BP Hired Company To Troll Users Who Left Critical Comments 263
An anonymous reader sends this news from Al-Jazeera:
"BP has been accused of hiring internet 'trolls' to purposefully attack, harass, and sometimes threaten people who have been critical of how the oil giant has handled its disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil firm hired the international PR company Ogilvy & Mather to run the BP America Facebook page during the oil disaster, which released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf in what is to date the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The page was meant to encourage interaction with BP, but when people posted comments that were critical of how BP was handling the crisis, they were often attacked, bullied, and sometimes directly threatened. ... BP's 'astroturfing' efforts and use of 'trolls' have been reported as pursuing users' personal information, then tracking and posting IP addresses of users, contacting their employers, threatening to contact family members, and using photos of critics' family members to create false Facebook profiles, and even threatening to affect the potential outcome of individual compensation claims against BP."
Dream job (Score:5, Funny)
Where do i get a gig like this?
Re: Dream job (Score:5, Funny)
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At least samsung pays for that trolling, unlike some competitors :D
Re: Dream job (Score:5, Funny)
The other competitor which shall not be named has a better method of "public image management." It's simple: with each of their devices they sell, it comes equipped with a state-of-the-art RDF [wikipedia.org] generator that turns the purchasers into fully obedient drones who will take to the internet forums and defend the company themselves! Since these drones are now merely subservient beings to the corporate will, they don't need to be paid; in fact, the effects of RDF ensure that they will throw themselves at the stores the next time the company delivers a new product, even for the most incremental and mundane updates! The shills will pay you!
Re: Dream job (Score:5, Funny)
The other competitor which shall not be named has a better method of "public image management." It's simple: with each of their devices they sell, it comes equipped with a state-of-the-art RDF [wikipedia.org] generator that turns the purchasers into fully obedient drones who will take to the internet forums and defend the company themselves! Since these drones are now merely subservient beings to the corporate will, they don't need to be paid; in fact, the effects of RDF ensure that they will throw themselves at the stores the next time the company delivers a new product, even for the most incremental and mundane updates! The shills will pay you!
This, Samsung, BP, et al. have to pay someone to troll their competitors... Apple gets chumps to do it for free.
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did somebody say something?
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This, Samsung, BP, et al. have to pay someone to troll their competitors... Apple gets chumps to do it for free.
What makes you so sure about this?
I have yet to meet a real life apple fan (and yes, i know some people who have pretty much all available kit) that behaves anywhere near as stupid as the common internet troll. Sure, anonymity might have something to do about it, but i really doubt there are that many people who actually care about Apple like a religion.
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Having dealt with Apple fans.
/. like moths to a flame (war).
If you haven't met one that's rabid you must be walking around with your eyes shut. I go out of my way to avoid where Apple fanboys coalesce but even I've had the misfortune of many troll-like conversations with them.
If that's not enough, just spend more time here. They're attracted to
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I thought he meant that Samsung keeps a flock of waterfowl, and he wanted us to call them inside.
Re:Dream job (Score:5, Informative)
Where do i get a gig like this?
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
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Where do i get a gig like this?
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
It would have been worse if he smelt of smelt!
Apologies to Monty Python...
Re:Dream job (Score:5, Interesting)
lmfao this was modded as informative, fucking lol
Re:Dream job (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, yes: +5, Informative. This is the /. I know and love.
I fart in your general direction!
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Dunno, they never called me,either. Losers, well, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. They knew they couldn't afford me.
Re:Dream job (Score:5, Funny)
My favorite was Oprah's troll:
"I just LOVE my new Microsoft Surface!!! I'm bought 12 for Christmas!!!
"-- posted from my iPad"
If you're on the top of the trolling heap . . . you can afford to pay assistants to troll for you . . .
Re:Dream job (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously why would you want it? Only trolls hire trolls and those trolls will treat their trolls even worse than the way regular people treat trolls. Obviously if you are looking for a gig, simply open up the yellow pages, look under public relation agencies, take your pick and be ready to sign a non-disclosure agreement that threatens everything up to and including crucifixion if you attempt to tell anyone the truth. If you want to how to be the worst of the worst, simply join and become an active member of either of the two dominant political parties in your country (doesn't make any difference about the brand or the country). Of course if you just want to look silly and be mocked become a fanbois of what ever stripe be it Apple products generally, Xboxes, Playstations or your choice of motor vehicles.
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Where do i get a gig like this?
It's possible this gig is a double bluff and is actually a rival oil company or environmental group trolling BP by accusing them of trolling others. Note the lack of direct evidence in the article.
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- Using your real name on Facebook
Isn't that required by Facebook? I'm not on it, so I don't know for sure.
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I think these social sites require something that looks like a real name, not a handle, mostly so the don't seem geeky. You'll probably find an "Oliver Klosov" on all of them, however.
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Isn't that required by Facebook?
Pretty much. But I have to agree. Most people probably shouldn't be using their real names on Facebook, no matter what the policy is.
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Doesn't that kind of defeat most of the point of being on facebook in the first place, if you're using a fake name and people can't find you?
Dice.com rocks! (Score:5, Funny)
They should have hired Dice.com. I hear they have great information on technology and technology jobs. A++++. Would use their site again.
So how does one get paid to troll people? (Score:2)
So do they apply for the job? I wonder if they have to list references or if being a frequent poster of reddit's /r/atheism or 4chan is enough.
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So do they apply for the job? I wonder if they have to list references or if being a frequent poster of reddit's /r/atheism or 4chan is enough.
They probably just go in as the user they wish to insult, drop a few assertions in a 4chan-like forum, with scarcely concealed credentials (of the intended) and let nature take its course. Why pay when you can get people to do the work for you for free (as in beer) ?
A waste of time (Score:3)
They should have spent it on coming up with more ways of saying "We're sorry".
Re:A waste of time (Score:5, Insightful)
They should have spent it on coming up with more ways of saying "We're sorry".
While that makes the greater sense, where's the fun in doing the right thing, when you can do amazingly wrong things and then get caught, try to cover your ass and then hire yet-another company to harass your detractors?
The Internet - Not just for constructive collaboration anymore.
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oh, saying sorry is a different topic.
dear bp, now is a chance to pretend you did not know this was going on and sue that company out of existence
Re:A waste of time (Score:5, Funny)
They should have spent it on coming up with more ways of saying "We're sorry".
Being a multi-billion dollar megacorp means never having to say you're sorry.
How would they get the IPs from Facebook? (Score:2, Interesting)
If they were only trolling posters on the Facebook page, how would they figure out their IP addresses? Impossible unless they hacked into Facebook.
Re:How would they get the IPs from Facebook? (Score:4, Interesting)
If they were only trolling posters on the Facebook page, how would they figure out their IP addresses? Impossible unless they hacked into Facebook.
The article is crap. It's basically a bunch of unsubstantiated allegations without even a shred of evidence. It's possible BP did the things they claim, but I cannot fathom why they would. Delete comments, sure, but threaten bodily harm? What would be the point?
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If they were only trolling posters on the Facebook page, how would they figure out their IP addresses? Impossible unless they hacked into Facebook.
That's one way... Another is to simply pay Farcebook for the data.
They don't stay on facebook. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Reputation managers" (Aka professional lairs) are everywhere. You'll see a lot of them here on slashdot. Remember all those copy-pasted shill posts apologizing for windows 8? That was a riot. Those key phrases and talking points stick out like a sore thumb.
Re:They don't stay on facebook. (Score:5, Interesting)
The Sony ones are pretty classic too. I haven't noticed them for a while, but with new consoles out we may all be in for another treat.
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Heh, no apologetics so far for the "Blue Dickpunch of Sadness". Maybe they're off their game.
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That's "Pulsing Blue Dick-punch of Sadness" to you sir. I'm a little surprised there isn't more talk about them charging for online play., especially with the crappy experience on the PS3.
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"Reputation managers" (Aka professional lairs) are everywhere. You'll see a lot of them here on slashdot.
Yeah .. its been a while since I saw them here, but Natalie Portman must have hired them by the dozen.
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As with so many things in this world, when you look like Natalie Portman you can get them for free.
Re:They don't stay on facebook. (Score:5, Interesting)
I miss this guy:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=-1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=3883481&cid=44050963&pid=44050963 [slashdot.org]
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I miss this guy:
http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=-1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=3883481&cid=44050963&pid=44050963 [slashdot.org]
Doesn't change the fact that Professional Develop is right. ;^)
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"Reputation managers" (Aka professional lairs) are everywhere. You'll see a lot of them here on slashdot.
I expect companies to defend their products in a free forum where their products are being discussed; it would be stupid of them not to. It's often annoying and I think I've been down modded a couple times for disagreeing with a corporate sock puppet, but reading the article...holy shit, gun threats? That's way beyond "reputation management." BP did this to people posting on a page from which they could have just deleted comments? This is way more scary than the astrotrufing we typically see around here.
In
Re: They don't stay on facebook. (Score:2)
Well, i honestly liked Windows Mobile a lot - the old one, not the winphone crap. I am also okay with Windows 7 and I love C#. And in the real life I develop embedded Linux software. Cross-compiling from Windows :-P
Were they paid the same as conservative trolls? (Score:3, Funny)
Or do the oil companies pay extra?
4CHN stock plummets (Score:2, Funny)
An anonymous source working for Anonymous claims the group is not worried as the emerging trolls are "newfags [who] can't triforce". Some experts, however, are not as confident on the group's ability to adapt to the increasingly competitive trolling market. Anonymous has yet to comment on the matter.
I just want to say... (Score:5, Funny)
I just want to say that, though I often attack, bully, and sometimes insult people on this very forum, I'm not a paid shill.
It's more of a "calling [xkcd.com]".
(Wait... what? I can also get *paid*?)
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calling slashdot a forum gives credibility to the statement above. well, up to the "not paid" part
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Who can tell real comments from astroturf? (Score:2)
Wouldn't you be surprised if many companies did not do it? Large companies? Politicians? Governments?
How many comments on Slashdot are astroturf?
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Nobody would pay money to astroturf this ghost town.
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Where's my mod points when I really need them???
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Have you heard of the current canadian government? they basically came in to power and hired 1500+ communications graduates and only answer submitted questions with scripted responses
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I'm waiting for the day political organizations engage in astroturfing with concerted efforts to silence critics of political positions they don't like by swamping it with sheer numbers to generate a false consensus.
How do you know it's not happening? Or are you being sarcastic?
Yeah, I'm not convinced (Score:5, Insightful)
Burning karma in hopes that a 6 year old, moderately active account will dispel accusations of "shill":
I'm most certainly no friend of BP's, but the evidence presented in the story really is not that compelling. People on the internet are huge dicks even without being paid to do it, and some people have a lot of time on their hands. Maybe some of them are family of BP workers, or grunt paper shufflers in the company, or just assholes, but none of the evidence seems worthy of this headline.
Intriguing, worth looking into? Sure. But if your headline is "BP did this" instead of "BP accused of this", you need a hell of a lot better documentation.
Alarmism helps no one.
Not trolling, harassing. (Score:2)
Pedantic but this is not the definition of a troll at all. Steven King would be trolling in his grave if he'd heard this.
I see what you did there (Score:2)
Headline: BP hired
Ogilvy & Mather (Score:2)
Ogilvy & Mather is well respect advertising firm with hundreds of offices and part of WPP, an even larger firm. No way are they "internet trolls". Running a webpage for BP, sure. Doing quasi-illegal stuff, they could get caught for and likely aren't being much paid for.... I really really doubt it.
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I don't see some 10 person advertising agency as having the disposable resources for doing something like this.
It would have to be a big firm, a big firm buying some freelancers or companies who are "social internet experts". Nobody inside BP would bother with it either, but, and here's the big but, I can see them has having a big budget for pr damage control which just then happens to trickle down to some people who might well see as their job to do this kind of thing(if they didn't, their money for uphold
Pretty obvious for regular forum posters (Score:2)
I'm on 3 other forums pretty regularly and it's obvious that people get paid to troll. There was bunch of people trolling the Yahoo Games chats during the elections; including a guy who seemed to be there 24-7, spouting political stuff and even with a trolling political name. There are people who do nothing but get on and dump articles and quotes from partisan websites and radio hosts.
What sealed it for me was during one of the 2012 conventions, ALL of the trolling stopped and JUST for the days of the con
Why again is BP still in business? (Score:3, Interesting)
The US government should have seized all of their American assets and forced them into bankruptcy.
No company deserves to survive a screw-up of this magnitude.
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Darn British having their way with the colonies ...
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They were an attack from the British. They're not an American company. How would the US government ever stop the British from doing whatever the hell they want to us? Your post makes no damn sense. It's like you don't know that they're two different countries. They are British Petroleum. Why lie and say they are not? Please. Just. Stop.
As of 2012, 38% of BP shares were held by American investors, 36% by British investors, and 14% by the rest of Europe with the remaining shares held by investors from other countries.
Could have been worse... (Score:2)
Lakeview Gusher (Score:2)
"largest environmental disaster in U.S. history" The Lakeview Gusher spill was larger in terms of tons of oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher [wikipedia.org]
I think the author meant "most expensive environmental disaster".
Nothing new (Score:2)
What does it take? (Score:3)
Seriously, what the fuck will it take to get a high-level executive of one of these companies to see the inside of a jail cell for an extended period of time?
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Seriously, what the f_ck will it take to get a high-level executive of one of these companies to see the inside of a jail cell for an extended period of time?
When a few judges and FBI directors seeing the inside of a Jail Cell.
Personally, I don't think things will change in the normal process given that there is so much interlocking corruption. I figure this will change when a few of these execs see the light and the error of their ways, due to a serious of Unfortunate Coincidences. There's always hope!
I doubt it. (Score:2)
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Their astroturfing/trolling is now a matter of *fact*.
Except that it isn't a matter of fact. Read the story. It is highly suggestive of an organized trolling effort since the method illustrated in the example was rather sophisticated. But that still leaves two gaps, that BP was somehow responsible directly or indirectly, and that it actually happened in the first place.
I don't understand how you can question if this really happened, when the article literally states "this factually happened".
Just because the article claims or implies something doesn't mean it is a fact. Note that two thirds of the article consists of accusations by a single person, an anonymous "Marie" who herself m
Calling Anonymous (Score:3)
Worst ever? Not by a long shot. (Score:4, Interesting)
Worst environmental disaster in US history? Not remotely.
The Dust Bowl takes the prize with no legitimate contenders.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the massive dead zone from fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi river has caused way more devastation than the BP oil spill.
Among offshore oil spills, the Exxon Valdez killed orders of magnitude more animal deaths and environmental damage. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Ixtoc I spill was far more damaging (being much closer to shore).
Among all oil spills, the Lakeview Gusher in 1910 was the largest by far.
Why can't people ever write about a on-going or recent oil spill without claiming that it is the worst ever?
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The Dust Bowl takes the prize with no legitimate contenders.
Eh, I'd put habitat destruction or perhaps the near extinction of most large North American mammals in modern times. The Dust Bowl would be a consequence at least of the former.
Only BP? (Score:2)
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Two? The British won the war of 1812.
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. It was within the US exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong. It was within the US exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Also, while the epicenter was out at sea, the soiled beaches were much closer to the coastline.
I am not sure this is the worst environmental disaster. I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Informative)
I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
While true, this is changing the subject, because it doesn't contradict the claim that "the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history." The Pleistocene was prehistoric. [wikipedia.org]
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I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
You have a strange definition of "in US history"...
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Funny)
How much did you get paid to make this post?!?
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Even if that is technically true, then it's still correct to say "larger than any environmental disaster in U.S. history". I'm not sure that's any better. You work for BP, don't you?
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't even technically true. Macondo Prospect is not international waters.
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An awful lot of the oil, and environmental damage, was on the Gulf Coast. Not just U S waters, but US soil.
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Hey, it's Twirlip of the Mists!
Really, dude? (Score:5, Insightful)
"the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history."
The oil spill did not happen in the United States. It happened in International Waters under the supervision of a British petroleum company.
Really dude? Is this important?
Is there some official administrative "stamp" of accuracy for environmental disasters? Is there some "office of deflecting bad opinion" that is responsible for keeping people accurate?
This sounds *exactly* like something a paid troll would say. "Ya know, Vietnam wasn't really a war" and such-like.
Your statement only serves to defuse public outrage. It helps those responsible avoid and minimize any sense of responsibility to the public. We should be holding their feet to the fire, not looking for ways to find the situation acceptable.
And to be more clearly on point, the drilling was overseen by the Minerals Management Service [federalregister.gov], a federal agency responsible for the safety protocols of the drilling at the time, and whose failure allowed the accident to happen. It was very much a US disaster.
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Ah you've discovered an irrelevant pedant troll. Though common, it's one of my favourites.
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Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Informative)
A British company?
[source [independent.co.uk]]
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And the spilled oil washed up on the cost of Mongolia.
No, wait, that doesn't sound right. AH! It washed up on the gulf coast of.....The United States.
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Which country did it affect again? England?
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Insightful)
single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
But the summary didn't say "U.S. waters" or "U.S. territory". It said "U.S. history". Regardless where it took place, with 11 Americans dead, millions more affected, and criminal convictions in US courts, it was a huge part of US history.
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Where the fuck did you see me ranking the BP spill over Bhopal? Were you always this obtuse or did you have to go to a special school for it?
Person A said: "single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history".
Person B said: "The oil spill did not happen in the United States."
I said: "Even if it's outside US territory it's still part of U.S. history."
Me correcting person B doesn't mean I agree or disagree with person B.
Me correcting person B doesn't mean I agree or disagree with person A.
It just means I c
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You do realize that you are trying to rationalize with an anonymous "sexual intellect" correct?
"sexual intellect" == "fucking know it all"
Re:Did not happen in the US (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So, let's troll BP (Score:5, Insightful)
They did the last part themselves, anyways.
Re:And yet the shills say this never happens (Score:4, Insightful)
The BBC pay for people to support it on the Internet? Why would they do that? The only people they have to convince that they are doing a good job are government ministers who set the licence fee amount.
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Yes, Dave, it does.
By the way, your front door was unlocked again last night.
Re:Yet every American will still rush right out (Score:5, Interesting)
We've reached a sort of socioeconomic metastability wherein large corporations receive little penalty owing to the difficulty required to sue/prosecute them. Too big to fail, but also too big to require obedience to any form of morality.