Editing Troll (slang) (section)

== Corporate, political, and special-interest sponsored trolls ==

{{See also|State-sponsored Internet propaganda}}
Organizations and countries may utilize trolls to manipulate public opinion as part and parcel of an [[astroturfing]] initiative. When trolling is sponsored by the government, it is often called state-sponsored Internet propaganda or state-sponsored trolling. Teams of sponsored trolls are sometimes referred to as [[Sockpuppet (Internet)|sockpuppet]] armies.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-02-23|title=What's the difference between a troll and a sockpuppet?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/23/troll-steven-poole-word-of-week|access-date=2021-05-25|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

A 2016 study by Harvard political scientist [[Gary King (political scientist)|Gary King]] reported that the Chinese government's [[50 Cent Party]] creates 440 million pro-government social media posts per year.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602042642/http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf|archive-date=2 June 2016|url=http://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf|title=How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument|date=1 June 2016|author1=Gary King|author2=Jennifer Pan|author3=Margaret E. Roberts}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/06/behind-chinas-viral-curtain/ |title=Behind China's viral curtain |date=11 June 2016 |publisher= Harvard Gazette|url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611122121/http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/06/behind-chinas-viral-curtain/ |archive-date=11 June 2016 }}</ref> The report said that government employees were paid to create pro-government posts around the time of national holidays to avoid mass political protests. The Chinese Government ran an editorial in the state-funded ''[[Global Times]]'' defending [[Internet censorship in China|censorship]] and 50 Cent Party trolls.<ref name=":1" />

A 2016 study for the [[NATO]] Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence on [[hybrid warfare]] notes that the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]] "demonstrated how fake identities and accounts were used to disseminate narratives through social media, blogs, and web commentaries in order to manipulate, harass, or deceive opponents."<ref name="NATO2016">{{cite web|last1=Spruds|first1=Andris|last2=Rožukalne|first2=Anda|last3=Sedlenieks|first3=Klāvs|last4=Daugulis|first4=Mārtiņš|last5=Potjomkina|first5=Diāna|last6=Tölgyesi|first6=Beatrix|last7=Bruģe|first7=Ilvija|display-authors=2|date=n.d.|title=Internet Trolling as a hybrid warfare tool: the case of Latvia|website=stratcomcoe.org|location=Riga, LV|publisher=NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence|publication-date=28 January 2016|url=http://www.stratcomcoe.org/internet-trolling-hybrid-warfare-tool-case-latvia-0|access-date=28 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128210911/http://www.stratcomcoe.org/internet-trolling-hybrid-warfare-tool-case-latvia-0|archive-date=28 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|page=3}} The NATO report describes that a "Wikipedia troll" uses a type of message design where a troll does not add "emotional value" to reliable "essentially true" information in re-posts, but presents it "in the wrong context, intending the audience to draw false conclusions." For example, information, without context, from Wikipedia about the [[military history of the United States]] "becomes value-laden if it is posted in the comment section of an article criticizing Russia for its military actions and interests in Ukraine. The Wikipedia troll is 'tricky', because in terms of actual text, the information is true, but the way it is expressed gives it a completely different meaning to its readers."<ref name="NATO2016" />{{rp|page=62}}

Unlike "classic trolls", Wikipedia trolls "have no emotional input, they just supply [[misinformation]]" and are one of "the most dangerous" as well as one of "the most effective trolling message designs."<ref name="NATO2016" />{{rp|pages=70, 76}} Even among people who are "emotionally immune to aggressive messages" and apolitical, "training in [[critical thinking]]" is needed, according to the NATO report, because "they have relatively blind trust in Wikipedia sources and are not able to filter information that comes from platforms they consider authoritative."<ref name="NATO2016" />{{rp|page=72}} While Russian-language hybrid trolls use the Wikipedia troll message design to promote [[anti-Western sentiment]] in comments, they "mostly attack aggressively to maintain [[emotional attachment]] to issues covered in articles."<ref name="NATO2016" />{{rp|page=75}} Discussions about topics other than [[international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War]] "attracted very aggressive trolling" and became polarized, according to the NATO report, which "suggests that in subjects in which there is little potential for re-educating audiences, emotional harm is considered more effective" for pro-Russian Latvian-language trolls.<ref name="NATO2016" />{{rp|page=76}}

A 2016 study on fluoridation decision-making in Israel coined the term "Uncertainty Bias" to describe the efforts of power in government, public health and media to aggressively advance agendas by misrepresentation of historical and scientific fact. The authors noted that authorities tended to overlook or to deny situations that involve uncertainty while making unscientific arguments and disparaging comments in order to undermine opposing positions.<ref name=ISRAEL2016>{{cite journal |last1= Gesser-Edelsburg |first1=Anat |last2=Shir-Raz |first2=Yaffa |title= Communicating risk for issues that involve 'uncertainty bias':what can the Israeli case of water fluoridation teach us?|journal= Journal of Risk Research |date=August 2016 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=395–416 |doi=10.1080/13669877.2016.1215343|doi-access=free }}</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' reported in late October 2018 that [[Saudi Arabia]] used an online army of [[Twitter]] trolls to harass the late Saudi dissident journalist [[Jamal Khashoggi]] and other critics of the Saudi government.<ref>{{cite news |title=Saudis' Image Makers: A Troll Army and a Twitter Insider|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=20 October 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In October 2018, ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported that [[Facebook]] "banned hundreds of pages and accounts which it says were fraudulently flooding its site with partisan political content – although they came from the US instead of being associated with Russia."<ref>{{cite news |title=Facebook: Most political trolls are American, not Russian |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/11/facebook-political-trolls-american-not-russian/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/11/facebook-political-trolls-american-not-russian/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=12 October 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

While corporate networking site LinkedIn is considered a platform of good taste and professionalism, companies searching for personal information by promoting jobs that were not real and fake accounts posting political messages has caught the company off guard.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 7, 2018|title=Political trolls are invading LinkedIn|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/trolls-invade-linkedin-2018-11|website=Business Insider}}</ref>