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Former workers tell how hundreds of bloggers are paid to flood forums and social networks at home and abroad with anti-western and pro-Kremlin comments
55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg, said to be the headquarters of Russias troll army. Photograph: Shaun Walker for the Guardian Shaun Walker in St Petersburg
Thursday 2 April 2015 09.59 BST Last modified on Thursday 2 April 2015 12.50 BST
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Just after 9pm each day, a long line of workers files out of 55 Savushkina Street, a modern four-storey office complex with a small sign outside that reads Business centre. Having spent 12 hours in the building, the workers are replaced by another large group, who will work through the night.
The nondescript building has been identified as the headquarters of Russias troll army, where hundreds of paid bloggers work round the clock to flood Russian internet forums, social networks and the comments sections of western publications with remarks praising the president, Vladimir Putin, and raging at the depravity and injustice of the west.
[h=1]Analysis From Britain to Beijing: how governments manipulate the internet[/h]
The Kremlins cyber army is gaining increasing notoriety, but similar tactics are used to influence opinion around the world
Read more
The Guardian spoke to two former employees of the troll enterprise, one of whom was in a department running fake blogs on the social network LiveJournal, and one who was part of a team that spammed municipal chat forums around Russia with pro-Kremlin posts. Both said they were employed unofficially and paid cash-in-hand.
They painted a picture of a work environment that was humourless and draconian, with fines for being a few minutes late or not reaching the required number of posts each day. Trolls worked in rooms of about 20 people, each controlled by three editors, who would check posts and impose fines if they found the words had been cut and pasted, or were ideologically deviant.
The LiveJournal blogger, who spent two months working at the centre until mid-March, said she was paid 45,000 roubles (£520, $790) a month, to run a number of accounts on the site. There was no contract - the only document she signed was a non-disclosure form. She was ordered not to tell her friends about the job, nor to add any of them to the social media accounts she would run under pseudonyms.
We had to write ordinary posts, about making cakes or music tracks we liked, but then every now and then throw in a political post about how the Kiev government is fascist, or that sort of thing, she said.
Scrolling through one of the LiveJournal accounts she ran, the pattern is clear. There are posts about Europes 20 most beautiful castles and signs that show you are dating the wrong girl, interspersed with political posts about Ukraine or suggesting that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is corrupt.
The scariest thing is when you talk to your friends and they are repeating the same things you saw in the technical tasks, and you realise that all this is having an effect, the former worker said.
Marat, 40, worked in a different department, where employees went methodically through chat forums in various cities, leaving posts.
First thing in the morning, wed come in, turn on a proxy server to hide our real location, and then read the technical tasks we had been sent, he said.
The trolls worked in teams of three. The first one would leave a complaint about some problem or other, or simply post a link, then the other two would wade in, using links to articles on Kremlin-friendly websites and comedy photographs lampooning western or Ukrainian leaders with abusive captions.
Marat shared six of his technical task sheets from his time in the office with the Guardian. Each of them has a news line, some information about it, and a conclusion that the commenters should reach. One is on Putin offering his condolences to President François Hollande after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris.
Vladimir Putin contacted the French leader immediately, despite the bad relations between Russia and the west, reads the section explaining the conclusion the troll posts should reach. The Russian leader has always stood against aggression and terrorism in general. Thanks to the presidents initiatives, the number of terrorist acts inside Russia has decreased dramatically.
The other task sheets demand glowing reviews of the YotaPhone, a Russian-made smartphone, abuse and teasing for Jennifer Psaki, the former US state department spokeswoman, and three relate to Ukraine and the wests plans there.
The desired conclusion of one reads: The majority of experts agree that the US is deliberately trying to weaken Russia, and Ukraine is being used only as a way to achieve this goal. If the Ukrainian people had not panicked and backed a coup, the west would have found another way to pressure Russia. But our country is not going to go ahead with the US plans, and we will fight for our sovereignty on the international stage.
To add colour to their posts, websites have been set up to aid the troll army. One features thousands of pasteable images, mainly of European leaders in humiliating photoshopped incidents or with captions pointing out their weakness and stupidity, or showing Putin making hilarious wisecracks and winning the day.
Many of them have obvious racist or homophobic overtones. Barack Obama eating a banana or depicted as a monkey, or the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in drag, declaring: We are preparing for European integration. The trolls have to post the photographs together with information they can pull from a website marketed as a patriotic Russian Wikipedia, featuring ideologically acceptable versions of world events.
The entries for the Maidan revolution in Kiev explain that all the protesters were fed special tea laced with drugs, which is what caused the revolution.
Hii habari inanikumbusha rais nanihii wa nanihii....
55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg, said to be the headquarters of Russias troll army. Photograph: Shaun Walker for the Guardian Shaun Walker in St Petersburg
Thursday 2 April 2015 09.59 BST Last modified on Thursday 2 April 2015 12.50 BST
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[h=3]Shares[/h] 1,608
[h=3]
Comments[/h] 1,945
Just after 9pm each day, a long line of workers files out of 55 Savushkina Street, a modern four-storey office complex with a small sign outside that reads Business centre. Having spent 12 hours in the building, the workers are replaced by another large group, who will work through the night.
The nondescript building has been identified as the headquarters of Russias troll army, where hundreds of paid bloggers work round the clock to flood Russian internet forums, social networks and the comments sections of western publications with remarks praising the president, Vladimir Putin, and raging at the depravity and injustice of the west.
[h=1]Analysis From Britain to Beijing: how governments manipulate the internet[/h]
The Kremlins cyber army is gaining increasing notoriety, but similar tactics are used to influence opinion around the world
Read more
The Guardian spoke to two former employees of the troll enterprise, one of whom was in a department running fake blogs on the social network LiveJournal, and one who was part of a team that spammed municipal chat forums around Russia with pro-Kremlin posts. Both said they were employed unofficially and paid cash-in-hand.
They painted a picture of a work environment that was humourless and draconian, with fines for being a few minutes late or not reaching the required number of posts each day. Trolls worked in rooms of about 20 people, each controlled by three editors, who would check posts and impose fines if they found the words had been cut and pasted, or were ideologically deviant.
The LiveJournal blogger, who spent two months working at the centre until mid-March, said she was paid 45,000 roubles (£520, $790) a month, to run a number of accounts on the site. There was no contract - the only document she signed was a non-disclosure form. She was ordered not to tell her friends about the job, nor to add any of them to the social media accounts she would run under pseudonyms.
We had to write ordinary posts, about making cakes or music tracks we liked, but then every now and then throw in a political post about how the Kiev government is fascist, or that sort of thing, she said.
Scrolling through one of the LiveJournal accounts she ran, the pattern is clear. There are posts about Europes 20 most beautiful castles and signs that show you are dating the wrong girl, interspersed with political posts about Ukraine or suggesting that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is corrupt.
The scariest thing is when you talk to your friends and they are repeating the same things you saw in the technical tasks, and you realise that all this is having an effect, the former worker said.
Marat, 40, worked in a different department, where employees went methodically through chat forums in various cities, leaving posts.
First thing in the morning, wed come in, turn on a proxy server to hide our real location, and then read the technical tasks we had been sent, he said.
The trolls worked in teams of three. The first one would leave a complaint about some problem or other, or simply post a link, then the other two would wade in, using links to articles on Kremlin-friendly websites and comedy photographs lampooning western or Ukrainian leaders with abusive captions.
Marat shared six of his technical task sheets from his time in the office with the Guardian. Each of them has a news line, some information about it, and a conclusion that the commenters should reach. One is on Putin offering his condolences to President François Hollande after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris.
Vladimir Putin contacted the French leader immediately, despite the bad relations between Russia and the west, reads the section explaining the conclusion the troll posts should reach. The Russian leader has always stood against aggression and terrorism in general. Thanks to the presidents initiatives, the number of terrorist acts inside Russia has decreased dramatically.
The other task sheets demand glowing reviews of the YotaPhone, a Russian-made smartphone, abuse and teasing for Jennifer Psaki, the former US state department spokeswoman, and three relate to Ukraine and the wests plans there.
The desired conclusion of one reads: The majority of experts agree that the US is deliberately trying to weaken Russia, and Ukraine is being used only as a way to achieve this goal. If the Ukrainian people had not panicked and backed a coup, the west would have found another way to pressure Russia. But our country is not going to go ahead with the US plans, and we will fight for our sovereignty on the international stage.
To add colour to their posts, websites have been set up to aid the troll army. One features thousands of pasteable images, mainly of European leaders in humiliating photoshopped incidents or with captions pointing out their weakness and stupidity, or showing Putin making hilarious wisecracks and winning the day.
Many of them have obvious racist or homophobic overtones. Barack Obama eating a banana or depicted as a monkey, or the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in drag, declaring: We are preparing for European integration. The trolls have to post the photographs together with information they can pull from a website marketed as a patriotic Russian Wikipedia, featuring ideologically acceptable versions of world events.
The entries for the Maidan revolution in Kiev explain that all the protesters were fed special tea laced with drugs, which is what caused the revolution.
Hii habari inanikumbusha rais nanihii wa nanihii....