# NYT Article on the Russian Trolling Industry **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 3, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576 "2015-06-03T21:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/1 "2015-06-03T21:15:24Z")
Scary stuff. Orwell for the information age? Please forgive me if it has already been posted, but I thought this was pretty interesting … though Russian trolls are of course not news, the sheer scale, audacity and malevolence of the industry is disturbing. Assuming, of course, that the article is accurate. > **[The Agency (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0)** > > From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/2 "2015-06-04T17:57:42Z")
Wow, that is an amazing article. Especially at the end when it turns out that he was set up by the the woman he was supposedly interviewing so that he would look bad on Russian media. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/3 "2015-06-04T18:16:14Z")
That whore is selling her story to any bidder at any price without any evidence. Every new article seems to add something. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/4 "2015-06-04T18:44:49Z")
One wonders if there is really any counter to such tactics as those described in the article. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/5 "2015-06-04T19:25:42Z")
Hire your own trolls! AN ARMY RISES IN THE EAST O.o. Or just employ the goonsquad. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/6 "2015-06-04T19:28:53Z")
> [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](#): > > Hire your own trolls! > AN ARMY RISES IN THE EAST O.o. > > Or just employ the goonsquad. This calls for the brute squad. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/7 "2015-06-04T19:42:59Z")
Alright, we raise them with one each of those. I never liked the argument “Quality over quantity” nor “Quantity has a quality of its own”. Why not both? But the Russians are sneaky bastards. They would probably call that and raise us with mailorder brides. The nerds wouldn’t stand a chance. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/8 "2015-06-04T19:48:26Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > This calls for the brute squad. You are the brute squad. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/9 "2015-06-04T20:03:23Z")
Look at this bullshit. In Spiegel she says she joined because of her journalistic ambitions and to expose the evil within. > **[Interview with Ex Russian Internet Troll Lyudmila Savchuk](https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-ex-russian-internet-troll-lyudmila-savchuk-a-1036539.html)** > > Lyudmila Savchuk recently went public about her experiences working for a Russian Internet propaganda factory in St. Petersburg. In an interview, she describes how clandestine workers are promoting the Kremlin's message. In AFP which was the first place this whole thing was published she says she did it for the money. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6E14XAjjb6Q/hqdefault.jpg "Trolling for Putin: Russia's information war explained") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E14XAjjb6Q) ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/10 "2015-06-04T20:47:01Z")
You’re really not a big fan of the critics of the Russian government, are you? So much not a big fan that you didn’t read enough of the OP’s article to realize it has multiple sources quoted directly in the article… for some reason Savchuk attracts unusual ire from you while you ignore Burkhardt, Volkov, Aistova, and Soshnikov. ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/11 "2015-06-04T21:09:09Z")
No point in discussing this with you since I’ve already won the debate but here goes a couple of future exchanges with you and me: / Please cite the other sources. “Bla bla bla Volkov” - But Volkov talks about the lack of media access in Russia not about Russian trolls. “So you think Russians should have access to media?” - Not the topic. There we go, shortened that exchange with about 5 posts. Anything else? “Aistova!” - No, Aistova says in the interview that she wasn’t told to troll anyone. “but but…Fuck me, Burkhardt then?” - Hey did you even read it yourself? Saved us 9 exchanges now. Anything else? ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/12 "2015-06-04T21:23:49Z")
I actually found the Russian source. Holy shit it’s like 250 times better than the European&US sources. They got video and documents. Seems the lying whore might just be mixing things up instead or shit might be lost in translation. [http://www.mr7.ru/articles/112478/](http://www.mr7.ru/articles/112478/) Use google translate. My bad then. But I can’t be held accountable for disastrous western journalism. It’s going down the drain each day. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/13 "2015-06-04T21:34:19Z")
Woah. It’s like summoning a genie from the bottle. :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8dc957/32.png) [@Ze\_Pr0fes0re](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ze_Pr0fes0re)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-article-on-the-russian-trolling-industry/721576/14 "2015-06-04T21:59:36Z")
This is epic. The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has published actual lists of the supposed trolls. These even have links to them in some case when they have blogs. The blogs are hilariously similar with random content, no personal pictures and pro-Russian statements x) [https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate\_c?depth=1&hl=sv&ie=UTF8&prev=\_t&rurl=translate.google.se&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/67574.html&usg=ALkJrhjWqrt5SsJYV2xHjPmbOHlevewwsg](https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=sv&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.se&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/67574.html&usg=ALkJrhjWqrt5SsJYV2xHjPmbOHlevewwsg)