People's Partnership-affiliated Organization Pays University Students to Spread Government Propaganda Online

BLOGGERS FOR DOLLARS GROUP ALLEGEDLY PAYING STUDENTS TO POST PRO-GOVERNMENT COMMENTS

By Faine Richards
Staff Reporter

An organization purporting to work for the People’s Partnership is allegedly paying university students to inundate newspaper websites and Internet chat forums with pro-government sentiment.

A Campus Chronicle investigation found that the organization – known only as ‘tntgoodblogs’ – hires students to post reader comments below news stories on the Trinidad Express, Trinidad Guardian and Newsday websites in praise of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her government. University students recruited for the covert propaganda campaign who spoke to the Campus Chronicle on the condition of anonymity, said students are also paid to author comment or ‘blogs’ that attack the Opposition and counter anti-government opinions expressed by other bloggers. In addition to receiving monetary payment, student bloggers are also promised a free Blackberry with unlimited internet to allow them to frequently post comments online during classes.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communication, Dr. Suruj Rambachan, told the Campus Chronicle he was unaware that any such operation exists. The “bloggers project” targets students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) through a series of flyers posted on notice boards across the St. Augustine campus. The flyers invite resumes from students who are “intelligent, patriotic and enjoy sharing [their] views” and who seek to “have a sense of power associated with the changing of minds (Paradigm Shift).”“I expected being able to talk about my own opinions on current affairs, that was my first impression of it,” said a female UWI student who applied for the project. “But it was totally different. “Instead of what the flyer said about you giving your opinion, it was pretty much that they would tell you what to say,” she revealed. Neither the name of the employer nor contact information for anyone overseeing the project is disclosed on the flyer. Interested students are simply told to send an email to tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com.

In response, applicants receive a phone call from a woman who only identifies herself as Marsha. A female UWI student said Marsha told her, “we’re going to sway the ideas of the public by speaking positively about what’s going on.” The objective was reiterated in detailed email instructions specifying the frequency and content of the blogs students would be paid to post online. In addition to blogging on all three newspaper websites, the email correspondence obtained by the Campus Chronicle directed students to write in support of the People’s Partnership on certain Yahoo chat groups. Two of the more popular Yahoo groups targeted by the blogging operation are ‘theunitedvoice’ and Caribbean Talk.’ Both forums are devoted to discussions on politics, news and current affairs.

In one of the documents attached to the email, an unnamed author explained, “Organisation contract ‘tntgoodblogs’ to promote their image products. We are compensated when we provide intelligent, positive and persuasive blogs for the contracted organisations.” But three UWI students who applied for the job told the Campus Chronicle that Marsha was more explicit during telephone conversations. “She stated the People’s Partnership had hired them,” one girl recalled. When contacted by the Campus Chronicle about the bloggers project, Minister Rambachan said, “I really don’t know anything about this, you’re the first to bring this to my attention. I have to investigate it and see if I can get to the bottom of it.” Asked whether he was concerned that ‘tntgoodblogs’ claims to be doing work for the People’s Partnership, Minister Rambachan said, “There’s nothing to say until I investigate it.”

Student instructed to take pre-determined stance
In an email dated July 26 and sent to a batch of 10 students who applied to the bloggers project, the anonymous author directed bloggers to flood newspaper websites and chat groups with support for the resignation of then Minister of Works and Transport and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, from the international football body. But the students were also mandated to cast doubt on whether Minister Warner should retain his Cabinet post. “QUERY HIS CURRENT POLITICAL STANDING,” the email urged student recruits. “QUESTION HIS REMAINING IN POLITICS. (GO ANTI PEOPLE’S PARTY FOR HIM. Jack is yet to clarify the issues to the people.) His integrity is questionable, especially as the person who has much access to our resources.“Call me for clarification if needed,” the email’s author added. The students who spoke to the Campus Chronicle said that directive triggered concerns which ultimately led to their decision not to work for the bloggers project. One student recalled, “I sat and thought about it and said, ‘I don’t know if I want to get involved in this.’ So I decided no to, it sounded scary.” “From that point, I was like ‘something in this not right,’” said another student. The email also instructed students to blog in favour of Minister of Health Dr. Fuad Khan deciding to cease his private medical practice. Amid concerns about a conflict of interest after it was discovered that the minister continued to see patients while managing the nation’s health system, the paid bloggers were ordered to focus attention on Minister Khan’s choice to give up his private urology practice instead of his Cabinet post. “He was called to serve in the Cabinet at short notice and accepted the call because of the crisis that exists within the health sector,” the email guided students to write of the health minister. Instruction in a subsequent email said, “So we should applaud him for choosing country over a self/ a couple hundred sick who are in need.” ‘Tntgoodblogs’ recommended that students use facts and quotations to substantiate their arguments. “Doesn’t this sound like the approach for a University assignment?” the email’s author remarked.

Opposition and its online supporters attacked
The Opposition is deliberately targeted by the bloggers project, with students being instructed to dispute statements made by other bloggers who support the People’s National Movement. “I AM GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO BATTLE HEAD ON WITH THE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS!” AN EMAIL FROM ‘TNTGOODBLOGS’ DATED August 2 told student bloggers. “YES, YOU CHOOSE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS AND TARGET THEIR BLOGS AND HIT THEM ONE FOR ONE. NO MERCY. START ARGUMENTS, BE BOLD AND STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!!!”

One of the students who withdrew from the propaganda campaign said she had concerns about trying to obstruct the free expression of opinion. “If you look at some of the counter blogs (that paid student bloggers post), they are really insulting to people,” she told the Campus Chronicle. “For you to dissuade me from giving my opinion because you are supporting it and getting paid for it, it’s not fair. “I just think it’s wrong, immoral. It’s just unethical,” she said.  Students who submitted neutral blogs were chastised by Marsha. “She said if I had an issue before I could have come out and tell her but then in the same breath she contradicted herself” one student recalled. “And said how I am a rookie and I am on (a one-week) trial and I don’t have a say… she gives me something to write, I have to write on it.” The underground blogging operation strictly prohibits its student bloggers from using their real names. Instead, bloggers are required to present the orchestrated comments under the guise of multiple aliases or screen names. To create a significant pro-government presence on newspaper websites and chat forums, every student blogger is required to submit a minimum of five comments daily. Should student bloggers pass a one-week trial period, the anonymous author of the email promised to give them “a free blackberry and free internet access” to help them blog throughout the day from any location. A female UWI student recalled discussing payment with Marsha over the phone. “The first week would be $300, if she kept us on we were getting a Blackberry with unlimited internet and she said she ran the numbers… and I would make $3000 - $4000 a month.”

Tntgoodblogs resonds
To independently verify the information from students interviewed during this investigation, the Campus Chronicle created an email account under a female name and sent an expression of interest to the email address displayed (tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com) on the flyers. The following response was sent from the email account, tntgoodblogs@yahoo.com:

“Based on d (sic) tense environment now, emails like these need to be heavily screened… Note… No resume attached but wants information. Note… ‘paid’ is used in her response but that word was never stated in flyer. Can u or anyone u kno (sic) do student searches to verify if d (sic) student is in fact part of that faculty and if that is her major.”

An hour later, a follow-up email from tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com:

“Please be advised that the previous email was sent to you in error. Can you please send a copy of your resume and one page summary highlighting your social, political and economic affiliations and perspectives. The purpose of your summary will guide me as to where you should be placed if recruited.”

The Campus Chronicle also called the mobile contact number for Marsha. The woman who answered the phone initially hung up when asked if her name was Marsha. Upon calling again, the woman insisted her name was Nicole. Asked if she managed the student bloggers project, she said, “You tell me, I would love to know.” Told that her contact number was given to student bloggers as a liaison for tntgoodblogs she said “Who gave it to you? Maybe you should ask them.” The woman maintained she was a UWI student who simply sent an email to tntgoodblogs inquiring about the bloggers project, and never received a response from the organization.