Video download link | md5sum bec8f63739da90c5eb3b497317ae4c6b Bought and Paid-For Influence Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: AstroTurfers or "shills" on the Web are a mostly unspoken-about pandemic of growing proportions; we use Phoronix as an example of influenced (as in "influencer") coverage

THE last post was mostly a chart, a simple chart showing the effect of corporate money. Gifting, money, whatever...

The post was about AMD and Phoronix even though other companies seem to have similar arrangements with so-called "influencers"; the phenomenon in general is not new, only the label is relatively new (it's a euphemism embraced by the "influencers", who don't fancy words like "shills"). We want to encourage people to become more suspicious/sceptical of what they see on the Web, including social control media and GulagTube. If one searches for reviews on the Web, one is likely to find a lot of paid-for junk; moreover, there's a great deal of censorship of negative reviews going on (some firms market this kind of censorship as a "service").

"If one searches for reviews on the Web, one is likely to find a lot of paid-for junk..."The bottom line is, the culprits are rarely honest and upfront about sponsorship, conflict of interest, and so on. Disclosures are often absent or partly hidden (tacit at best). The issue is of utmost importance "especially now with so many "influencers"," an associate noted, "but those are especially a danger to social control media useds" [sic] including those controlled by Zuck and Musk (or MusKSA; we now know a lot of the Twitter purchase is in fact funded by Saudi "royals", more recently renowned for chopping and cooking journalists they don't agree with; so much for a "free speech" Twitter).

The above video focuses on Phoronix but goes beyond that, including the way Microsoft has been bribing bloggers for "reviews" of products, including Windows. Some of the incentives and gifts exceed in value one month's salary. ⬆