skews13
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- Mar 18, 2017
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Soon after Vitaly Bespalov began working at Russia's Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg in 2014, he realized what he'd really signed up for was a job as a paid internet troll. (Pascal Dumont/CBC)
When St. Petersburg journalism grad Vitaly Bespalov answered an online ad for a writer in 2014, he thought the gig at Russia's Internet Research Agency might help his fledgling career.
As he quickly learned, what he really signed up for was a job as a paid internet troll.
"They pose as people who are not really them," he told CBC News at his apartment in St. Petersburg. "By the second or third day, it was clear where I had landed and what this was actually."
Last month, U.S. special prosecutor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals who worked at the so-called "troll factory" in St. Petersburg, accusing them of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election. The allegations include fabricating news and using false identities to sow discord in the United States ahead of the vote.
Putin was 'good' and Obama was 'bad': Former Russian trolls reveal online work to create 'fake news'
