2023-08-21
21 分钟For me, it's a hobby.
I don't work for the government, but I've always liked Twitter.
I was one of the first ones to join in 2009.
My first account was blocked.
A year ago I had 14,000 followers.
You're hearing from a digital propagandist for the state of Venezuela.
We'll call him Rafael.
That's not his real name.
The aim is to amplify the information that the government government puts on Twitter.
He's a propagandist not because he thinks life is great in Venezuela, but because it's so tough for him.
There is a lot of reservations because, well, too much is lacking.
They haven't fulfilled their job for the people as they should have.
Venezuela, we find, has connected their social welfare system to Twitter to reward people like Rafael who most loyally pump out pro government hashtags.
This is BBC Trending's Trolled the series lifting the lid on online abuse and the forces at play on the dark side of social media.
I'm Carl Miller, an expert in how states and others try to secretly influence the information that we see today.
I'm going to tell you about a strange ecosystem of digital control.
It's one which connects Venezuela's social welfare system to many pro government hashtags people pump out.
It's a story that involves thousands of real people and experiments to replace people.
And it stretches from Rafael all the way up to the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro himself.
Our story begins with this news report.