Author Topic: Liberal 'trolls' post list of conservative Facebook pages marked for takeover  (Read 3880 times)

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Offline happyg

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By Joe Newby
It seems that more and more, Facebook is becoming a battlefield of political ideologies with stories that sound like something written by Tom Clancy. Early Friday morning, Examiner.com was given a long list of approximately 80 conservative Facebook pages targeted by liberal "trolls" for infiltration and takeover by someone who only wished to be identified as "AJ," an administrator of a targeted page.

"AJ" said the list was posted to the new "Citizens' Post" page, apparently by accident.

"AJ" added: "When they figured out what they did, they deleted their one facebook page where they all had been gathering."

The pro-Sarah Palin "Barracuda Brigade" and the pro-Phil Robertson "I Stand with Phil" pages were among those listed as targets.

Several pro-gun pages were listed along with a Facebook page supporting the South Carolina Tea Party.

This writer's Facebook page was also listed.

The message concluded with the phrase "Moar Gotes," an apparent reference to a technique used by Facebook liberals as "goating," where pages are infiltrated and taken over by users posting multiple pictures and memes involving goats.

On Wednesday, Examiner.com's David Thornton said in an online radio interview that liberal "trolls" have done this to a number of conservative pages.

One of the ways this happens, he said, is that a "troll" will "con" his or her way into the good graces of a page owner by posing as a conservative. This, he added, could take months. Once the person has been granted the appropriate privileges, he or she then takes over, removing all other administrators and flooding the page with various goat memes.

In an article written earlier in January, Thornton explained:
“Jason Doolin, owner of the conservative Citizens’ Post page on Facebook, said that Patrick Blair, allegedly a representative of The Freedom Alliance contacted him several months ago about helping him to expand his page. Blair gained his trust over a period of months. There is a real Freedom Alliance as well, a Virginia based charity organized as 501(c)(3) organization that educates young Americans in civic responsibility and provides scholarships to the children of American soldiers

"Blair," Thornton added, "apparently operated several fake conservative Facebook pages and websites as a cover."

According to Thornton, Blair conned other conservatives into helping him, only to delete their work later on, replacing it with goats. He also reportedly admitted "duping conservatives and 'goating' their pages."

Thornton said he was uncertain why goats are used, but some have suggested a possible link to Satanism.

“We took the goats for what they are, symbols of Satanism," one page administrator called "Miss Lilly" told Thornton, although there is no evidence to suggest any of those involved are actually Satanist.

Thornton reported that some "have made anti-Christian and anti-religious postings on their pages," however.

Our investigation into this list revealed a tenuous link to the "Goatz Alliance" Thornton spotted, but we were unable to trace it to the exact same individuals.

Facebook says it “respects the intellectual property rights of others and is committed to helping third parties protect their rights,” but getting help from the social media giant is nearly impossible as the company rarely responds to calls for help.

One Facebook page provides a procedure for reclaiming a business page, but that process could take up to a week or more.

In the meantime, owners of conservative pages should be extremely careful about those with whom they operate. Moreover, they should carefully examine and thoroughly vet those listed as administrators.

Above all, page owners should never, ever, grant manager access to anyone they do not know extremely well.

A full list of pages targeted for attack can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/SpokaneConservativeExaminer/posts/641797009211525?stream_ref=10

http://www.examiner.com/article/liberal-trolls-post-list-of-conservative-facebook-pages-marked-for-takeover

Offline Gazoo

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Liberal trolls enter and start to harass conservative and Tea Party group members - intentionally. They intentionally bait them. It is part of their pan to shut down the group.

Once harassed and "baited" group members get mad and respond in kind. Then the trolls click on those angry posts, the conservative responses, to report them. Those are the reports that Facebook sees. It's always the conservative response that gets reported. Never the liberal baiting. They plan it that way.

Too many of those targeted posts and Facebook is keyed to shut down that group. It’s practically automatic. Heck, It is automatic.

That is why “The Facebook Tea Party” absolutely refuses to allow any liberals to post there. Any troll is immediately banned from that group.

https://www.facebook.com/positivelyrepublican/posts/10151498051551733
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline Gazoo

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The article is dated-2011. It is odd they accuse republicans of doing exactly what they did.

http://occupywallst.org/forum/paid-trolls-paid-trolls/

"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline Gazoo

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Categories of abuse

Trolls use a wide variety of strategies, some of which are unique to the Internet, including these:

Making outrageous comments designed to distract or frustrate. This is a Saul Alinsky-style tactic employed to stir emotion and angry reactions.

Posing as a conservative and making comments that discredit the movement. After claiming to be a member of the movement, such as a tea party organization, the troll then proceeds to post long, incoherent diatribes to appear either racist or insane. In some cases, these “Trojan Horse Trolls” have been known to make posts that advocate or incite to the use of violence in an apparent attempt to provide evidence to leftist critics and government sources that the right is comprised of “radical extremists.”

Dominating discussions. Trolls may attempt to throw a discussion off course and frustrate participants whose purpose is to engage in a serious and respectful exchange of views.

Posting prewritten responses. Many trolls appear to have been supplied with a list or database of pre-planned “talking points” designed as generalized and deceptive responses to honest arguments. When trolls post prewritten responses, their words typically feel strangely plastic and rehearsed.

Making false associations. In this technique, the position of honest posters is characterized in derogatory terms. For example, a troll may call advocates of Federal Reserve reform or abolition “conspiracy theorists” or “lunatics.” Or, by suggesting certain political arguments are “racist” or otherwise outside the accepted confines of serious political discourse, trolls attempt to dissuade readers from examining the evidence objectively.

Exhibiting false moderation. By pretending to be the “voice of reason” in an argument with obvious well-defined sides, trolls attempt to move readers to relegate the argument to a “gray area,” such that holding or seriously considering the argument is a leap away from reasoned judgment.

Raising straw-man arguments. Here a troll will accuse his opposition of subscribing to a certain point of view, even if the argument is irrelevant and never actually raised.
Professional trolls

WND moderators have developed criteria for helping to identify a professional troll:

The person’s posts are usually short and snarky, with reasonably correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, suggesting both intelligence and education.

The posts are on the edge of acceptability, with little or no profanity or vulgar language that would get the post flagged immediately.

The person has a high ratio of posts to the number of days on the site, suggesting he’s posting comments nearly full time and is getting paid to troll.

The person posts politely on progressive websites but nastily on conservative websites, using the same username and IP address.

The person’s posts are consistently belittling, rather than intelligent objections and points.

The person’s posts address a broad spectrum of topics rather than focusing on one or two subjects of particular interest. The consistency is in the support of leftist policies and positions taken by the Obama administration.
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline mystery-ak

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I feel left out TBR isn't on the list.... 8888crybaby
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Offline EC

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WND moderators have developed criteria for helping to identify a professional troll:

The person’s posts are usually short and snarky, with reasonably correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, suggesting both intelligence and education. Yep.

The posts are on the edge of acceptability, with little or no profanity or vulgar language that would get the post flagged immediately. Yep.

The person has a high ratio of posts to the number of days on the site, suggesting he’s posting comments nearly full time and is getting paid to troll. Yep.

The person posts politely on progressive websites but nastily on conservative websites, using the same username and IP address. Nope

The person’s posts are consistently belittling, rather than intelligent objections and points. Nope

The person’s posts address a broad spectrum of topics rather than focusing on one or two subjects of particular interest. Yep.

The consistency is in the support of leftist policies and positions taken by the Obama administration. Maybe.

HELP!!!! I'm a troll!
« Last Edit: January 26, 2014, 05:07:31 pm by EC »
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Offline ABX

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I see this kind of stuff all the time and unfortunately, our side has lost most of its filter and just believes anything posted as long as they think it is coming from a right leaning source.

Another way trolls do this is to join a page, then block all the administrators or moderators. They then can post what they want without the admins seeing it.

If you run a facebook page, I suggest creating a second or third sock puppet account that isn't set up as an admin to watch the page. It is also going to take us being diligent and watching out for and calling out those who post crap.  Debunk BS as soon as you see it. Phony Obama BC stories, conspiracy theories (the 'crisis actor' one seems to have picked up steam again).

It isn't just Facebook, forums get these a lot, especially the bigger ones (I sometimes think these types outnumber real Conservatives on FR).

Offline EC

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Only run pages for my books. I am sole admin and it will stay that way. There is one person who has the password in case of death, incapacity or whatever, but I would literally trust them with my life.

Far safer.

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Offline Atomic Cow

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This is nothing new.  They do this all over the place.  Heck, Soros funds groups dedicated to trolling news websites to post liberal comments and attack conservatives.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline Atomic Cow

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I feel left out TBR isn't on the list.... 8888crybaby

It's a lot easier to troll Bookface and news sites than it is forums, except for the massive ones like IMDB which are around 75% trolls just because of the massive size and impossibility to manage.

A liberal troll here would get squashed in minutes so they're not going to waste the effort.  They like to go for the easy disruption.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline EC

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I know - personally - nearly a dozen trolls who work TOS. They don't get paid, just do it for the laughs. Some have been at it for years.
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Offline ABX

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I know - personally - nearly a dozen trolls who work TOS. They don't get paid, just do it for the laughs. Some have been at it for years.

Many trolls aren't doing it for political gain but for s***s and giggles. Something Awful and 4Chan are known for this. One particularly nasty site is LandoverBaptist.net which is an atheist site posing as a religious site that leads a lot of trolling on Facebook and forums (even this one, case in point one came over recently).  They have thousands of active members who troll for fun. They also have a lot of sites on Facebook for trolling (Christians against Slipnot, Christians against Masturbation, etc). I am shocked how many don't have enough of a filter to realize they are trolls or fake sites.

Offline Gazoo

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I see this kind of stuff all the time and unfortunately, our side has lost most of its filter and just believes anything posted as long as they think it is coming from a right leaning source.

Another way trolls do this is to join a page, then block all the administrators or moderators. They then can post what they want without the admins seeing it.

If you run a facebook page, I suggest creating a second or third sock puppet account that isn't set up as an admin to watch the page. It is also going to take us being diligent and watching out for and calling out those who post crap.  Debunk BS as soon as you see it. Phony Obama BC stories, conspiracy theories (the 'crisis actor' one seems to have picked up steam again).

It isn't just Facebook, forums get these a lot, especially the bigger ones (I sometimes think these types outnumber real Conservatives on FR).

Yep.  There was a leftist bragging about trolling free republic article out.  The trolls were seriously loling at their success. Many leftists  fessed up to being FR trolls during the primaries. They posted the- Sarah or no one- posts in worship so sickening that is made you sick to read it. lol  Citing Sarah Palin's Sun Tsu strategy lol.  I had not read over there at FR for years. I did the other day and there is a Newt/Palin or no one theme- already starting.

Too bad non leftists aren't as devious. It would be easy to troll democrats because there is no way Hillary won't be challenged. So they will split on Hillary or Byah or that other woman. Bluedog dems won't go for Hillary. Even progressives are not that thrilled with pantsuits lol.
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline EC

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To stick with TOS for a second - it's bigger and a more juicy target - you can usually spot the trolls. They are the ones who go "just a little bit too far" in their comments. Most of the time they are pushing for a reaction. Sometimes they are attempting to push the narrative in the direction they want.

You are right about the filters. Been caught (a lot, to my shame) but there should be more of what you (and Myst, Repub, Happy and Rap) try to do here - to keep it calm, debunk spurious claims, encourage investigation of posts.

Trolls can't stay consistent for long.
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Offline Gazoo

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WND moderators have developed criteria for helping to identify a professional troll:

The person’s posts are usually short and snarky, with reasonably correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, suggesting both intelligence and education. Yep.

The posts are on the edge of acceptability, with little or no profanity or vulgar language that would get the post flagged immediately. Yep.

The person has a high ratio of posts to the number of days on the site, suggesting he’s posting comments nearly full time and is getting paid to troll. Yep.

The person posts politely on progressive websites but nastily on conservative websites, using the same username and IP address. Nope

The person’s posts are consistently belittling, rather than intelligent objections and points. Nope

The person’s posts address a broad spectrum of topics rather than focusing on one or two subjects of particular interest. Yep.

The consistency is in the support of leftist policies and positions taken by the Obama administration. Maybe.

HELP!!!! I'm a troll!


That criteria does stink and could apply to anybody. lol. You are a eurocrat so of course you tilt left.


My reply disappeared lol... it was stuck in the quote
« Last Edit: January 26, 2014, 07:21:26 pm by Gazoo »
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline EC

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 :tongue2:

I prefer to think of myself more as an Aristocrat in hiding  :laugh:
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Offline Gazoo

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:tongue2:

I prefer to think of myself more as an Aristocrat in hiding  :laugh:

You don't seem like the type of guy that would like the gun ban in the UK. So I guess you are Prince Williams Uncle or something and have special privileges. lol
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline EC

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I am all in favor of gun bans. I know my neighbors and would trust them with a pop gun about as far as I could throw them.

Just not for me.

I obey the law. I have no gun license and no registered guns.
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Offline Gazoo

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P.S.-Re: Newt as POTUS regarding my last post. He is making good money on CNN. Folks don't want a dried out Washington insider. I want someone that will stop both parties from voting in their payraises and making government bigger.

TERM LIMITS and they all need to retire NOW!
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline EC

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I'd like to see new blood. As conservative as possible - that's a bit of a crapshoot - but with fire in their bellies. the GOP is the party of "old white guys" So why not change gears? You seriously telling me there are not passionate young conservatives out there? White, Black, Hispanic, Korean? The electoral pool of candidates is really only two inches deep?
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Offline Gazoo

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I think Ben Carson will run if he sees it go the same as the last few times. Him with Kelly Ayotte and or Rand Paul or Cruz..

If we must go the Washington DC insider it's THEIR TURN route Rudy or Condi Rice. Condi's speech was brilliant.
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline EC

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Rudy, please. He has a solid record to point to. A few screw ups, sure, but he was running one of the biggest cities there is. Knows how to put a solid team together and work with them, rather than ignore them. Knows how to - *whispers* - cut deals across the aisle to get things done.

Condi - not so much. She has the advantage of being a woman, hyper intelligent and very talented, but her time at state was not stellar.

Ben Carson - I respect the hell out of him (what is NOT to respect!), but I'd prefer he had a term as Governor first. I'd like to see him show his chops in an executive role before giving him THE executive role. Then again, I think all Presidential candidates should be confined to Governors or ex Governors!

Ted Cruz has a small problem. He simply was not born American. Think the birthers have had fun with Obama? Wait til the Dems and their media lapdogs jump on that bone.

Rand Paul - I can get behind him. Then again, he's more Libertarian leaning, which is my comfort zone. Cons for him are one, but large - his father.

I know nothing at all about Ms. Ayotte - fill me in?

Nikki Haley might be a good choice. Solid record, good growth in her state, very much minimal government sort of person.

I'd LOVE Rick Perry, but the 2012 swing and miss might be simply too hard to overcome, despite his immense accomplishments.
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Offline Gazoo

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In doing a quick research of the Obama SOTU article I just posted. I found a sight that has a perfect example of trolls.

See if you can pick out the trolls. It is one thing to be a leftist but it is another to troll a mostly conservative states political forum.

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/p/47914895/Obama-to-announce-he-is-a-Marxist-at-state-of-the-union.aspx
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?