Allowing readers to post comments, instantly and anonymously, under online articles is one way that news organizations hope to stimulate interactive debate on their websites and increase readership.
In reality, however, the discussions are more canned than lively and spontaneous.
In Ukraine, local politicians and political parties pay people to troll Internet news sites and comment online. The hired hacks make favorable comments in support of their patrons while bombarding opponents with severe criticism.
In the end, reasoned responses get drowned out as the competing “web brigades” clash online.
“There are a lot of people in Ukraine who are willing to get paid for posting whatever online commentaries they are told to post.” And there is good reason for that”.
– Maksym Savanevskiy, an Internet communications consultant.
Regular readers of their favorite online news sources can spot many of these paid-for comments rather easily. For some commentators, their screeds are repetitious and begin sounding like the authors are just, well, putting in another day at the office.
Only fanatics, after all, would monitor sites and comment for free around the clock.
“There are a lot of people in Ukraine who are willing to get paid for posting whatever online commentaries they are told to post,” said Maksym Savanevskiy, an Internet communications consultant. “And there is good reason for that.
During the last presidential elections, an Internet commentator could make about $700-$1,000 a month. In between elections, such people can make about $400 a month.”
Far higher than the average salary in Ukraine, it is easy money – especially for those who like to surf online. When done efficiently, such information campaigns may simplify and clarify messages with their repetition.
Yet, according to Savanevskiy, for the most part money spent on paid “Internet commentators” is wasted.
“Just like paid-for political demonstrations which have gotten so popular over the last several years, politicians view online commentaries as just another tool to form public opinion,” said one insider, afraid to be identified publicly, like most who are engaged in these furtive online exploits. “During the last presidential campaign most professional commentators worked for Yulia Tymoshenko, Viktor Yanukovych, and Arseniy Yatseniuk.”
These people are easy to find. A short online job announcement will get you showered with emails.
Normally, such commentators are given a list of the most popular web resources or lists of articles they are supposed to comment on. Also, from time to time, they get an updated cheat sheet with the messages and arguments they are supposed to advance in online discussions.
“During the presidential elections, BYuT [the Bloc of Yulia Tymosheko] was using web bots [anonymous Internet users who are paid for necessary comments] for commenting on her blog posts. Every post was collecting about 500 comments, which was supposed to show an illusion of nation-wide support,” said Mykola Malukha, a popular Ukrainian blogger known in LiveJournal by the “jesfor” nickname. “Arseniy Yatseniuk used to have around 50 bots that were harassing everyone online who criticized Yatseniuk in his blog.”
At some point, when the discussion in the commentaries is heating up, one can clearly point out several groups of paid commentators working for conflicting parties.
“Shutting down comments is not an option, since I do not think it is a good idea if regular online commentators suffer from other commentators’ behavior.”
-Yulia McGuffie, chief editor of Korrespondent.net.
Despite the fact that politicians deny such allegations, a number of Internet-based media disclosed how most of the comments favorable to the politician came from the IP address registered for that politician’s party office.
Last summer, Olena Prytula, chief editor of web-based Ukrayinska Pravda, published proof that many comments flooding the website in favor of Tymoshenko and against rivals Yanukovych and Yatseniuk, came from the BYuT party office.
Even after BYuT online commentators were busted, they continued to blatantly spam with prepared comments. “They are turning everything into farce,” said Prytula in her blog. She considered closing down the commentaries section all together. However, Ukrayinska Pravda hasn’t done that so far.
Yulia McGuffie, chief editor of Korrespondent.net, which gets around 17,000 comments daily, also suspects that some of them may arrive from political parties.
“During big political events, such as elections, online commentators get more active. We are trying to moderate online comments the best we can, but in order to fully control what people write there we have to either hire a lot of people or close comments as such,” McGuffie said.
“Yet, shutting down comments is not an option, since I do not think it is a good idea if regular online commentators suffer from other commentators’ behavior,” McGuffie added.
The Kyiv Post allows its online readers to post comments instantly and anonymously, but posts the Internet provider address of the commentator and monitors the section. The newspaper has a policy that prohibits profanity and personal attacks and has banned the IP addresses of flagrant violators. The Kyiv Post also gives readers the option of seeing the posted comments or hiding them.
Aside from news value, there is also a business rationale for allowing comments. Every comment means more counted “hits” on a website, increasing traffic flow and possibly advertising revenue as a result.
In the west, however, orchestrated online campaigns such as those in Ukraine generally do not work. Internet usage is almost ubiquitous in Western Europe and the United States, but still not in Ukraine.
According to Internet World Stats, an international website that features up-to-date world Internet usage, population statistics and Internet market research data, 2009 Internet penetration in the European Union countries was 65.3 percent and, in the United States, 76.3 percent, compared to only 22.7 percent in Ukraine.
Some American newspapers, nonetheless, are actively debating the wisdom of allowing people to post comments anonymously. Also, news organizations invest more time in regulating the comments to weed out profanity and potentially libelous attacks.
According to Savanevskiy, Ukraine’s use of such techniques as paid online commentary to influence public opinion will diminish over time as the number of active Internet users in Ukraine grows.
“Given the current number of Internet users who tend to pay attention to or write commentaries, a group of several hundred people is sufficient to influence discussions in forums and news websites,” Savanevskiy said. “With the growth of active Internet users, it will become costlier to do such campaigns as one would have to get a greater number of professional commentators to shift online discussions into the needed direction.”
Kyiv Post staff writers Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected].
