BBG Watch Commentary
“In the style of war that Putin fights, influencing the public opinion plays a very important role. It means there is a legion of internet soldiers fighting an information war on the internet. Of course there are also regular (pro-)Russian people involved in their internet-army.”
“These people are called trolls and this is how you can recognize them on Twitter,” Peter Martin gives many examples, one of which includes tweets from an RT reporter who was recently retweeted on the Voice of America English news website by VOA Newsroom staff. News reports on VOA English website and some of the VOA foreign language websites are also full of pro-Kremlin troll comments from readers.
“Level 10 – Real life Disinformation Trolls
These are the real life people. Believe it or not, basically all journalists working for Russian media fall into this category.
Here is one:
Nobody has seen ANY airstrike near Slavyansk and Kramatorsk so far, nor has anybody seen Grad launchers ANYWHERE in Ukraine. Yet she tweets such things constantly over the net. Sometimes accompanied by videos from other locations and events.
It is so stupid that it is hard to believe that this is really happening.
Basic rule for dealing with this: don’t believe ONE SINGLE WORD they say, until it is verified by reliable sources.
Another rule: if you hear something outrageous, check if the source comes from Russian Media… if so, you can either go back to sleep again or turn to reliable media for trustworthy information.”
This “reliable media for trustworthy information” would not be the Voice of America English news website which retweeted an RT reporter mentioned in this article from Ukraine@war.
READ MORE: How to spot a Russian Twitter troll
A simple guide on how to recognize Russian Twitter trolls bugging you… http://t.co/sN2geZTD3h
— djp3tros (@djp3tros) May 29, 2014