Twitter Brings Dezinformatsiya To The World, by Jim Dunnigan.

Twitter, the popular messaging app, began in 2006 and it soon became a favorite tool for Russian dezinformatsiya (disinformation) operations. That was because it was easier to conceal Russian involvement. Messages were limited to 140 characters, meaning Russian dezinformatsiya operatives could be convincing even if their written English was not fluent. …

During the Cold War the communist rulers of the Soviet Union invented or expanded on all sorts of propaganda, deception and indoctrination techniques that are still widely copied (and often condemned) because they work. At least sometimes. …

While technically a democracy, modern Russia has evolved into yet another dictatorship. This is because out of the ashes of the Soviet Union there arose an oligarchy with enough cash and propaganda skills, not to mention control of most mass media, to get elected and make most Russians support what the new government wants. A key tool in this was using freewheeling Internet-based message boards to mold and manipulate public opinion. …

Propaganda on the Internet:

It wasn’t long before many Internet users noticed that messages posted by propagandists (or PR specialists) were showing up in social media and messaging areas throughout the Internet. This was especially true in China. There is where it all began; the idea of quietly paying Internet users a small fee to post pro-government (or company) responses on message boards where some company or the government is being criticized or maligned.

For some members of the original Chinese “50 Cent Party” it was a full-time job, receiving up to 50 cents (two yuan) each for up to a hundred pro-government messages posted a day, using several dozen different accounts. But most of the posters were volunteers or just did it to earn a little extra money. If you could post in foreign languages, especially colloquial English, you made more. Very few members of the “50 Cent Army” (as the mercenary posters were also known) made lots of money and most were reviled by their online peers as a bunch of loathsome trolls (those who leave messages to annoy rather than inform or amuse).

Russia:

By 2015 Russia had turned Internet trolling into a profession with full-time workers getting paid $700 to $1,000 a month (plus bonuses for especially effective efforts) and working in office settings rather than from home. These professional trolls mainly write in Russian, to encourage pro-government opinions among Russian Internet users. The government also has an international program that pays a lot more because of the need for good foreign language skills. That means the ability to “write like a native” not only in terms of grammar but in terms of the Internet idioms unique to each language or country. The key here is not to come off as a Russian troll but a local. That was much easier to do on Twitter. …

Israel:

Israel kicked this process up a level in 2013 by establishing a special tuition assistance program for university students who agreed to regularly post messages on the Internet to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda. While Israel is unique in being one of the few countries to admit doing this, many others have been caught at it and continue to deny any official involvement.

North Korea:

One example is North Korea, which South Korea believes has had (since at least 2014) several hundred operatives who are basically full-time “Internet Apes”, whose sole task is to battle anti-North Korean sentiments on South Korean Internet message areas and push the idea that North Korea is a better place to live than it actually is. …

China:

The Chinese began to use this practice in 2005 when propaganda officials sought ways to deal with growing anti-government activity on Internet message boards. One idea was to organize the pro-government posters already out there. The propaganda bureaucracy (which is huge in China) did so and got so many volunteers that they soon developed a test to select the most capable posters and also set up training classes to improve the skills of these volunteers. Cash bonuses were offered for the most effective work. At one point, the government had nearly 100,000 volunteers and paid posters operating. This quickly evolved into the 50 Cent Army. By 2010 the Russian government adopted the practice and before long there was the 50 Ruble Army in Russia. …

The USA:

In the United States, the same techniques were adopted to push political candidates or commercial products. There it was called “viral marketing.” The CIA has used a similar technique to counter anti-American, or pro-terrorist, activity on the Internet.

This practice of buying favorable attention in the media is nothing new and is centuries old. The U.S. is unique in that, for about a century, the American mass media was largely free of this blatant bribery.