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posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 07 2015, @09:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the new-platform-trolling dept.

Ethanol-fueled and darkfeline wrote in with an Ars Technica article on a demonstration of how promoted tweets can be easily abused:

Promoted tweets have been part of the Twitter service since 2010, and they've allowed advertisers to pick and choose who sees specific ads based on "what a user chooses to follow, how they interact with a Tweet, what they retweet, and more." But users have found how loosely those ads are monitored or filtered before they reach users' eyeballs—and how cheap, fast, and easy the system can be exploited to annoy users as opposed to "engaging" them.

"I decided to spend a few pennies on Twitter ads today," [Weev's] post started, and he asserted that the platform's pricing structures "don't seem to take into account that one might want only to generate negative reactions to ad campaigns." Though Auernheimer didn't say exactly which users/groups he chose to target in his trolling campaign, he listed examples that appeared to jive with the sample of angry responses that followed: people who are active in Democratic political campaigns or animal rights groups; women who shop for fine jewelry; followers of known feminist sites like Jezebel and Feministing.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:07PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:07PM (#179915) Journal

    Who is weev? Obviously I did a search and found out he is basically an asshole. But why would everyone be immediatly familiar with him enough to warrant not slipping a quick explanation as to who he is? The ARS article didn't really explain who he is either.

    And secondly, why is the obvious being demonstrated here?

    Trolling is pretty damn easy:
    1) Post flamebait.
    2) Sit back enjoy the show.

    I don't see an article here unless he is demonstrating how easy it is to post mass infuriating nonsense on twitter. Put that is pretty much a given.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:51PM (#179932)

    > But why would everyone be immediatly familiar with him enough to warrant not slipping a quick explanation as to who he is?

    Mainly for this incident [wired.com] which has been widely reported on in these circles. He's like the opposite of the geek rosa parks - instead of being a model example of someone above reproach being unfairly persecuted, he's scum of the earth who was unfairly persecuted (and ultimately prevailed).

    > I don't see an article here unless he is demonstrating how easy it is to post mass infuriating nonsense on twitter. Put that is pretty much a given.

    The nominal point is that it is really cheap to purchase harassing tweets that bypass twitter's normal filtering mechanisms.

    However, that's just cover for him to indulge in picking on the disempowered. If he weren't a shitstain he would have demonstrated the problem by picking on the empowered - instead of sending white-power advertisements to non-whites, he would have sent black-power advertisements to rich white racists.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by jmorris on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:14PM

      by jmorris (4844) on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:14PM (#179942)

      Um, you don't get out much. If he did as you recommend it wouldn't be trolling; it would be MSNBC's prime time programming. If you want to troll, be really transgressive, stir the poop, etc. you pretty much can't top the professional racists like Sharpton, Nation of Islam, etc. They are professsionals with decades of experience and the public has grown jaded to their increasingly frenzied antics. What, pray tell, could a mere mortal do to out troll them or the other professionals in the *studies departments at every university? No, these days if you are a troll wanting attention you have to flip the script and attack the new powerful... the victim class. Truly we live in Bizarro World.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:20PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:20PM (#179948)

        > Um, you don't get out much.

        I think the problem here is that you don't get out much.

        > Truly I live in Bizarro World.

        FTFY

      • (Score: 3, TouchĂ©) by LoRdTAW on Thursday May 07 2015, @05:58PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday May 07 2015, @05:58PM (#180001) Journal

        Um, you don't get out much. If he did as you recommend it wouldn't be trolling; it would be MSNBC's prime time programming.
        If he got out more, then how could he watch more MSNBC?

        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday May 08 2015, @03:05PM

          by urza9814 (3954) on Friday May 08 2015, @03:05PM (#180322) Journal

          If he got out more, then how could he watch more MSNBC?

          Presumably because he's not stupid enough to allow that crap into his home? ;)

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:50PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:50PM (#179960)

      However, that's just cover for him to indulge in picking on the disempowered. If he weren't a shitstain he would have demonstrated the problem by picking on the empowered - instead of sending white-power advertisements to non-whites, he would have sent black-power advertisements to rich white racists.

      Or, he could have done both so that no one could accuse him of being personally in favor of either viewpoint, and only being an equal-opportunity troll looking to get a rise out of people.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @04:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @04:09PM (#179968)

        > Or, he could have done both so that no one could accuse him of being personally in favor of either viewpoint, and only being an equal-opportunity troll

        The whole "I hate all people equally" thing is bogus misdirection. It's like saying - I don't discriminate by age, I punch babies but I also punch adults so its all good! No matter what else you do, it is cowardly to attack people who can't hurt you back.

    • (Score: 2) by Open4D on Friday May 08 2015, @08:38AM

      by Open4D (371) on Friday May 08 2015, @08:38AM (#180242) Journal

      However, that's just cover for him to indulge in picking on the disempowered.

      Well, the Guardian agrees with you [theguardian.com].

       
      It does seem that there are 2 main possibilities:
      * He uses racism and sexism merely as a vehicle for his trolling
      * He uses trolling as an excuse, to make his heartfelt racism and sexism somewhat more socially acceptable

      One thing's for sure, he'll be delighted to see all this coverage!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @11:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @11:44AM (#180279)

        Dude has got a 4 inch swastika tattoo.
        You don't make that kind of commitment for the lulz.