Putin's Troll Factory

Western claims

 * Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house - Shaun Walker, The Guardian, 2 April 2015

Search Engine Optimization
Sputnik exposes Putin's Troll Army
 * It's Worse Than You Thought: The 'Kremlin Troll Army' Exposed - Sputnik, 28.03.2015
 * ''Radio Liberty did discover something, but it's quite the opposite from an ominous troll army which works around the clock to convert the entire world to a Putin-based religion. They found a search engine optimization (SEO) company, likely subcontracting for a political consultancy firm.
 * ''Considering the extremely low impact of such posting, the goal appears to be not to convert public opinion, but rather search engine optimization (SEO): search engines such as Google crawl the web for keywords and links, which are then used to give weight to certain web pages when search terms are entered.

Fake news sites
Russian opposition blogger Ruslan Leviev explains how fake internet sites created by Russian Troll factories work: Summary here:
 * Debunking the fake article on 2000 Russian soldiers killed in Donbas everyone fell for
 * Russian Blogger Critical of War in Ukraine Says Article on "2,000 Soldiers Killed" is Fake - Interpreter Mag, 28 August 2015
 * ''He points out that this site is a typical "web site in a box" made from a template using the Russian equivalent of Squarespace. We could note that its name is similar to many such instant sites mean to drive traffic to click ads and make revenue for their owners -- a bright green dollar bill sign shows up on its URL in the browser. This particular site was described as making $6 a day from Google AdSense even before their sensational publication about the death benefits.

Analysis

 * Manufacturing Consensus: Why the Western Media Fears 'Russian Trolls' - Sputnik, 04.04.2015
 * The Kremlin’s comment trolls are real — as is the media’s amnesia about them - Mark Ames, Pando, April 2, 2015
 * Western Hypocrisy, Social Media Manipulation - Jennifer Cohagen, Thick Toast, 2 April 2015 (Russia Insider)
 * Kremlin Troll Army Myth Deconstructed - Mark Chapman, Russia Insider, 13 April 2015

NATO's war on social media

 * New British Army unit 'Brigade 77' to use Facebook and Twitter in psychological warfare - INDEPENDENT.CO.UK
 * ''The British military is setting up a specialist force modelled on the Chindits, the commandos who gained renown through their daring missions behind enemy...


 * America Goes Large: Obama Wants Huge Budget for His Anti-Russian Troll Army - Sputnik, 14.04.2015
 * EU declares information war on Russia Task force will start trying to win hearts and minds in eastern partnership countries next month, James Panichi, Politico.eu, August 27, 2015
 * BBC to face down Vladimir Putin with plan for new World Service Russian TV channel, The Independent, September 5, 2015