How do the so-called party bots work? A hacker, who claims to have hacked the system of organized writing of comments on Internet portals, says that, according to his data, most of the activists on the Internet are employees of public enterprises.
According to legend, Robin Hood is an English hero who, after being left without his castle, steals from the rich and distributes to the poor. Serbian Robin Hood, on the other hand, is a hacker who hacks into the ruling party’s digital castle, the “Castle” system, in which, according to his claims, party bots share praise and criticism online. In other words, a digital organization that brings together people with the task of distorting public opinion in favor of the Serbian Progressive Party.
“For example, if a news item appears on one of the portals that is important to the ruling party, and we say that it refers to the President of the Republic and some of his activities that should be promoted or praised, at the same time, instructions are written for that news and all the bots are aimed at that portal and that news, and they are obliged to write praiseworthy texts, to celebrate the character and work of the president, but according to strictly defined instructions”, states @robinxud for TV Nova S
The guidelines range from dictated praises for certain party leaders to the denigration of certain opposition leaders. For example, when the president of the Free Citizens’ Movement posted a photo of a monk from the Decani monastery, activists were ordered to discredit both: “Janjic is a shame to the Serbian Orthodox Church, to be seen laughing with such a discuisting junky. We know you’re nothing but a sham, but Janjic is a great shame for the believers. A junky who calls Kosovo an independent state.”
According to his conclusion, the system was established six years ago, and about 3,000 people passed through it. Most of them are employees of public enterprises, and it is suspected that they are being blackmailed into participating in the creation of the public opinion. An extreme example, as he states, is the municipality of Pecinci, where everyone in the system is a worker and a local government official.
“Every name we searched on Google took us to the municipality’s website. When we compared the list of municipal employees and the list of bots in the system, it was clear that they were the same people,” the hacker said.
The Center for Investigative Journalism wrote that since last year the ruling party activists had direct access to the portals Kurir and Espresso. Apart from the fact that they discovered that, the IP address was, without a doubt, registered at the headquarters of the Serbian Progressive Party in Belgrade, they also revealed the information that the owner of the server is the public company Telekom Srbija.
“Telecom has really provided them with a service, but to our knowledge, Telecom could, but did not have to, know what it was all about. It is possible that they participated, there is a solid chance that Telekom participated in this process, but also that they did not participate, so we could not, in any way, blame them for that,” said Milica Saric from CINS
According to the man who joined the party activists’ system, the bots are controlled by Slavisa Micanovic, a member of the Serbian Progressive Party’s main board, Marija Jovicic, an adviser to the parliamentary group and Simo Culic, former right-hand man of President Tomislav Nikolic who today, according to what is written in the media, is employed in the Security Information Agency.
Source: N1info.com
