Features of Ukrainian trolling

Correspondents of the Scheme program, a joint project of Radio Liberty and the first public television channel of Ukraine studied local "Internet trolls"

They comment on the news for money, deliberately create conflicts among readers and try to turn their reasoning in the direction of the direction right to the customer. This is the "trolls". How trolls work in Ukraine, and how they differ from Russian "colleagues".

Unlike Russia, Ukrainian "trolls" are not too organized, they work more often than groups. There is a logical explanation for this. First of all, the type of customers. In Russia, trolls are centrally working on state order. Ukrainian "trolls" most often hire businessmen to defend their own interests or fight for the spheres of influence. To configure public opinion in their favor and spoil the image of competitors.

You can recognize trolls: usually this is an emotional message that expresses not its own opinion, but a clear thesis with a call

“Many, first of all, Ukrainian entrepreneurs, use“ trolls ”in their work. Not for an attack, but for protection. We are talking about large financial and industrial groups that often face the risks of not only economic, but also political, ”says Media Expert Maxim Savanevsky .

For example, the Scheme program managed to get a list of topics, theses, and the comments that the bots of the former “king of the Donbass” Rinat Akhmetov were supposed to be left under articles in the press and in social networks.

“Yellow is highlighted -“ Track and stop the negative. ” This is what we should follow. As soon as a commentary against our customer appeared, we quickly made excuses, everything was beautifully corrected so that the last comment was positive. Green is highlighted articles that we could comment on as much as we ours. We agreed on Skype, who will defend what position. And thus, real people also connected to us in the commentary. ”, Aleksey , the former troll of the oligarch Akhmetova, opened the details of his work. The editors for the sake of freedom know his full name, but he asked not to call him because of the fear of losing the current work that is not related to past activities.

It is interesting that part of the Ukrainian "trolls" is headed by Russians - as in the case of Akhmetov. It was possible to find it due to the fact that the tasks of the army of commentators were sent from the postal box of the project manager. Timofei Sitnikov from Novosibirsk, the son of the Russian political strategist Alexei Sitnikov , who was once engaged in the election campaign Yulia Tymoshenko turned out to be the “Trovoda”. Timofei Sitnikov refutes involvement in the bots, saying that he collaborated with the Ukrainian oligarch on other projects, and had nothing to do with this. Regarding the letter he showed, he said nothing.

Ukrainian trolls work for disparate companies, most often sit in the regions, not the capital.

But Rinat Akhmetov is far from the only oligarch who does not disdain the services of the "Internet trolls". His competitors from the list of the richest Ukrainians do the same.

“From the oligarchs there are more than other such bots now - and I noticed this by scandals - they use Kolomoisky and Akhmetov. Here was a scandal around Kolomoisky, I wrote a message about the attack on journalist Sergei Andrushko, Radio Liberty correspondent. And the crowd of these "Kolomoisky" bots flooded the pages daily offensive comments, ”says political strategist Taras Berezovets .

Internet trolling is not cheap pleasure. Due to the crisis, political technologists say, almost every Ukrainian political force, especially represented in parliament, created its own internal team of the Trolls. These commands monitor mood, create theses that need to be "put" in the brains of the Internet community. After all, giving this work to hired special commentators due to the crisis has become expensive.

“In order for you to really influence what is happening on the Internet in order to achieve a real effect from 50 to 100,000 dollars a month. It is very expensive compared to other tools, ”says Media Expert Maxim Savanevsky .

Unlike Ukrainian "trolls", Russian bots - they work centrally in a building on Savushkin Street in St. Petersburg. Ukrainian trolls often do not have a single center, work for disparate companies, most often sit in the regions, not the capital.

“In Russia, the customer is the government, and the“ Bots Industry ”was actually created there. This is a state program, in Ukraine this is not. In Ukraine, these are small private groups that can indicate such services to politicians, ”confirms the political strategist Sergei Gaidai . So for many Ukrainian commentators for money - this is just a part -time job from a home or work computer. Ukrainian "trolls" are less filigree and more lazy in work compared to Russian colleagues. They do not have a change in round -the -clock work. I found comments - rest. "

“Usually, students take such a job who is too lazy to do something all day. In an hour or two, they are trying to make these comments. It turns out just copying the text with the same theses. Therefore, in the comments you feel some plastic, ”says former Bot Rinat Akhmetova.

Another organizer of such commentary Internet races agreed to tell “schemes” about the specifics of his work in writing. He said, for example, that Ukrainian "trolls" are less "fundamental" - they can simultaneously work on competitors, defend the interests of warring structures. “My team did not take such orders. But in principle, this is a fairly frequent case. There is no conflict of interest in this, because the clashes of bots are not a too intellectual process, ”says the interlocutor“ Schemes ”.

You can recognize the "trolls": usually this is an emotional message that expresses not its own opinion, but a clear thesis with a call. The page on the social network is monotonous, few virtual friends, there are no own posts, only reposts. The page was created recently.

Ukrainian commentators become "trolls" by acquaintance, and not through announcements on the Internet, as in Russia. You will not find high -profile political vacancies on sites for searching for work. Ukrainian politics or oligarch maintains one advanced "troll" is now no less than in Russia. Prices rose during Euromaidan - the market was fed up with orders. More than 1000 comments per month can bring a bot to $ 1,000. True, provincial "trolls" are usually cheaper than the capital.