Hidden Industry Dupes Social Media Users

Hidden Industry Dupes Social Media Users

www.technologyreview.com

[Research] has uncovered a multimillion-dollar industry that pays hundreds of thousands of people to distort interactions in social networks and to post spam.

The report's authors...conclude that the rapid growth of this way of making money will make paid shills a serious security problem for websites and those who use them around the world.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Many on ATS have suspected that "Shills" walk among us, paid to divert certain conversations or to promote certain views. Some will call this paranoia...and yet evidence has emerged of a massive and growing "hidden industry" that seeks to manipulate opinion on social networks, messageboards, and sites like ATS.

The study found that multimillion-dollar efforts along these lines (called "crowdsourcing") are underway in China and the US. If you want to influence public opinion on your product, say, you can hire a small army of Chinese or Americans to bombard selected targets with opinions that will help sell your goods. Because of the international nature of the Interent, the efforts are not restricted to any one country or market.

Shilling is a big business, it seems... not only for business but for the government too. Are you sure you know who you are chatting with online...and why?

www.technologyreview.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by silent thunder


This is pretty messed up, but it's also something you'd expect. So my question is... How can I get in on it?

that doesn't surprise me one bit, i have come across a lot people that seemed interestingly focused on only a few issues and also seemed to be trolls, not that all trolls get paid. lulz

It's all about attempting to control the masses with their dis/misinformation.
Regardless of what the mainstream media tells you, everyone notices SPAM, and will more often than not look at it. Especially if it's an email on Facebook, or a post on Twitter. The more you see something repeated, the more likely you are to believe it. And that my friend, is what THEY are counting on!

Just more research to prove what we have been suspecting all along....it doesnt make sense that some would intentionally argue against their own best interests repeatedly.

One of the most "conservative" posters about American politics here admitted he was an unemployed canadian.....

Yup, just cashed my paycheck ftom ATS.

I would do direct deposit but since they are a CIA front and all...

I knew that not all those religious nutjobs were complete failures of the human race.. this is in a way good news because so many people make me think that we are doomed as society, but the extreme cases may just be shills.

Where do i sign up for a job then?
2nd

Originally posted by Solasis
reply to post by silent thunder

 

This is pretty messed up, but it's also something you'd expect. So my question is... How can I get in on it?

Me too - people keep accusing me of getting paid - so i might as well actually get paid dammit!

Of course I think that this has massive potential for "false flag" too - pushing increasingly ridiculous claims about this, that or other until they are completley unbelievable....in order to hide the original problem which was real.

how would you know which was happening??

As if this is surprising....

reply to post by silent thunder

I think many of us knew this already but I guess confirmation is a good thing too. I've noticed a few here on ATS on various and diverging topics, but it is so obvious that they are easy to ignore and all their so-called "facts" just emphasise their lies even more. It is the same on TV though so I didn't expect the internet to be any different. Anonymity works both ways I guess.

Good post OP!

That's why I wonder how sites like Angies List work? All you have to do is get/pay people to go on and give good reviews and boast about your service.

Ever hear of the Chinese Water Army?

You really want to be part of that kind of operation?

Well, know this... we have not been "asleep" here...

Yes I have come across scripted arguments on ATS where the Poster pays no attention to a valid point or argument. Could just be ignorance however they stay on the thread using the same scripts not engaging in intelligent conversations.

Or a poster could move the thread away from an important detail or new perspective toward a more general talking point.

Like moving this thread toward homeland security or the UN

ATS seems to call it smart crowds now. It used to be crowd sourcing.
www.theabovenetwork.com...

Companies in the US, knowingly or unknowingly contribute to this by hiring US based companies to help market their business and website, but most do not realize that the company they hire is not actually doing anything but contracting the work out to these overseas industries (India is actually the biggest), yet reaping in about 50 to 75% of the profits for themselves.

I have owned a development company for nearly 5 years now, and the first question every client wants to know is, can I get them on the front page of google.

This my friends is not always easy to do, and requires a lot of referral links to the companies website and specific products on the website.

Many companies spend millions of dollars on getting these links to their sites, and this really makes it hard for the little guy to compete.

I have so far successfully kept all hires and contract work I have needed done, or a client needed done, in the United States, but as this problem get's worse, It is getting harder for me to compete at that level, and may have to contract out myself in order to keep my clients.

I just wish people would do a little research before hiring a company to do one thing or another, especially in the website world, as this is also taking away Jobs here in America.

I watched so many 1000's of comments on You Tube by Japanese paid shills (Yakuza led, ultra right winged groups representing the fisheries department). One of them later admitted to it to me personally. They also put up 1000's of anti-Australian video's and You Tube did almost nothing to stop them. They are known about. The site owners get the stats. They see it all. they don't act because they don't want to be hit.

I haven't seen any similar action on ATS, but some of your descriptions sound the same.

They usually go for free opinions. The ones I have known are experts at what is called moonspeak. They make accusations of exactly what they are doing. Every comment they make is hypocritical. They assume the identity of anyone and pride themselves on never playing to your rules (no morality, decency etc).

As the world gets smaller, get used to it. Japan may be the worst, but this type of fighting is fairly common in Asia.

This is the main reason why I hate seeing America dumped on.. The Belgium situation where people make more comments about "see how it isn't terrorist" stuff. All this works into the efforts of people who seek to destroy the truth, because culturally they realise there is no such thing as truth anyway.. just a strong racism / nationalism. you guys have no idea what's coming, but I'll keep watching you attack yourselves as if your intended audience knows decency - they fully expect to win.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

Of course I think that this has massive potential for "false flag" too - pushing increasingly ridiculous claims about this, that or other until they are completley unbelievable....in order to hide the original problem which was real.

That's the type of actual disinfo you'll encounter at ATS, people popping into threads about whatever, spreading crazy ridiculous crap to taint the entire thing.

A simple example? 911 threads and the no planes morons.

The article the OP posted shouldn't be a surprise, Israel has the Internet Defense Force and Megaphone to taint, slant and silence any criticism or discussion of ISrael, Gaza, or it's policies.

And I know for a fact that some of those people are users here, they usually come into a thread where, oh, I dunno, the OP is about lets say Palestine being accepted into UNESCO, and what's the first thing they state?

"Why don't you just admit you want to gas all the jews"

that's a shill.