Russian President Vladimir Putin pays a secret army of social-media “trolls” to spread fake, glowing posts about him throughout the Internet, former workers have revealed.
“You write, write, write from the point of view of anyone,” one of the roughly 400 pro-Putin propagandists told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“You could be posing as a housewife who bakes dumplings and suddenly decides, ‘I have an opinion about what Putin said!’ ” explained the ex-staffer, identified only as “Tatiana, 22.”
For a salary of roughly $700 a month, the workers spend 12-hour shifts at computers in a St. Petersburg “troll factory,” blogging and posting comments under aliases.