Clinton Staff and Volunteers Busted for Astroturfing

[Lone_Wolf]

She has a history of it. Why do the hard work of getting grassroots support when you can buy an artificial version of it?

"THE POPULAR AND influential Blue Hampshire blog on progressive New Hampshire politics recently busted a group of campaign staffers for registering anonymously on site and boosting pro-Hillary Clinton diaries on the group blog."

http://www.wired.com/2007/12/clinton-staff-a/

[morningfog]

1. That sounds familiar!

[HooptieWagon]

2. Lots of new trolls around here.

I guess Brock went on a hiring spree....lotta new temps.

[FlatBaroque]

3. It is unfrickinreal! I guess the most gentlemanly

thing to do is congratulate them on getting out of David Brick's sock drawer. Anyway, my list of shitheads is nearing 400.

[VulgarPoet]

6. 200+.

[Trajan]

8. Just counted ....

405 total Ignorees ....

[FlatBaroque]

9. Dayyyyummmm. I thought I was undisputed champion

I need to step up my game.

[Art_from_Ark]

22. I'm even less adept than you at Whack-a-Troll

I've only got 150 on Ignore.

[restorefreedom]

13. being paid less than minimum wage, no doubt.nt

[madokie]

25. My hope

is there is no limit to the numbers one can Ignore. I've got a ton of names now and its growing by day.
Fuck it I'm not here to read bullshit by bullshit artist, simple as that

[mariawr]

4. Problem? Throw money at it. nt

[FlatBaroque]

10. We serve that which we love. /

[stillwaiting]

5. So very, very sad, and so clearly what must be done to manufacture support. nt

[Fawke Em]

7. If she's the nominee, this will be the most anemic election ever. eom

[DookDook]

11. I've noticed this on other news message boards

I go to one of those News Aggregator sites that put up news stories with funny headlines and I've noticed that in their politics tab they've got a bunch of people of are very pro-Hillary Clinton. They will argue anyone that says anything about her. They will also argue with anyone that says anything positive about any other candidates running. And while I understand having a passion for your candidate, the extremes that they will go through to not say anything bad about their candidate is impressive.

I've often wondered if they are actually just people who are sitting in a boiler-room somewhere and are some of those paid posters that you hear about. It wouldn't surprise me with the amount that some of them post and the way that they seem to just follow some set of talking points.

Seeing the amount of people that show up at the events that Bernie has, I don't think he's got to pay anyone to pretend to be enthusiastic for him.

[winter is coming]

12. I've noticed that, too, and not just on news/politics forums.

Suddenly, there seem to be a lot of virulently pro-Hillary supporters who are extremely up-to-date on the day's talking points... but not very good at expressing them in individualized ways.

[Lone_Wolf]

14. They use Forum Posting Companies

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024150305

[MisterP]

18. vicious AND vacuous--not an intuitive combination, but inevitable

[pdsimdars]

15. I wonder if there's any mechanism to make sure they paid ones don't get on DU?

There are times when I wonder as it seems some posts are there for no other reason than to be there.

[QC]

16. I dunno, but I sometimes wonder if scrapping the five hide rule

was a strategy for keeping them here.

After all, you can't very well catapult the propaganda if the propagandists keep getting the boot.

[reddread]

21. interesting change isnt it?

[QC]

23. It has certainly elevated the tone of this place,

like a chorus of third grade boys performing the National Anthem with armpit farting sounds.

[HooptieWagon]

29. I'm fairly certain that was exactly what it's about.

[QC]

30. That and outsourcing the purge, so to speak.

We've all seen good people hounded out of this place over the years while the management looked the other way.

[dooner]

17. Shouldn't "ignore" carry a price tag?

If a large number of people on a forum are "ignoring" certain people, isn't that a red flag? Shouldn't the ignored be suspended at a certain point? (Or are they?)

I don't like accusing people of being trolls (reminds me of the 70s when people were accused of being narcs! Of course, some of them were narcs.) but now I am pretty sure that some of these people are indeed being paid to disrupt.

DU used to be interesting and informative, now there's so much petty bickering, name calling,
etc. it's not easy to find the useful posts!

[mrdmk]

19. Between complaints of by groups of people in-conjunction with ignores towards an individual

has gotten posters PPR'd (Account Suspended) in the past.

Hopefully this answers your concerns.

.

[Agschmid]

28. No.

[GreatGazoo]

20. Fits with: Reddit User Claims He Was Paid to Troll Bernie Sanders Supporters

... 1) Sexism. This was the biggest one we were supposed to push. We had to smear Bernie as misogynistic and out-of-touch with modern sensibilities. He was to be characterized as “an old white male relic...”. Anyone who tried to object to this characterization would be repeatedly slammed as sexist until they went away or people lost interest.

2) Racism. We were instructed to hammer home how Bernie supporters were all privileged white students that had no idea how the world worked. We had to tout Hillary’s great record with “the blacks” (yes, that’s the actual way it was phrased), and generally use racial identity politics to attack Sanders and bolster Hillary as the only unifying figure...

http://socialnewsdaily.com/59087/reddit-user-claims-he-was-paid-to-troll-bernie-sanders-supporters/

Also with:

Hillary Clinton revealed to have over a million fake Twitter followers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3214432/Hillary-Clinton-revealed-million-fake-Twitter-followers-presidential-hopeful.html

[Dem2]

24. SECURITY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12.13.07. 12.13.07 TI

I was wondering why I was getting a 404 error.

This story is over 8 years old!!

[awake]

26. I am afraid that not only has this site been infiltrated

So has the party of FDR been infiltrated. As the Republican party was being taken over by right wing racist religious nuts the "moderate" Republicans have quietly taken over our party, the party that once was of, for and by the working people of this country is now run by wallstreet backed corporate "free trading" shills. One does not need to look far to see the tactics of the right ; voter suppression, using race to devide us and control of the media coverage. Just look at how close the Clintons have gotten to be close with the Bush family, look at where the funds that have been proping up our party for years are coming from and look at how DWS the head of the party is working to undermine consumer protection laws.......

[dreamnightwind]

27. Yes that is the sad truth of the matter

We are in a fight for the soul and direction of this party.

[Avalon Sparks]

31. I saw a few on Facebook

It was obvious from the newness of their accounts and the likes they had - and what looked like fake names

All that I reported Facebook removed with 24 hours