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Why is Heather astroturfing?

by Whaleoil on April 18, 2011

via the tipline

A reader was looking through some of the posts on Heather Roy’s blog (http://roy.org.nz/) and noticed that when you post a comment on her blog posts it shows the IP address it was posted from. Heather posts from 122.59.253.125/122-59-253-125.jetstream.xtra.co.nz (which appears to be a personal internet account, not parliamentary), but so do a lot of other people that post approving comments on her blog. She also posts from her parliamentary address 202.22.18.245/pspc18-245.parliament.govt.nz and so do quite a few other people who post approving comments.

Have a look some some of these posts and compared the IP addresses, it’s all over her blog. This is nothing less than blatant astroturfing or at the very least a bit of sock puppet play.

NOTE: (Since receiving this tip off Heather has since removed the ip addresses from the posts on her blog, I wonder if some others out there are asking questions or asked her to comment about it and now she is trying to cover her tracks. I don’t know politicians do that, first they always get caught and second google cache proves you tried to cover it.

If you search these terms in google like this

cache:http://roy.org.nz/diary/earthquake-recovery

You can you view the posts as they were when last cached.

http://www.roy.org.nz/diary/earthquake-recovery
http://www.roy.org.nz/royters/polling-moral-and-political-issues
http://roy.org.nz/diary/what-next-usnew-zealand-relations
http://www.roy.org.nz/diary/the-moral-issue-interest-free-student-loans#comments
http://www.roy.org.nz/royters/christchurch-earthquake-0
http://roy.org.nz/royters/ousa-joins-otago-polytechnic-students%E2%80%99-assn-in-leaving-nzusa

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  • thor42

    You’re a hard man, WO…….. hard but fair…….. ;)

  • Trevor Mallard

    Whale can you explain this in English for non techies. Does this mean someone else is posting or that she is writing her own fawning comments – or both ?

  • redbaiter

    Gawd Mallard you must be just as thick as she is. It means someone was posting messages from the same IP address, meaning most likely the same computer, (although not indisputably) meaning most likely HR or someone close to her was attempting to create the impression there were outside readers of her blog commenting. Shows a lack of personal integrity. Pretty unforgivable in an MP. Just my opinion BTW.

    • thor42

      Nice one, redbaiter…….
      It does make you wonder why we didn’t rise up and forcibly throw Helen’s mob out in 2007, after they repealed the crime of sedition -
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_%28Repeal_of_Seditious_Offences%29_Amendment_Act_2007

      And from the article on sedition -
      “Sedition is the stirring up of rebellion against the government in power. …. Sedition is encouraging one’s fellow citizens to rebel against their state,”

      Doing that would have at least saved us a few months of being under the Clark-beast……..

    • Trevor Mallard

      Thanks red for explanation, I use a computer don’t have any technical knowledge re IP addresses etc and never really needed any till now. And as you know gratuitous insults are like water off my back

      • bez01

        C’mon Red, Mallard knows very well what this means or could have grasped it from the context. He’s just fellating the Whale because he knows the MSM is going to run with it and he wants in on the game.

  • audiotek

  • Pingback: ACT’s Roy- Yet Another Another Embarrassing Bungle | TrueblueNZ

  • davidgarrett

    When will everyone realise that Heather Roy is ACT’s secret weapon? If only they would elect her leader they would be at 10% in the polls tommorrow…

  • mrgradgrind

    Care needs to exercised when ascribing the IP address to Ms Roys PC.

    In organizational environments where there are large numbers of computers it is common to designate a single computer or router on the local network as the gateway to the wider Internet.

    The IP address that you see may belong to this gateway and the posting which you ascribe to Ms Roy could have come from any computer on the local network.

    • flat01

      Care does need to be taken, since it’s not possible to ascribe an IP address with a person, well it’s not should not be possible. Though since it is possible for the to narrow it down to a single-network it is is a pretty damning case of manipulation and dishonesty, since these posts are implied to be from a diverse group of people throughout New Zealand and not simply her simpering cohort. The effort that must have gone into the creation of these characters, Jim, old-soldier etc does give the impression that this was a premeditated effort on her and/or on her behalf.

      It really does show how little people cared about her blog, that most of the few comments posted are originating from a single source and a source that shares her ip at times no less.

      This warrants proper explanation.

    • mikeman

      It is a residential Jetstream address connected to an Alcatel Speedtouch modem/router (Click the link).

      It is HIGHLY likely that this is a residence, not a business where a shared network would be outside of a family or flatmate type environment.

  • abjv

    Got it. Its not Heather at all. She has an unsecured wireless network attached to the other side of this router, and a wide variety of NZers happen to be driving past her house all with their laptops on, and they just happen to connect to the internet via her bandwidth as they drive past, and they just happen to leave congratulary wank all over her blog.

    Anyone for a case of Tui?

  • audiotek

    I’m pretty sure the residential IP (122.59.253.125) address is static, she posts from it for months at a time. She uses it as far back as 26/11/2010

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Aroy.org.nz%2Froyters%2Fpike-river-mine-tragedy&btnG=Search#comments

  • hagues

    Another explaination…. I posted a comment on her facebook page, later on I went to her website and saw that my comment was on there. So its not necessarily fake comments, but that someone is transferring (copy and paste) facebook comments to the website. Still not that impressive.

  • audiotek

    what comment are you refering to hagues

  • hagues

    I think it was nominating people for NZer of the year or something like that (it was a few months ago). I put my comments on her fb page and it was later added to her web page by someone else (with my name and original comment). So if thats whats going on here it would explain why the web page comments are coming from the same IP address. I didn’t think of it as a big deal, but I can see why some people would think its not a great look.

    • flat01

      Most of the comments sound, to be absolutely honest, fabricated, a few sound like they were perhaps authored by real people but most, nah just nah.

      Either way it’s dodgy dealings.

      • hagues

        I haven’t read the latest ones, just reporting on my experience. Whether it applies in these recent cases I have no idea.

        • abjv

          If it was that, it would be dead easy to refute. All you’d need would be the original comments. The silence is deafening. And to think Rodney might win epsom and bring some of these people back in with him.

          Suggested MMP change #2. You can’t make up numbers from the list until you get to 5%. “4% and don’t win a consituency” means no MPs. 4% and win one constituency means 1 MP etc.