EXCLUSIVE. Russian Troll Factory Alum Selling Social Media Mobs for $299 a Month
Source: The Daily Beast
An email address buried in the latest indictment from Robert Mueller reveals a new service for gaming social networks. A Daily Beast exclusive.
BRANDY ZADROZNY
KEVIN POULSEN
02.17.18 10:04 AM ET
Ever wished your personal or corporate Facebook account had the same polish and verve as the legion of fake accounts created by Russia’s election trolls? Then here’s good news. The newly indicted Internet Research Agency, or a former worker at the St. Petersburg troll factory, may be getting into the social media management business.
Working backwards from information in Robert Mueller’s new indictment, The Daily Beast discovered a website called YourDigitalFace.com which offers a service eerily similar to the IRA’s specialty: creating and voicing social media accounts under any persona needed.
For as little as $299 a month, YourDigitalFace will “create your new digital face which sells,” reads the pitch on the site. They’ll set you up on Instagram and write at least two custom posts a day, as well as handle all the little finesses that lead to a big social media following, like deploying hashtags and liking your followers. You’re guaranteed a minimum of 1,000 new followers a month.
The website includes a “portfolio” of satisfied customers, comprised of screenshots from three Instagram accounts that each boast between 50 thousand and 180 thousand followers. Those accounts—“afrokingdom_,” “_black_business,” and “american.veterans”—were all identified in October as false front accounts created by the Internet Research Agency.
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-troll-factory-alum-selling-social-media-mobs-for-dollar299-a-month?ref=home
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