She enlisted as pretty role in one of the Kremlin’s propaganda factories, in order to reveal how the Russian government is trying to control free speech on the Internet.
Now, Lyudmila Savtjuk sued their former employers.
– I was so upset that I almost caught me. But I was 007. I fulfilled my task, says Ljudmila Savtjuk to The Telegraph.
During the two months she worked for the anonymous company Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, in the international media described as a factory internet trolls who on behalf of President Vladimir Putin is working to spread the Kremlin’s view of what is happening in Russia and abroad.
When opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot outside the Kremlin in Moscow in February, she worked twelve hours a day by writing comments that laid the blame for the attack on the opposition.
Leaked documents
In March, she was fired, after having leaked information about the business to a local newspaper. But before she had time to copy and smuggle out hundreds of documents. Now she has sued the employer for violations of labor laws, because she never received any employment contract.
– I want to get that place closed. These people use propaganda to destroy the objectivity and cause people to question the motives of all civil protests. But worst of all is that they do it by pretending to be us, the citizens of Russia, she tells the magazine.
Her condition during a two-day pass was to write five political blogs, ten non-political and 150- 200 comments to her colleagues’ posts. Each employee received at today beginning a list of the substances – and what views – which would spread: the war in Ukraine, US President Barack Obama, the artist collective Pussy Riot, opposition politician Aleksey Navalnyj are some examples.
Does the company
The trial was originally scheduled to start in early June, but was postponed until June 23 because the accused did not show up.
– The This is probably probably the first legal case in the world that is pretty role, at least on this scale, says the prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who represents Ljudmila Savtjuk, said.
He sees the company’s operations as a ” very aggressive abuse of freedom of expression “, but are unsure of what chances they have to succeed in law.
– Our legal system in Russia is not perfect. But we have no other legal systems, so we must make use of what we have, says Pavlov.
After protests
Propaganda activities took off after the big protests against President Putin ahead of elections in 2011. While the conditions for independent media and organizations become increasingly fierce, the scope of internet trolls activity increased exponentially, according to observers.
– It is obvious that this business has increased very much in the shadow of Ukraine conflict, and that there is a growing problem with Russian trolls abroad, even in Sweden, says Joanna Kurosz, program manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders in Stockholm.
Joanna Kurosz do not that one should overestimate the right trolls significance, but sees them as part of the Russian propaganda machine.
– The first Putin when he became president in 2000 was to restrict freedom of expression, and that he has continued ever since. Slowly but surely pushed the last independent media out. While limiting newsfeed attempts to the Internet to create an image where you question everything and try to move the image of the truth, with the help of these trolls.
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has denied all knowledge of the business. But Russian media have pointed out one of Putin’s friends from St. Petersburg, Jevgenyj Prigoszjin – also known as the “Kremlin’s chef” – the company’s funding.
– What is happening in Russia right now is very sad. But we must try to highlight the bad things in the light, to show it to people. I’m pretty sure that such activities are impossible to implement in an open and transparent society, says Ivan Pavlov.
People on the Internet is spreading hateful and offensive opinions or political propaganda, usually called Pretty role.
The term originally comes from the English word “troll”, a kind of fishing where you let the lure or baited hooks dragging behind the boat. This was shortened since the trolls, who names of people who were guilty of destructive “trolling” on the Internet.
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