CONFESSION OF A TROLL

Confession Of A Troll

William (not his real name) belongs to a relatively new species of media practitioner—the professional troll. That is to say, he is a salaried employee of a legitimate public relations outfit whose job is to run social media campaigns for various clients.

Of course, his job designation doesn’t say “troll”: he could call himself a “social media marketing consultant,” among other things. But a large part of his job involves engaging in internet trolling. And while trolling isn’t the only weapon in his arsenal, it’s proven a very useful one.

Critical factor
A troll is, of course, someone who goes online to pick a fight, for whatever reason: to push a political agenda, to dump on someone he or she dislikes, to vent on a topic he or she feels strongly about, or very often just for the “lulz” (laughs).
In recent years, however, trolling has come to dominate public discourse on social media.

Go online and there’s no avoiding the spectacle of “Dutertards” spitting venom at their real or imagined mortal enemies, the “yellowturds” and vice versa, each drowning out any kind of rational discussion of the issues with the sheer volume (in both quantity and noise level) of their spew.

It’s now generally accepted that social media was a critical factor in deciding the outcome of the last election. What is less clear is why, even after Rodrigo Duterte’s decisive victory at the polls, the online war between his die-hard supporters and more vocal critics hasn’t abated.

If fact, it seems to have heated up even more as pro-Duterte keyboard warriors transition seamlessly from campaigning for him to attacking any and all who dare criticize the newly-elected president or his policies. In particular, Sen. Leila de Lima, the Liberal Party and “traditional media” have been singled out as favorite targets of this troll army.

t’s not only in the Philippines where social media has turned increasingly toxic.
A recent Time magazine cover story titled “How trolls are ruining the Internet” paints a depressing picture of how social media has been overrun by hatemongers of all stripes, from cyberbullies to misogynists, body-shamers targeting fat or unattractive people to racist neo-Nazis and anarchists who are just doing it “for the lulz.”
Could trolling be the new modality for social control?

As analysts have been telling us for years, social media is the new battleground for the hearts and minds of the people, and as in any war, the first casualty is the truth.

In the Babel that is the internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sift fact from fabrication in most online exchanges. In the wild and woolly world of social media, any assertion, no matter how far-fetched or outlandish, seems to gain traction as soon as enough people “like” or “share” it: This is what is known as “feeding the troll.”

Someone even came up with an acronym for the content that is increasingly finding its way into social media: DRUMS—

disinformation, rumors, untruths, myths, and smears. Repeated and retweeted often enough, DRUMS can pass for the truth to all but the most critical and analytical minds.

Blissfully unaware
As a functional illiterate when it comes to social media, I was blissfully unaware of most of this.

But as the boundaries between the digital world and “real life” become fuzzier, I feel a nagging sense of dread that, sooner or later, this online negativity would begin to impinge on my world, whether I’m logged in or not.

In order to catch me up on what’s what in this new frontier, I decided to go straight to the source: William the professional troll.
William’s career started quite innocuously a few years ago when he first went on Twitter.

“I became famous on Twitter,” he says, so famous that his feed soon had enough followers for him to be considered an “influencer.”

“You need to have a lot of followers before you can become an ‘influencer,’ like at least 50,000,” he explains. “Influencers are people who set trends on social media. Normally, it’s about artists, celebrities and their fans. But you can make anything trend as long as you control the influencers.”

Because of his online credentials, William was hired by a well-known public relations agency for its social media marketing operations.

Eventually, he says, he became the team leader of a network of influencers.
“We collected as many famous people on Twitter as we could, and we started trending.”

Online buzz

Basically, William was doing social media marketing, developing an online “buzz” around certain brands for local and international clients.
“It’s just like advertising,” he says. “We’re pushing certain brands, and not in a subtle way, through our Twitter posts. And if you have enough posts on Twitter with the same hashtag, it will trend.”

There is a dark side to all this online manipulation, however, and that is trolling.

“In the American context, trolling is getting people riled up and pursuing an argument by posting comments,” he says. “But in the Philippine context, trolling only happens when there’s something like a presidential campaign. That’s the only time trolls become visible as an organized group.

Philippine trolls are like the Dutertards—aggressive, angry, looking for an argument. And that’s the very nature of a troll—
you want to argue, you want to convince people even if you have to lie and fabricate things.”

In short, trolls are there to push an agenda, to propagandize.

Organized effort

William got into trolling in earnest when his firm was enlisted by the camp of one of the candidates in the last presidential campaign. At first it was just like brand marketing, creating a buzz around the candidate, building up his “brand” and his image.

“It’s an organized effort,” he says. “The publicist makes a communication campaign plan. The plan sets the agenda, the objectives, the messaging—
what do we want to say? How do we convince others to agree with us?”

As the campaign heated up and the candidates started duking it out in earnest, troll tactics became increasingly important.
William worked in one of several clusters scattered throughout the country, headquartered in a suite of rented rooms.

It was set up like a call center operation, he says. Each day, the team leader would put up a board on which was listed the most recent posts with the most “likes” and “shares” which had to be responded to. The appropriate response—carefully worded by the team’s designated writer

—would likewise be put up on the board. And the “keyboard warriors” would start posting responses to the targeted posts, usually by merely copying and pasting the prepared response.

We really worked at it, 24/7,” recalls William. “But the pay was very good. You could earn P2,000 to P3,000 a day just doing copy-paste.”

Dummy accounts

Social media is a numbers game, and each keyboard warrior used several dummy accounts to make their posts. Some attention is paid to creating believable online personas and backstories for these accounts, says William, from the generic “concerned netizen” to “struggling OFW,” for instance.

“The real accounts are submerged by the trolls,” he says. “If I’m a troll and you are a legitimate commenter, and I convince you to fight for my cause, you become one of my keyboard warriors, as well. Even if you are a real person with a real account, if we convince you, you become part of the organism. You become a servant of the ideology that these fake trolls have injected you with.”

William’s experience does nothing to allay any fears the more conspiracy-minded among us might have.

“It’s social media mind conditioning,” he says. “Our public relations firm was working with a psychologist—a famous psychologist from UP. He really knows how to mind-condition the people, how to make lies seem like the truth, fabricated stories into fact. And the trolls spread it like rumor or gossip. You inject it into the real accounts, the real accounts will believe you and spread it to other people, and so on.”

“It’s like ‘The Matrix’—you don’t know who’s real and who’s not,” he adds. “Unless you’re a very good identifier.”

Booming business

One way, he says, is by engaging the suspected troll.

“Most trolls can’t argue—that’s one of their weaknesses,” he says. “Most of the time they can only copy-paste ready-made statements to synchronized topics; they don’t really have the minds to argue with you.”

Trolls also tend to follow influencers like drones follow the queen bee, he adds. Kill the queen bee and the drones die off, too.

You can also configure your Facebook or other social media account to filter out or block obvious trolls.

If that sounds like a lot of work, you can simply unplug, but that won’t really change anything. In fact, says William, business for professional trolls is likely to boom.

“Whoever is planning to run in 2022 should invest now,” he says.
By: Eric S. Caruncho

How Troll Can Make Duterte look like Superman

Troll farms are being funded through Malacañang’s P4.5 billion intelligence funds in the 2020 national budget. Intelligence funds are opaque in nature and are not covered by audits.
Office of the President putting the P2.5 billion ‘intelligence funds’ to work,” one Facebook user claimed.

In a white-walled room, a small cyber-army of four is furiously typing. And posting. And clicking. And scrolling. And trolling.

For the next eight hours, they will be glued to their screens. They have hired guns in one of Manila’s hundreds of troll farms churning out fake content, false narratives and anything else the client wants.

This trolling mission was for a politician or politician wannabes
One aim was to cook up fake social media accounts to make it appear as if the candidate had a vast and fervent base of supporters. Another goal was to smear any critics, especially those who call them out for precisely the jobs they do.

Across the Philippines, it’s a virtual free-for-all. Trolls for companies. Trolls for celebrities. Trolls for liberal opposition politicians and the government. Trolls trolling trolls.

The world of Internet trolls — the gaslighting, the fabrications, the nastiness — is now a fact of life in the Web ecosystem nearly everywhere.

But something new is happening here: Experienced public relations experts in the Philippines are harnessing the raw energy of young and aggressive social media shape-shifters.

How social media companies outsource their dirty work to the Philippines

They are dramatically altering the political landscape in the Philippines with almost complete impunity — shielded by politicians who are so deep into this practice that they will not legislate against it, and using the cover of established PR firms that quietly offer these services.

It is also showing signs of going global — with the Philippines as a hub — as the United States and countries across the world move into another election cycle in the troll age.

“This is what disinformation will look like in the U.S. in 2020,” said Camille François, chief innovation officer at the New York-based social network analysis company Graphika.

AD

Political manipulation, she said, does not need to come from an ill-intentioned enemy state. It can originate with those who have cut their teeth in the competitive worlds of advertising, media, and marketing. Social media companies, she added, were caught off guard before — notably in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 — and could be yet again with this new iteration.

“The Philippines shows us trends that are headed this way,” said François, who led a report commissioned by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigating Russian trolls in the United States. “And, it is 2019, the market is global — so they will find jobs outside of their own nation.”

Facebook’s second-class workers are waging a quiet battle

These ambitious operators now want to turn their country into the go-to place to influence corporate and political campaigns worldwide — using the same young, educated, English-speaking workforce that made the Philippines a global call center and content moderation hub.

What is clear is that the Duterte government has appointed several bloggers and social media personalities in the government’s communications department. It even gave media accreditation to some pro-Duterte bloggers. Unfortunately, some of these bloggers have been accused of peddling fake news and spreading hateful comments against critics of the Duterte government. Some are criticized for behaving like trolls especially those who think that members of the media are too biased against Duterte.

Responding to the Freedom House report, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said it does not employ a “keyboard army.”

Indeed, many of these supporters are also using the Internet to defend Duterte. Their blind loyalty to Duterte and their aggressive online behavior against government critics are derided as symptoms of being a “Dutertard” (not to be confused with Dotard).

Is there a state-backed “keyboard army” in the Philippines? If anything, the Freedom House report and the earlier study of Oxford should compel Congress to probe if government funds are being used to manipulate information.

Though not all “Dutertards” may be trolls, the public has the right to know if the state is funding the activities of a “keyboard army” which is trolling citizens opposed to Duterte’s war on drugs. Some of these pro-Duterte trolls have become notorious for using fake accounts to harass and attack netizens, journalists, and opposition politicians.

Duterte proved that he understood the changing media landscape when he hired an online team to enhance his winning chances in the 2016 election. As a veteran politician, he is also aware of the importance of delivering his message effectively to strengthen popular support for his government.

Recently, he named a new spokesperson, which indicated that he felt dissatisfied about how his policies are being explained to the public. Though no messenger will be able to convince the public that the war on drugs is succeeding or that it is upholding life and human rights, the naming of a new spokesperson could also mean that the government is open to rethinking its propaganda strategy.

Perhaps Duterte can be persuaded too that the alleged continuing existence of a “keyboard army” is not helping him earn credibility among Internet users. Or that an army dedicated to the spread of fake news, hate speech, and online violence can only lead to greater disunity, cynicism, and low public confidence. Unless of course, he relishes the idea of being called the Philippines’ “troll-in-chief.”

from the article of:

Catalina Ricci S. Madarang at Regine C

Traffic Solution Without Emergency Powers

It is supply and demand. Supply is basically the road capacity how much car
carrying ability or capability we have on our road system, the demand is
basically, all of us want to use that capacity so when all of us overwhelm the capacity we get congestion.

Traffic engineers don't solve problems they just move them to another place.
Traffic engineering is chasing its own tail because when we make an improvement what happens more people want to come and use that
because we've increased speeds we've cut down travel time so more people want to come and we end up in the same situation that we were, to begin with
The real culprit? Cars
Private cars are filling our city and they're taking up more and more parking spaces. It doesn't make a ton of sense so we have to build more parking spaces and that precious space we have goes to the
cars instead of to other things people spend millions of hours every year stuck in traffic.
Over the past ten years, private car growth has grown by
50% during that same time population has grown by just 7%
So the problem is getting worse every month every year.

Solution? Ride-sharing to help solve some of the problems we are facing
No private cars can use EDSA if it carries only the driver.
Strict implementation must be enforced even after the car leaves the parking lot. No car can leave the parking lot if the car carries only the driver. It can be monitored via CCTV cameras of all parking areas in Metro Manila.
The car can only exit the parking area if the car has at least 1 passenger aside from the driver on board. That's how you sacrifice a little for the comfort of having your own car. At least the payback is, you get to drive a less congested road because everybody else is doing what you are doing.

Carpooling service must be strictly imposed.
Cars should be full and most importantly it is great for the city
because the city now had fewer cars on the road and there is less congestion not to mention fewer pollutions too.

Solution2. Prioritize Public Transport. Because public transport carries more people at a given time. Added lane should be attributed to the masses.
After all the private vehicles experience less stress inside their airconditioned cars than the sweaty riding commuters. Commuters help build the country's economy.

Solution 3- Reduce car ownership. There should be a limit to total cars to be sold in a month. It can be monitored by car dealership. Car dealers earn millions and millions every year. Limitations would probably not make any dent from their earnings.

Solution 4. Companies must provide " Work buses" for their employees.
Works buses
Where a company puts on a works bus service, this will often compete with and undermine the viability of public services. Therefore it is far preferable (and probably cheaper) for the company instead to subsidize public services for the hours or frequency needed to make it serviceable for their workers. Hopefully, the Bus Services Bill will make this kind of arrangement easier to organize.

Solution 5.
Charge for workplace parking
Free parking at employment sites attracts traffic and therefore contributes indirectly to congestion. In other Countries, they led the way in introducing a workplace parking levy (WPL). The effect on congestion is relatively small but significant. More importantly, it incentivizes employers to help their employees find alternative ways to get to work. Measures may include:

Re-allocate car parking for cycle parking
Set up or join a car-share scheme
Pay for taxis as a back-up when car-sharing does not work out
Provide financial assistance (e.g. loans) to buy train or bus season tickets
Build a changing room and showers.
Assist with subsidizing public bus services to extend the hours of operation
Where there is no (nearly) suitable public bus service, run a works bus.

Solution 6 Optimise traffic-light management

Urban Traffic Management Control (UTMC) systems such as SCOOT can be very effective in maximizing road capacity by varying the timing of traffic lights to match demand in real-time. When lights are all co-ordinated responsively to demand, incidences of ‘blocking back’ (vehicles stuck in junctions) leading to gridlock can be minimized. Traffic planners can also prepare and model programs to cope with specific scenarios (such as an incident on an arterial road), which can then be loaded into the UTMC immediately they’re needed.

UTMC can help prioritize buses by synchronizing light phases to the movements of buses. Modern systems can even see whether a bus is running on or behind schedule, and vary the amount of priority it gives accordingly (e.g. by limiting green time from crossroads).

The non-linearity of the relationship between traffic ‘flow’ and ‘delay’ means that relatively small reductions inflow (say 10-15%) can result in very large reductions in congestion. In Cambridge London this is experienced as a ’half-term effect’: flow reductions of under 15% during school holidays lead to an almost congestion-free peak hour.

For this not to be portrayed as a “war on motorists”, we must find ways to filter motor vehicles so as to deter people from driving who have alternatives, but without severely inconveniencing those who, for personal or business reasons, have no alternative. Transport professionals must adjust the way they refer to people, not as ‘motorists’ or ‘cyclists’, but as people who drive, cycle, walk, take a bus, etc. Change is not a zero-sum game: someone’s gain is not necessarily someone else’s loss: we all stand to gain from having more travel options.

How To Get More Regular Online Students.

How I Learned I Can Be A Good Online Teacher.

A point in my life when I realized  

I hated the formal clothes I  had to wear every day. 
Heavy traffic, the long queues, and the crowded elevators, not to mention annoying intimidating boss.
Or it could have been that moment when I had a disagreement with some colleagues and thought, That's it. “I just can’t anymore.” I'm out of this corporate bull.....(opps)

That is how I learned about 51 Talk.

China makes up 18.7% of the world’s population with 1.37 billion people. Almost everyone wants to speak English there. 
How do I get a hold of that kind of market?  
Well,  51 Talk caters to Chinese who want to learn English. 
Aha...This is the Company I am looking for.

But I’m not an English Teacher.

I heard this very often and most people thought that you can only teach English when you have the degree in Education. Not anymore.

And did you know? That 51 Talk accepts college students?.  This company doesn’t necessarily look for licensed teachers. Although it won’t hurt if you do.

So I submitted my resume. Sure enough, I don't have a background in teaching but I worked before as an Agency Manager for a multi-national bank. I trained agents how to communicate with clients,
Maybe that counts?  So I had an Interview and I passed.

Technical Check

The next part is the Technical Check which would usually last for less than an hour 
This will determine whether your technical requirements are good to conduct classes online. 

What to anticipate?

First, you are required to connect the LAN cable from the router to your computer, since Wifi is not allowed.
You will then be asked to check your internet speed using speedtest.net and testmy.net. When checking via speedtest.net, it must be in Hongkong server.

If your internet speed passes the minimum requirement, (which is at least 3mbps) you will then send the results to the HBT Care
You will be scheduled automatically on to the next part.

How To Stop Fear Before An Interview

How To Stop Fear Before An Interview

Never feel nervous in front of other people, Stop feeling worried before an interview or don’t ever feel sick to the stomach before a performance.

Have you ever experienced that nerve-wracking feeling?

Well, let me share “How I overcome my nervousness.”

According to Mind Publication; 90% of people feel stage fright when they face the prospects of public performance, such as public speech, interviews, presentation, recital or stage performances. Almost everyone experience nervousness.

Meeting and interacting with people in a social situation such as office settings, social club, stage, presentation or job interviews.

Performing under the scrutiny of an audience or interviewer.

For an anxious person; It is not a gathering of friends or fans, but of unforgiving critics.

Why do we feel nervous before an interview, a presentation or a performance?

We feel nervous because of apprehension. We're afraid of what could be the result. How things are going to work out. Most often it is the fear of committing a mistake under the scrutiny of a person who could either approve or reject you. If we do not measure up, confidence goes down.

The National Institute of Mental Health explains:

"Several parts of the brain are key factors in the production of fear and anxiety… scientists have discovered that the amygdala and the hippocampus play significant roles in most anxiety disorders.

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that is believed to be a communications hub between the parts of the brain that process incoming sensory signals and the parts that interpret these signals. It can alert the rest of the brain that a threat is present and trigger a fear or anxiety response.

The emotional memories stored in the central part of the amygdala may play a role in anxiety disorders involving very distinct fears, such as fears of dogs, spiders, public speaking or flying. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that encodes threatening events into memories."

So, how can we tame our amygdala so we wont be as fearful?

1) Say to your mind that you are nervous.

Defining what you feel is important in managing your emotion. When you don’t know what you are feeling it is hard to overcome your mental state. When you label the feeling, the pre-frontal cortex is stimulated which send the signal to the amygdala to calm down. Defining your emotion is like stepping the brake pedal to stop your brain from over-reacting.

2) Re-frame your mind from being fearful to excited.

Say to your brain that you are excited more than afraid. The brain won't know the difference.

Say: Ok. I am nervous. So what? I am excited to do this.

3) Think of a “Comfort Thought.”

Pick a thought that will be the positive outcome of what you are about to do.

For example; Having a conversation with your interviewer for your job application.

Think about how it feels after that interview and imagine that you survived and actually got the job.

Imagine the scenario and the words “Congratulations, you are hired.”

4) Count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 then say...It's “Showtime!”

Then Insert your “Comfort Thought” or the imagination of the positive outcome that you wish.

That is how you switch the gear from your brain. 

You have interrupted your fear and you are now in control of your thoughts.

Your brain will become more excited than fearful.

Fear is real and you cannot control it, but you can always control what you think and the action that you will take.

That is how you fool your brain.

( I do not own the copyright to the pictures used in this blog. No copyright Infringement intended)

( Credit to the owner of the picture)

Source;

Science ABC.

Mind Publication.

Mercola by Dr Mercola

The National Institute Of Mental Health.

The Mind.

The 5 Seconds Rule by Mel Robbins