Are there paid shills, hired trolls, and web bots on boards.ie?

Biggest lickspittle on boardz

It is finally starting to dawn on many people in the West that their perception of reality on social media is completely warped, and that many organisations, movements, and social justice campaigns have been little more than front groups for intelligence agencies.

Just today, we are seeing that two conservative Twitter personalities are actually Russian inventions:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/russia-fake-twitter-facebook-posts-accounts-trump-election-jenna-abrams-20171103.html?amphtml=y&mobi=true

Not only that, but the Russians have also been carefully creating movements on the other side too, such as the Californian independence campaign:http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41853131

Russia has also been revealed to have created multiple 'Black lives matter' accounts, and alt-right accounts too, in order to create social divisions and play both sides off against each other:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/if-russia-can-create-fake-black-lives-matter-accounts-who-will-next/2017/10/15/ffb2e01e-af79-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html

But I doubt Russia are the only ones doing this.
Now, many of you might be wondering if there are paid shills and influences on boards.ie.
In my opinion, there absolutely are. Certain posters have a very noticeable trend of only appearing for certain topics, and disappearing again until the next similar debate pops up. (There are also certain posters who group together and thank each others posts repeatedly, but they seem be to more partisan in nature.)

So, my question is this-how would boards.ie know if there are paid shills and automated web bot accounts, and what can they do about it?

alchemist33

Interesting links. It gets kinda scary when more and more people are getting their "news" from, and basing their opinions on, randomers on the internet.

Wheety

The transport Unions have a few accounts on here :rolleyes:

There definitely are, and they can't do anything about it.


It basically works with thanks and supporting opinions, and "insane" posters from the "other side" to make that side look stupid.

Rumpy Pumpy

FG pay me money to manipulate public opinion on sites like here, politics.ie, Twitter. Not a huge amount of money, but it’s tax free and it covers my gambling habit.

Yamanoto

Bargain Alerts, brought to you by Xiaomi

Hitman3000

All news is fake.

Seth Brundle

alchemist33 wrote: »

Interesting links. It gets kinda scary when more and more people are getting their "news" from, and basing their opinions on, randomers on the internet.

It is very scary.
I read yesterday how Brexit is a plot by the Germans to lead us towards a WWIII in order to help push the German manufacturing industry. Apparently the French are helping as they have been promised billions by German banks.
This was backed up by so many facts in secret research papers which are being withheld by governments across Europe.
Our governments are complicit and lying to us all.

McMurphy

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

FG pay me money to manipulate public opinion on sites like here, politics.ie, Twitter. Not a huge amount of money, but it’s tax free and it covers my gambling habit.

Waste of money as no one pays a blind bit of notice to you anyway.

In fact who are you, I've never seen this username in my life before.? :pac:





But seriously OP




Fine Gaels frape room.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/03/07/fine-gaels-frape-room/

Rumpy Pumpy

Rick Shaw wrote: »

Waste of money as no one pays a blind bit of notice to you anyway.

In fact who are you, I've never seen this username in my life before.? :pac:





But seriously OP




Fine Gaels frape room.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/03/07/fine-gaels-frape-room/

That’s me on the right. Just a young whipper at that stage, Banjo. Innocent times.

HonalD

Hitman3000 wrote: »

All news is fake.

That’s probably the most accurate statement on the internet.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

tomwaterford

Imagine getting paid money to talk pure shíte online and trying to explain it to the folks :pac:

robyntmorton

tomwaterford wrote: »

Imagine getting paid money to talk pure shíte online and trying to explain it to the folks :pac:

It’s called social media marketing, and it’s a perfectly valid career choice :P

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

wakka12

Dont people generally just comment on topics theyre interested in though? :pac: I exclusively post in threads and forums I have interest in..youll never see my post in forums I dont like

robyntmorton

wakka12 wrote: »

Dont people generally just comment on topics theyre interested in though? :pac: I exclusively post in threads and forums I have interest in..youll never see my post in forums I dont like

I dunno. I occasionally post in the circle of hell known as After Hours.

Prune Tracy

HonalD wrote: »

That’s probably the most accurate statement on the internet.

It's not though. I agree the media needs to be questioned but soundbites like that go too far the other way.

If an incident occurs and it's just reported - no opinion given - where is the fake news?

eezipc

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Plenty of Shinnerbots as they are known.

Plenty of pro-life accounts operated from the US.

Problem is nothing can be done about them.

So basically, anyone who disagrees with you is a troll?

archer22

Hitman3000 wrote: »

All news is fake.

And a lot of 'History' as well...it just depends who gets to write it.
"Fake news" is as old as when humans first learned how to lie.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Biggest lickspittle on boardz

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

FG pay me money to manipulate public opinion on sites like here, politics.ie, Twitter. Not a huge amount of money, but it’s tax free and it covers my gambling habit.

Really? I'm curious to hear more about this. Is it a full time job? Or just leading up to elections etc? Would you be getting a few hundred a week or is it an extra tenner here and there on occasion?

Hitman3000

Fred Swanson wrote:

But it is well known that SF/Pro Life/Iona operate troll accounts.

FG/ FF/ Lab/ also do it. The Journal is troll central.

Erik Shin

Gearbest were shilling here as most know banned and reviled...then they went legit, paid boards cash-money and now have a forum.... dishonesty pays!

Edward M

tomwaterford wrote: »

Imagine getting paid money to talk pure shíte online and trying to explain it to the folks :pac:

Its probably better than not getting paid and still posting pure s***e. No explanations necessary, people either agree somewhat with your opinions or your a looonatic anyway!

HonalD

Prune Tracy wrote: »

HonalD wrote: »

That’s probably the most accurate statement on the internet.

It's not though. I agree the media needs to be questioned but soundbites like that go too far the other way.

If an incident occurs and it's just reported - no opinion given - where is the fake news?

You keep believing that. I don’t. Always consider the source of the “report”.

server down

We live in a paranoid age.

By the way the hysteria over social media is hilarious. Lots of journalists are planted with stories or have links to the internal security agencies. During the attempt to oust Corbyn in the UK from his Labour Party leadership nearly every single journalist was singing from the same hymn sheet.

s7ryf3925pivug

I always took one of the posters in the politics section as a putinbot.

Donal55

All those shills like Sky Anna, eir Kevin and that other one Ask Aib, are just soooo obvious.

RobbingBandit

Yeah I'm an honest hard working law abiding citizen.

donegaLroad

I have a friend who worked in the office of a local TD, and he told me that his routine involved going online in the morning and checking RIP.ie, then politics.ie, boards.ie and the journal.ie.

RIP was to check in case there were any funerals that needed to be attended, and the other 3 were to monitor any growling that was being done about this particular TD.

6 years ago I complained about a particular FF politician on boards.ie, 2 weeks later I received a linkedin friend request from him.

There are plenty of political trolls on boards, it is easy to notice the pattern of comradery among them. See Irish Water threads for details.

Prune Tracy

HonalD wrote: »

You keep believing that. I don’t. Always consider the source of the “report”.

Absolutely - consider the source of the report, question whether they're coming from a particular angle, examine how it has been written, the headline associated with it, how it fits into the agenda of the source, if one.

But none of the above means "all" news is fake. Surely for that statement to be correct, everything that has ever been reported in the news never actually happened.

suicide_circus

I bring my trolling to you free of charge.

RobbingBandit

donegaLroad wrote: »

I have a friend who worked in the office of a local TD, and he told me that his routine involved going online in the morning and checking RIP.ie, then politics.ie, boards.ie and the journal.ie.

RIP was to check in case there were any funerals that needed to be attended, and the other 3 were to monitor any growling that was being done about this particular TD.

6 years ago I complained about a particular FF politician on boards.ie, 2 weeks later I received a linkedin friend request from him.

There are plenty of political trolls on boards, it is easy to notice the pattern of comradery among them. See Irish Water threads for details.

So did you and Mr FF go for drinks, did you poison him?

Turtyturd

Fairly sure they’d be shut down until they started paying boards directly ala Gearbest.

What does the office charge for an alt right caricature account to have free speech?

Birneybau

kbannon wrote: »

It is very scary.
I read yesterday how Brexit is a plot by the Germans to lead us towards a WWIII in order to help push the German manufacturing industry. Apparently the French are helping as they have been promised billions by German banks.
This was backed up by so many facts in secret research papers which are being withheld by governments across Europe.
Our governments are complicit and lying to us all.

Rumpy Pumpy

http://www.sinnfein.ie/sfos

You can sign up on the link above to become a shinnerbot. Be part of the digital rising by spending your days arguing about a poppy.

tomwaterford

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

http://www.sinnfein.ie/sfos

You can sign up on the link above to become a shinnerbot. Be part of the digital rising by spending your days arguing about a poppy.

Because everyone who has misgivings about the poppy are immediately to be dismissed as SF members?

Pintman Paddy Losty

tomwaterford wrote: »

Because everyone who has misgivings about the poppy are immediately to be dismissed as SF members?

Shinnerbot activated....

Setting mode to denial

Creative83

Wheety wrote: »

The transport Unions have a few accounts on here :rolleyes:

EOTR

tomwaterford

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Shinnerbot activated....

Setting mode to denial

See this is pointless......I've been called all sorts including a fgbot and worse of all... a dublin supporter



But regrettably I just like talking shíte with randomers

donegaLroad

RobbingBandit wrote: »

So did you and Mr FF go for drinks, did you poison him?

not at all, I would never let politics get in the way of a friendship.

suicide_circus

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

http://www.sinnfein.ie/sfos

You can sign up on the link above to become a shinnerbot. Be part of the digital rising by spending your days arguing about a poppy.

Woah. They have an actual shill sign up page. That is pretty blatant

circadian

100% there are. I first noticed it around the time Russia annexed Crimea and all the threads started about it.

There were definite Russian propagandists posting on here (you might remember a certain food in a cup) and it's ebbed and flowed since, in my opinion.

Fr_Dougal

Threads were allowed on Irish Water. Irish Water pay 💶💶💶💶 for a TalkTo account, all of a sudden IW threads are not allowed.

hairyslug

Philip Boucher Hayes has been tweeting about it for a few weeks, he saw his follower numbers explode with about a 25% increase, all bots.

The only people who follow me on twitter expect me to pay for porn.

server down

circadian wrote: »

100% there are. I first noticed it around the time Russia annexed Crimea and all the threads started about it.

There were definite Russian propagandists posting on here (you might remember a certain food in a cup) and it's ebbed and flowed since, in my opinion.

Why do you assume that people who are sympathetic to Russia are paid by them (or that Russia would care about boards anyway).

Pintman Paddy Losty

suicide_circus wrote: »

Woah. They have an actual shill sign up page. That is pretty blatant

Anatomy of a shinnerbot

Rumpy Pumpy

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Anatomy of a shinnerbot

Genuine lol.

riffmongous

There hasn't been a sf bot on boards for years.

There are a few docs online about how to be a bot for Israel, prepared answers to deflect and whatabout on the usual criticisms. There used to be a guy on the politics forum about a year ago who would only post provocative Israeli threads and weird red pill stuff

The_Valeyard

Huge about of Labour party bots and pro choice american funded groups