I truly wonder how much courage it takes to be a journalist these days. It has become literally an existential choice for many – we know through the CPJ, the committee to protect journalists, of at least 21 journalists who have been killed while doing their job in 2019 alone. This is true for Syria, Libya, the Philippines, but also for countries in Africa, the Ukraine, Honduras and, of course, Mexico. Never mind Turkey and Russia, countries where it is harder to access accurate data.

I was thinking about this when reading the report of a young investigative journalist who went undercover in Poland this year, to explore how we are all manipulated by information put out by troll farms. What might happen to you when you are discovered to be a spy?

Take Katarzyna Pruszkiewicz who joined a private firm, Cat@Net, this year, which sets up fake social media accounts to influence consumers and voters. People pretending to be private individuals, cat pictures, favorite recipes and all, churn out messages dictated from above, that have social and political content. They include right wing as well as left wing subjects, since confrontation between these two increases traffic. They create a sense of trust between those who receive your messaging and the trolls, and eventually they can start with the real manipulation of public opinion.

In this particular case, the majority of the firms employees are people living with disability. Not only are their employment options in Poland (as here) limited, and this kind of work can be done from their home computer. It also allows the company to derive substantial public subsidies from Poland’s National Disabled Rehabilitation Fund. According to the Reporters Foundation, the company has received about 1.5 million zloty ($386,000) from the fund since November 2015. In other words, vulnerable populations are dragged in to manipulate a naive and vulnerable public.

Here was a typical task of the undercover journalist (source here):

“…operate anonymous accounts with instructions to promote content produced by TVP, Poland’s state broadcaster, which is widely reviled by critics for its extreme partisanship and hate speech directed against minority groups. ‘It would be great if you posted positive comments about the government’s subsidy for TVP and the television licence fee,’ read an email from her manager. An internal report seen by the Guardian details how the fake accounts were used to denigrate legitimate criticism of the broadcaster. According to an analysis by ISD Global, a London-based thinktank that studies global trends in extremism and polarisation, Cat@Net accounts created up to 10,000 posts in defense of TVP, with a potential reach of 15 million views.”

The problem is, of course, that there are no easy ways to regulate this kind of propaganda. It is not hate speech, it is not inciting violence. Which is also true for more home-grown trolls: just think about what the super PACs have been doing since the US Supreme Court lifte spending limits in 2010. 9 years later the number of super PACs has increased from 83 to 1565 for the 2020 election cycle.

Independent expenditures represent spending by individuals, groups, political committees, corporations or unions expressly advocating the election or defeat of clearly identified federal candidates. These expenditures may not be made in concert or cooperation with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, the candidate’s campaign or a political party.

Where do we think those unrestricted expenditures are going? A lot of this is used to influence user comments on social media.

We have no way of knowing if what we read is propaganda from national sources or international actors. Or a way to distinguish between those who are “merely” trolls, or something altogether more sinister. Just think about the numbers we are talking about: in October Twitter, in keeping with its recent promise to Congress to be transparent about its attempts to prevent election interference on its platforms, released more than 10 million tweets that had been circulated by propaganda farms and their associated puppet accounts.

We have also have in many cases no way of examining the content for accuracy. Which is why we are all the more dependent on professional journalism and uncorrupted journalists to tell us the facts. Journalists who will be attacked and in some cases killed for doing their job. Hats off, then, to the women (and men) who pursue this path!

Photographs are of farmed goats, not trolls. Also some chickens, since the female reporters are anything but.

Music is familiar to you, the only one I could think of about trolls, in the halls of the political kings, here and abroad….