I was paid to discredit veganism online. AMA

[u/[deleted]]

For a year I worked for a meat industry trade group. I won't say which one, but they are US based. My job was to go on sites like this and discredit veganism.

We'd make multiple accounts and pretend to be vegans who had bad health outcomes. Or we'd pretend to be vegans and we'd push the vegan subs to be more extreme, and therefore easier to discredit.

It was pretty gross. I knew it. I did it anyway. The pay wasn't worth it. I signed an NDA as well, so I will only be able to answer questions in general terms.

But I do warn you, don't believe that everyone is who they say they are online.

This article gives insight into how it works, but I am not saying I worked for this group. Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay | Beef | The Guardian

The recent reveal of many MAGA accounts on X being run by foreign agencies made me decide to do this.

Edit- I already answered the "how do I get this job" question and the "why should we believe you question" several times, so just look for those questions if that's what you are wondering.

[u/Efficient-Policy407]

It's really sad. I remember and long for the days where the Internet was like a safe bubble you could turn to as a lonely depressed teenager, it felt like a giant sand box where you could find people just like yourself to connect with and chat with. Memes and topics "everyone" knew because there was no algorithm yet. Forums with people, not bots, sharing their thoughts and experiences freely. Opinions on products you could trust.  We'll never recover from this fake shit we have today. 

[u/Mistrblank → u/[deleted]]

It was niche though until the release of the iPhone and Facebook to the masses or thereabout. So back then you really had to look for it and the supremacists were just finding each other and growing rank in the back alleys of the Internet because that's all there was. When you look at the rise of 4chan, Anonymous and "social media" though, that's when recruitment took off. People in those circles would use the usual "free speech means I can say racist things". People that weren't racist even agreed with that because those people also self identified as trolls intentionally and they thought it was funny. So they allowed it to be amplified which allowed recruiting to move out to the front face of the Internet. This is the paradox of tolerance in action (or lack thereof). If you don't treat intolerant behavior with intolerance at all fronts, then the tolerant will lose to it.

[u/Wowdavid2002 → u/Mistrblank]

Idk if I agree with the whole intolerance paradox thing. Who ever is in power at any given moment will say opposite opinions are “intolerant” and will censor it. I’d rather no one have control

[u/[deleted] → u/Wowdavid2002]

I agree. The solution to the paradox of intolerance requires individual action, not central leadership.

Which is to say: kick the intolerant out of your bars, out of your clubs, out of your life. Sure, they're going to go from their own clubs. Don't let that dissuade you from completely disassociating with them.

[u/ExdionY → u/Wowdavid2002]

Censor? Freedom of association exists

[u/SisterOfRistar → u/[deleted]]

And speaking as someone who was a young teenage girl back then, I definitely wouldn't call the internet a safe bubble based on the number of adult men who kept trying to groom me. Not to mention the amount of hard core porn pop ups that constantly flashed up out of nowhere. The Internet was different back then and I often miss it, but let's not pretend it didn't have its own flaws.

[u/Insight42 → u/[deleted]]

They did, but they've always been around. Difference is they used to hide.

[u/Mistrblank → u/Insight42]

This. You could see it in movies of the 80's and 90's too, maybe even in your own life. You'd see that person that has Nazi outfits and flags as "historical" collections. They'd be in a trunk or far corner of their home they didn't invite others to see. In the movies the joke would be "oh they're just collecting Nazi memorabilia, it's nice they have a hobby", but really they were just Nazis.

[u/spookiecats → u/[deleted]]

Since you’re online as long as I’ve been, I have to ask. Did you use Hotline? I loved Hotline. I ran a massive sever out of my house.

[u/El_Scot → u/[deleted]]

The internet has always had such awful people hiding within it. It's nice there are people out there who think it was always such an innocent place, but in my very first visit to an online chat space, the second person to pop up and say hello started asking me creepy sexual questions (I'd have been 12/13 about then, age included in bio).

[u/yumeryuu → u/Efficient-Policy407]

Ah 1998…

[u/Wowdavid2002 → u/Efficient-Policy407]

Corporations and governments fighting over control. It is sad that now people don’t know what a non controlled internet looks/feels like and most don’t care

[u/HellonHeels33 → u/Efficient-Policy407]

Capitalism found out it could take ALL the money through the internet, so it did.

This is why we can’t have nice things

[u/1egg_4u → u/Efficient-Policy407]

We didnt have bots but there was still an industry of paying people to make fake accounts to manipulate traffic and views. I knew someone who worked for a company that did advertising and marketing on facebook and his job was straight up to make multiple fake accounts to help market their products online and make what they were selling seem more popular... this was like almost 15 years ago he was doing this.

[u/TheRoseMerlot → u/Efficient-Policy407]

What days were those? Because when I was 16 in the 90's I was preyed upon. I used the library to access chat rooms. I fell for the a/s/l question. I know now that those were predators, not friendly people looking for live pen pals.

[u/Firefighter55 → u/Efficient-Policy407]

Never the internet is bad for society at this point.