friends with dozens of high-profile and high-powered Albertans — on Facebook, at least — but in real life, no one seems to know him.

Among his Facebook friends are at least 10 current and former MLAs, a half-dozen municipal politicians in Calgary, a few MPs, several journalists and even Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms who shot the Parliament Hill attacker in 2014.

But CBC News contacted a sampling of those politicians and journalists, and none know who's behind the "James Galan" account — which uses a picture of Chinese actor Chen Dao Ming as its profile photo — or other seemingly fake profiles that follow a similar pattern.

The "James Galan" account is one of several seemingly fake profiles that have been used to comment on the same stories with similar points of view.

There's also "Stacey Colins," who has chimed in with comments of her own criticizing Druh Farrell, the Calgary city councillor.

There was another, similar account that went by the name "Tim Mather" but used a photo of a real person named Adam Mather.

It appears to have been created an hour before commenting on a story about Denis's election loss, alongside a comment from "James Galan."

The 'Tim Mather' account that commented on this story about Jonathan Denis on the Calgary Herald website was taken down after a real person named Adam Mather contacted Facebook about it using his image at its profile photo. (Calgary Herald screenshot)

The "Tim Mather" account had only two listed friends — one of which was "James Galan."

The account was taken down shortly after CBC News contacted Adam Mather, who works for a home-building company in Toronto, and he complained to Facebook about the use of his image.

This is coming a day after there was a brief bruhaha on Kijiji regarding a job posting for online manipulators was exposed and taken down:



One of course has to wonder, how many of us here are legitimately rabid about politics and how many are paid agitators? There are some pretty distinctly different politics being shared in say, the AB politics, Federal politics, and Municipal politics thread vs the US politics thread.

[ToewsFan]

Wow. You can now get paid for trolling?

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

One of course has to wonder, how many of us here are legitimately rabid about politics and how many are paid agitators? There are some pretty distinctly different politics being shared in say, the AB politics, Federal politics, and Municipal politics thread vs the US politics thread.

Here? As in CP? I doubt many (if any) are phony paid opinion manipulators. CP is a small fish in the social media pond (compared to Facebook/Twitter/Other)..

It's not just Facebook. Someone has purchased a troll army to harass/bully Druh Farrell across social media. I saw a lot of it on Twitter. It's a lot of fake accounts but some real ones that went "Strangely" off-brand since that Kijiji ad went up. It's really sad and disgusting that someone wants to pay people to be trolls and conduct online harassment/character assassination.

[GGG]

That job posting on kijiji though was likely fake as well ad if you want youth to create sock puppet troll accounts you don't go to kijiji to do it.

[Ozy_Flame]

"it's a real bonus if you are a supporter of the PC Party or have Conservative views".

I would take that job position and post ultra-left wing comments just to see how far you can get away with it before they don't consider it a "bonus" anymore.

[mrkajz44]

Not necessarily trolling, but consistently presenting one side of a viewpoint. I'd like to think this type of thing is rare, but it is probably more likely than most people think. In a closer community like CP, I think it might be easier to spot, though I'm not even certain about that. Larger platforms it's probably impossible for most to see, as they'll click on the comments on only a few articles / postings and not see the pattern in who is commenting.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by ToewsFan

Wow. You can now get paid for trolling?

It's probably a significant portion of Russia's national budget.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Not necessarily trolling, but consistently presenting one side of a viewpoint. I'd like to think this type of thing is rare, but it is probably more likely than most people think. In a closer community like CP, I think it might be easier to spot, though I'm not even certain about that. Larger platforms it's probably impossible for most to see, as they'll click on the comments on only a few articles / postings and not see the pattern in who is commenting.

Yeah, I've always thought twitter always had this and you kind of wonder with even posters on CP that tow the ideological line in the face of evidence, examples and even sheer logic. I can only assume some get paid to "spread the word"?

[Bigtime]

We definitely do not all agree here on CP politically but my gut tells me at least we are all the real deal.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Disgusted with this fake social media presence. Why can't people and discussions be real like the real 100% beef in McDonald's™ Big Mac™?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

This is coming a day after there was a brief bruhaha on Kijiji regarding a job posting for online manipulators was exposed and taken down:

Huh. I wonder why it was taken down. I'm surprised it so plainly says "support Conservative causes", but really, what's the brouhaha over? Is it illegal to pay someone to support your position publicly? I mean sure it's a little sleazy, but it's also usually pretty damn obvious.

If they wanna throw money at someone to like and comment on their facebook posts, why not?

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

One of course has to wonder, how many of us here are legitimately rabid about politics and how many are paid agitators? There are some pretty distinctly different politics being shared in say, the AB politics, Federal politics, and Municipal politics thread vs the US politics thread.

I can only think of one cause where this would make sense, and that would be in the discussion about the new arena. That "poster" would probably be identified quite quickly as a plant.

[Oling_Roachinen]

A Clinton PAC was quite open about using funds to go on social media and "correct" people about Hilary Clinton. Spending a million dollars to have people scourge Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.

http://www.businessinsider.com/clint...-online-2016-4

In the leaked DNC emails, it was revealed that the DNC worked with the PAC to publicize opposition vulnerabilities. It's not exactly secret that's social media has been used by paid shills of politicians, and companies, for awhile now.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Huh. I wonder why it was taken down. I'm surprised it so plainly says "support Conservative causes", but really, what's the brouhaha over? Is it illegal to pay someone to support your position publicly? I mean sure it's a little sleazy, but it's also usually pretty damn obvious.

If they wanna throw money at someone to like and comment on their facebook posts, why not?

My guess is that they didn't want it to become as public as it now is, I bet to the point where anytime anyone posts a conservative view on Social Media people will be wondering if they're on the take.

[photon]

Astroturfing and paid astrotufers has been around for a long time, be it paying for positive reviews of games or apps, or having people register in a community, become a trusted member, then start mentioning specific products or brands. I'm pretty sure there's been a few of those types on CP.

And I've caught a few that looked like that was the intent during registration.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by photon

Astroturfing and paid astrotufers has been around for a long time, be it paying for positive reviews of games or apps, or having people register in a community, become a trusted member, then start mentioning specific products or brands. I'm pretty sure there's been a few of those types on CP.

And I've caught a few that looked like that was the intent during registration.

Yeah, I remember one explicit Microsoft employee astroturfing for sure a while back. Others members have just become annoying or infamous just in the back of my mind. Originally it seemed like a question of "are they really that dense and do they have to keep derailing the thread month after month" to "eh, I'm sure they're just getting paid to troll and spew that #### now".

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by ToewsFan

Wow. You can now get paid for trolling?

It's not exactly a new concept. Astrotrufing is a very old practice.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Parallex

It's not just Facebook. Someone has purchased a troll army to harass/bully Druh Farrell across social media. I saw a lot of it on Twitter. It's a lot of fake accounts but some real ones that went "Strangely" off-brand since that Kijiji ad went up. It's really sad and disgusting that someone wants to pay people to be trolls and conduct online harassment/character assassination.

Further to this, Druh is now being sued by the Osteria people as of yesterday, who held a fundraiser for Margot Aftergood last week, who is running against Druh in the next election.

This was pointed out by local agitator/blogger/bike enthusiast Mike Morrison yesterday, and a Twitter campaign by shill accounts promptly started to attack him by saying he is a convicted pederast and pulling the 'ol "just asking questions" shtick everytime it was countered.

Pretty gross stuff going on right now.

[Bigtime]

Twitter just shut down 5 of those anti-Druh accounts.

https://twitter.com/LisaSlywkaUA/sta...86962714804224

[V]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I can only think of one cause where this would make sense, and that would be in the discussion about the new arena. That "poster" would probably be identified quite quickly as a plant.

I don't know if you can really call the owner of the forum a plant.

[troutman]