Before the film and television works were launched, the "network water army" had already brushed points on the review website; I wanted to find user product sharing through social platforms, but encountered real and false water army advertisements. The "network water army" is active in online platforms such as e-commerce platforms, social software, and forums, constantly competing for the right to speak in the field of online public opinion and disrupting the normal network order.
How exactly does the "cyber trolls" hidden in the Internet world work? What groups are behind it? Upstream News (e-mail: [email protected]) reporters entered several "network trolls" groups to investigate.
▲The brushing task released in a QQ group. Image credits/screenshots of chat history
A liking commission is 3 cents
"Internet Water Army" appeared in 2010, due to the fast and popular information dissemination of online social networks, a large number of commercially purposed topic promotion activities were launched in social networks. In these topic promotion activities, a large number of water army users are organized to publish and disseminate specific messages.
Upstream journalists apply for jobs through multiple social platforms and enter several "network water army" QQ groups to investigate.
In a QQ group, both group owners and group members can publish tasks. At the same time, the business scope is wide, including a certain petal, a small book, a certain sound, a certain station and other social platforms, tasks include posting, sending videos, comments, likes, etc. Depending on the platform and the task, the commission ranges from 0.3 yuan to 15 yuan, such as likes under the user posts of the designated website, the price is the cheapest, only 3 cents.
Different platform tasks have different requirements for accounts. For example, a station likes and comments for one yuan, requiring an account of more than 2 levels; a valve account must have been registered for more than 12 days of personal account, and those who meet the above conditions can post.
The group owner posts a task in the group: "A certain petal post, 7r one, do DD." "The meaning of 7r is that 7 yuan a piece can do the task of private messages. Within minutes of the task being released, more than a dozen people took orders. This is also why users will attract spam ads in a short period of time after publishing dynamics on social platforms.
After the reporter said that he could take the order, the group owner provided the picture, title and copy, and asked the reporter to publish the content he provided in a group designated by a valve, and then save the screenshot of the post and send it to the group owner.
▲The group owner provides the posting link and copywriting, and sends the screenshot to the group owner after completion. Image credits/screenshots of chat history
After completing a single order, the group owner quickly settled the 7 yuan commission and told reporters that each account can only publish one post per day, and can raise several more accounts. In addition to posting, you can use other accounts to comment on the collection of likes and forwards, a piece of 1 yuan. As for the source of the account, you can borrow or buy.
The reporter noted that several "network trolls" groups are relatively hidden, and the group names have nothing to do with posting, such as friendship consultation groups, film and television meal tickets, alumni reunions, etc. Posting tasks in groups are almost continuous, and some people say that they can cooperate for a long time. According to the reporter's statistics, in a group of 200 people, the number of tasks released in one day can reach 100. Depending on the group settings, group members are also not allowed to initiate temporary conversations, and some groups are also set to be all banned.
For several days, reporters were active in various groups of water troops. After receiving multiple tasks, some group owners told reporters that the simple commission of such posting content is very small, and the single commission of the e-commerce platform is higher. Under the "guidance" of this group owner, the reporter used his personal account to take pictures of the product, upload the pictures and copy provided by the group owner, and the copy content was richer than before, and the word count was more and more real. After that, the principal of the commodity and the commission are returned to the reporter together, so that the commission for such a single order is 12 yuan.
The reporter also noted that the illegal cost of "irrigation" operations on social platforms is lower. In the task of publishing advertising comments in a small book, the reporter has repeatedly asked the group owner whether such operations are illegal and whether personal accounts will be affected, and the other party has said that "there is no risk and will not be suspended". After the reporter posted a number of comments, the account could no longer comment, and the system showed that "he was banned for violating community norms." The group owner said that it does not matter if it is banned, the ban will be lifted after 24 hours in general, and the sensitive vocabulary can be modified when the content is published.
▲ The reporter was banned on the platform for violating the law after posting. Image credits/screenshots of chat history
The "part-time" water army is dominated by students and mothers
Through communication with the group owner and other "part-time" water troops, the reporter learned that the division of labor of the water army is different, such as receiving orders, writers, brushing orders, gathering hands, etc. are different personnel, and receiving orders and writers are core members.
The members of each water army group are actually only downstream members, and the group leader is the group leader, who only needs to recruit people, mechanically copy and paste, and then post or comment. Although the number of individual water army groups is large, the part-time personnel in the group are not fixed, the profit is the smallest in the water army group, and the main members are not accessible.
The reporter found that some members of the water army are not full-time water troops, and there are more students and full-time mothers in these groups.
The reporter took a single comment task in another group. A group leader with the online name "Meow" said that the small book platform commented on the task of 0.5 yuan a single, and the checkout can be checked out after the comment is successful. According to the requirements, the reporter uses his personal account to click on the link provided by "Meowth" (the notes of an ordinary user), copy and paste the content provided by "Meowth" and click to publish. Then, like your own comments, save screenshots of comments and send them to Meow Meow.
In this note, users share their experience of being plagued by pimples, and the content provided by "Meowth" is: "I was like you before, it was really difficult, @so-and-so's experience is quite practical, the acne marks on my face have gone down..." The content of the post seems to be close to the comments of real users.
After making several orders one after another, "Meowth" was very "enthusiastic" to inquire about the journalist's profession and online time. The reporter said that she was a stay-at-home mother and had plenty of time. In the subsequent chat, "Meowth" said that there are many full-time mothers in the group, and there are commissions in the account within a few minutes before and after, which is a good side business. She herself is still in college, and there are classmates around her like her, using her spare time to post and irrigate, as long as she works hard, raise a few more accounts, and earn thousands of dollars every month is not a problem.
Another group friend said in the chat that it is a very normal thing for students to do part-time work, anyway, they usually soak in the Internet, why not make some money while surfing the Internet?
The reporter found in the above-mentioned multiple water army groups that the water army is involved in a wide range, which is not limited to the initial speculation of views, but also penetrates into many fields such as film and television evaluation, smearing competitors, and refreshing heat.
Upstream journalist Zhang Ying