Today Sat Sun
It is forcast to be Chance of a Thunderstorm at 11:00 PM EDT on May 25, 2012
Chance of a Thunderstorm
20°/16°
It is forcast to be Partly Cloudy at 11:00 PM EDT on May 26, 2012
Partly Cloudy
21°/14°
It is forcast to be Chance of a Thunderstorm at 11:00 PM EDT on May 27, 2012
Chance of a Thunderstorm
22°/12°

20 Comments

news

Craigslist Ad Seeks Clear, Concise, Conservative Astroturfers

20110328socialmedia.jpg
We found the above ad on Craigslist earlier today. It has since been flagged by users, and removed. We tried emailing the people behind it, but they pretty understandably haven’t gotten back to us, so we can’t say whether or not the offer is legitimate, much less who’s responsible for it.
If it’s everything it appears to be, it would seem that someone doesn’t understand the first rule of astroturfing, which is, uh… avoid admitting you’re involved in astroturfing.
Maybe conservative political action groups don’t care what Craigslist thinks of them, though. You can keep your filthy secondhand couches and your no-strings casual sex, lefties!
Potential Tory voters, we guess, are mostly sectional-sofa people and monogamous.
In all seriousness, we’re interested in knowing the extent to which other organizations, regardless of political affiliation, put out ads like this over the course of this year’s federal election cycle. If you spot one, email us.

Filed under: , ,

Report error Send a tip

Comments

  • http://twitter.com/jordynmarcellus Jordyn Marcellus

    Rob Silver pointed out that if this isn't affiliated with Harper, then this is in contravention of third-party election spending laws.

    But that doesn't matter. COALITION r bad lol

  • http://twitter.com/ftefno Simon Vehicle!

    “Leetspeak and all-caps a plus!”

  • tyrannosaurus_rek

    Then I guess it's a good thing nobody pays me to say HARPER EATS BABIES AND KITTENS!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/MarkJull Mark Jull

    I've noticed that the comments are the Star are along the lines of what this ad's looking for, whereas the Globe's comments are very much in favour of Iggy and for the most part aren't 'trollish' comments. I wonder, why these papers have such divergent comments? Is it 'Ford Nation'?

  • Toronto_Dave

    The Star's comment boards are definitely more heavily polluted by right-wing trolls. The Globe's comment sections are generally more measured but I've seen significant bursts of Harperspeak. I wouldn't be surprised if “Ford Nation” was doing something like this as they seem to get to every single article written about the guy. All seem to follow the above-mentioned guidelines religiously: strict adherence to talking points, plenty of personal attacks and drenched in right-wing “humour” (really just more personal attacks and name-calling and not particularly funny).

  • pickle_juice_drinker

    No need to worry about who to contact.

    I've dug it up for you on LinkedIn.

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ni…

  • pickle_juice_drinker

    The G&M has a different sort of astroturfer, but they're very active nontheless, particularly on Ford-related articles.

    Watch the agree/disagree counts on some of the comments. A 2 day old comment with 5 agrees and 2 disagrees will all of a sudden get 40 disagrees, and a pro-Ford comment will be at +40 within minutes of being posted. The rate at which it occurs suggests there's only one or two people behind it, but there is definitely astroturfing going on.

  • Toronto_Dave

    The Globe moderates comments too, albeit after the fact and only if readers report on it. But yeah, I've definitely noticed this on some comments I have posted over there. They have some kind of coordinated effort going that periodically “bombs” all left-leaning posters with disagrees and overwhelmingly supports their ideological buddies.

  • linnyqat

    While this would not surprise me in the slightest, critical thinking demands the consideration that this ad was a plant by a left-wing strategist hoping to stir up the base with moral outrage. It does seem quite naive that your Nick Kouvalis types wouldn't know about “the first rule of astroturfing”.

    Well, if it is a lefty scam, I hope it works. Heh.

  • tyrannosaurus_rek

    Moral outrage seems more of a Tea Party thing, doesn't it?

  • linnyqat

    Hi t-rek; not sure what you mean. It kinda sounds like you're suggesting the Tea Party brand of moral outrage isn't at play in Canada, but that doesn't seem right, given we live in the heart of Ford Nation! Can you clarify, please?

  • http://twitter.com/TorontoResident TR

    I guess Nick Kouvalis is hiring

  • tyrannosaurus_rek

    I mean trying to stir up moral outrage over astroturfing doesn't seem like something either the Liberals or NDP would bother doing. Using moral outrage to motivate voters is more of an emotions-over-reasons right-wing tactic.

  • linnyqat

    Ah. Interesting point. Well, impossible to prove either way I suppose. My thoughts were mostly along the lines of, the folks in the war rooms could be working for either side, in terms of opportunistic tactics. But if the audience isn't receptive to that type of tactic, there's not much point…

  • http://twitter.com/hthrwritesstuff Heather Stoutenburg

    There was a “left wing” post — exact same:

    http://calgary.en.craigslist.c…

  • http://piorkowski.ca qviri

    Careful with that. Didn't work out too well for Ernie Eves.

  • http://twitter.com/dishwasherthief Chris Piuma
  • http://twitter.com/tapesonthefloor tapesonthefloor

    Is this astroturfing? Read the comment of a “Mike Johnston” below:

    http://www.torontosun.com/news…

    Note that the FB profile his name links to is completely empty, except for a reference to a “Toronto Taxpayers Coalition”, which looks like it was thrown together during #voteTO to make the right's concerted effort look more “grassroots”. Here's their website:

    http://www.torontotaxpayer.ca

    The website is developed and maintained by local IT professional Matt McGuire. He can be found here:

    http://twitter.com/splatto

    Note that this little spat of “investigation” was simply the result of having to pull my head out of work for a few minutes this morning. This is in no way an attempt to smear anything or anyone. I'm sure everyone involved is a perfectly lovely human being. I *would* love to hear from this Mike Johnston, though.

  • pickle_juice_drinker

    Funny, the extremely Pro-Ford “Missy” that pops up on these blogs from time to time happens to be
    a) also a member of this group
    and
    b) have what almost certainly is a fake facebook account, under the name “Irene Zee” -
    http://www.facebook.com/people…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BC2GPD6I365MODAHOVWXHNQD4E angelw

    Thanks for sharing this with all of us. Every girl has her most beautiful moment in the life just when you wear your own wedding dresses in your wedding. And it will hand down as a witness of this wonderful memory. For the bride, A line wedding dresses is the most important part of the wedding. It is very happy for the girls to treasure the mermaid wedding dressesforever. When you know the culture of the ball gown wedding-dresses, you will attach importance to your family life.You can visit our site wholesale wedding dresses.You can find beach wedding dresses empire wedding dresses column wedding dresses tea length wedding dresses strapless wedding dresses plus size wedding dresses bridesmaid dresses evening dresses prom dresses cocktail dressesyour dream. Finally,I hope you have a happy wedding.