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"The Internet's worst trolls are actually British spies"

biophile

Places I'd rather be.
Messages
8,977
I saw this on mecfsforums.com ...

http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php/topic,21587.msg166626.html#msg166626

Not sure what to think of it:

-

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/gchq-biggest-trolls-nsa-edward-snowden-jtrig/

The Internet's worst trolls are actually British spies

By Kevin Collier (Google+) on February 25, 2014

You only think somebody is being a jerk to you online. It turns out, the most sophisticated, thorough, and highly trained Internet trolls yet uncovered actually work for the British government.

That's according to the latest revelation provided by docs leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. According to documents published at the news site First Look, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the U.K.'s counterpart to the NSA, has an extensive disinformation program to undermine anyone on the Internet.

Called the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), the program is detailed in an internal training document titled The Art of Deception: Training for a new generation of online covert operations, which First Look published in full. Drawing from numerous academic fields, including anthropology, psychology, and even biology, the manual shows that GCHQ engages in large-scale institutionalized online discrediting attacks against suspects, who aren't necessarily terrorists. It's essentially a modern, online counterpart to COINTELPRO, the FBI's notorious smear program used to harass Martin Luther King, Jr. until his death in 1968.

Read more here.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
Im sure there is on rare occassions, professional probably British, psych profession trolls too (possibly working for insurance companies) which come into ME/CFS forums to stir up shit. Im sure I came across one of those before.
 

Wally

Senior Member
Messages
1,167
Available for purchase at www.trollsbegone.com

TrollAway.jpg
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
I'm sure this is for real.
There was a time when it was impossible to change the wikipedia page on CFS to reflect more accurately the biophysical basis for the disease.
I've also interacted with people on forums who spend little time talking about any of their own suffering but seem to have plenty of time and knowledge to disrupt the biophysical view.

One can only wonder why there is such interest in this disease.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I'm sure this is for real.
There was a time when it was impossible to change the wikipedia page on CFS to reflect more accurately the biophysical basis for the disease.

Do you really think that national security services are going to have any interest in medical issues.
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
Do you really think that national security services are going to have any interest in medical issues.

I certainly think they already have great interest in one medical issue - vaccination. Of course this is for good reason, since there are obvious dangers involved, and I'm certain they have active disinformation measures in place related to this.
Since it is already known that vaccines can trigger CFS, there is a potential link. It may be the case that vaccines have a larger role than simply triggering a fraction of cases. Or it may be that if the fact that vaccines can trigger CFS became widely known to the public, there would be a risk of less people willing to undergo vaccination. Therefore, it could be argued that it would be important to deny any research that explores the link to vaccines and/or seeks to look into the fundamental causes of the disease.
Pure speculation of course, but it would be a reason for having interest in this disease at the national security level. I think it would also explain the severe lack of funding, the negative press coverage, the dominance of the pysch lobby for so long, the atrocious handling of this disease by the CDC etc. (though of course I realise there are other explanations for all of this).

There are other potential links too...why for example is this disease clinically so similar (if not identical) to Gulf War Illness? Maybe there's a link there.
 

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
I certainly think they already have great interest in one medical issue - vaccination. Of course this is for good reason, since there are obvious dangers involved,

Mmm, not sure security agencies get involved in this, as pharma already has that area covered - there are actually paid positions being advertised online by pharmaceutical companies for 'social media spinners' (saw one ad just a couple of months ago, on a paid-for pharma-jobs ad board, not a hoax...).

Again not sure they would be interested in CFS boards but then again why not (even just for fun, while already at it as someone said?).
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
Mmm, not sure security agencies get involved in this, as pharma already has that area covered - there are actually paid positions being advertised online by pharmaceutical companies for 'social media spinners' (saw one ad just a couple of months ago, on a paid-for pharma-jobs ad board, not a hoax...).

Again not sure they would be interested in CFS boards but then again why not (even just for fun, while already at it as someone said?).
Ah that makes more sense.
Just out of interest, who would you say is responsible for controlling the Wikipedia page on CFS?

I thought it would take someone/agency with a lot of clout to have Hooker's paper pulled...or am I just being naive about the power of big pharma over scientific journals?
I find it hard to believe secret state organisations aren't at least monitoring the vaccination issue in the media and making sure pharma are doing a good job covering up the evidence. Just seems like too important a threat to not have some involvement from the state.
 

barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
here are actually paid positions being advertised online by pharmaceutical companies for 'social media spinners' (saw one ad just a couple of months ago, on a paid-for pharma-jobs ad board, not a hoax...).

I would love to see one of these. How do you know it wasn't a hoax?

Barb
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Do you really think that national security services are going to have any interest in medical issues.
Its a matter of public record that this was done for the environmental movement. However its far fetched to blame it all on UK security. Large corporations hire PR firms to do things on the internet, such as with the Green movement. So do government departments. Spies? Or public relations officers in disguise?

Disinformation is old and established. Its a standard tactic for some public relations firms. I also think that intelligence agencies do it as well, but only for issues deemed to affect national security - they don't have time for more unless its a training exercise. I doubt we qualify .If we did I would have to ask what do they know about ME that we don't.

So the list includes medical, insurance, bureaucratic and other agencies, for just ME alone - not intelligence services.

Having said that I am sure that there some intelligences agencies have people posting on extremist sites, as well as watching them.

However the simpler answer is that most trolls are teens or anyone craving attention. Teen males for the most part I suspect. Recently a young lady in Australia responded to bad behaviour by contacting their mothers, which I think was a great move.