Who is behind the secret bot farms in Kazakhstan?

In Kazakhstan, everywhere bot farms are opening. They are secret organizations, where bots work. Bots are not computer programs written in binary code, but ordinary people with several accounts, including fake ones, on social networks. Bots are engaged in state propaganda, aggravating the situation, distracting attention and much more. The most interesting thing is that bot farms mainly exist at the expense of the state budget. There are private ones, but they, as a rule, work with commercial organizations; they help to improve the image or increase recognition. But who is behind the state-owned bot farms? And how much do their services cost? The ACCA correspondent met with a former employee of one of these farms. He agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.

According to him, the first bot farm in Kazakhstan appeared during the premiership of Karim Masimov in the National Security Committee. It was created solely to address issues related to national security.

“And under the President Kasym-Zhomart Tokaev, bot farms began to be created to uphold and lobby state interests,” the source said. “But they worked, so to speak, within the framework of the reasonable. One farm was part of the Nur Otan party (the ruling party in Kazakhstan, chaired by the country’s first President, Nursultan Nazarbaev), or rather, Zhas Otan (the youth wing of the ruling party in Kazakhstan). The second largest bot farm is located in KazMedia (a 22-story TV and radio complex in Nur Sultan, which includes ten TV channels and three radio stations), which is supervised by adviser to the President of Kazakhstan, Erlan Karin. He uses this farm, first of all, for his own purposes and for the promotion of the NCPC (National Council of Public Confidence under the President). All the institutions, that were created under Tazhin (Marat Tazhin, the main ideologist of Kazakhstan, headed the presidential administration from January 2017 to March 2019, now holds the post of Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Czech Republic) including the Institute of Eurasian Integration and many others, Karin transformed into bot farms. Since then, the situation has not changed much, but now there are only three main bot farms. One is still under the National Security Committee. It is engaged in purely national security and does not crawl into clan clashes, unless, of course, these clashes take place in the highest echelons of power. The work of this farm has very high quality: its bots are difficult to recognize. There was the bot farm of Nurbots under the Nur Otan party. But when Baibek came to the party (Bauyrzhan Baibek – the first deputy chairman of the party; before this post he was the mayor of Almaty), he closed this farm, because he considered such working methods unacceptable. Now the Nur Otan party is focusing on training real people – party members who will defend the interests of the party on social networks. So there are two more main farms: in KazMedia – the entire fourth floor and the second – in the Institute of Eurasian Integration.

– And where is it?

– Near the Beijing Palace Hotel in Nur Sultan. The director of this institute is a member of the NCPC, Erlan Sairov (deputy chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan). There are two people in this institute who supervise the bot farm. They are Samat Nurtaza (officially he is a senior lecturer at the Department of Philosophy of the Kazakh Agro-Technical University named after S. Seifullin) and Anuar Shotbai.

– Who is he?

– Uneducated … either 9, or 10 classes of education …

– Is he someone’s relative?

– No, just knows how to suck up well. The farm, that they supervise, is not located in the institute, they work in it. Farm workers are housewives at remote work.

– Then why is it so certain that these two people are curators of the bot farm?

– I saw his data on pension contributions. For example, about 4-5 million tenge ($10.5-13 thousand) falls on the account of Anuar Shotbai.

– Is it yearly?

– No, monthly. This amount can easily be calculated on pension contributions (in Kazakhstan, the employer transfers 10% of the salary amount monthly – ACCA’s note). Where did such pension contributions come from? He has no business. Does the Institute pay him that kind of money every month? And what can a person, who does not have education, but receive such a salary, do at a scientific institute?! Therefore, we can assume that this money goes to pay for the work of the employees of the bot farm … At KazMedia, Aidos Zhukanuly runs the farm.

– What is a bot farm?

– At each bot farm there is an analytics department. It is engaged in the analysis of social networks, looks for negative or positive posts, what people wrote about this or that state body or institution. For example, in special screening programs that monitor all social networks, the “NCPC” tag is inputted, and it displays all the results for this tag. Through these programs, they receive instant notifications of new posts. As soon as the post appears, a link to it is sent among the employees of the bot farm, and they begin to work it out. They write comments, like, share information, etc. In addition, they post information (so-called “crops”) in various groups in social networks. They create, so to speak, public opinion. Bot farms are a set of fakes behind which real people are hiding. But any fake account can be recognized. If you get used to it well, then you can recognize them. As a rule, they only have created accounts, without photos and personal information. In addition, they often use template, banal comments.

– The purpose of the work of the bot farm is to remove the negative, isn’t it?

– Not only, before bot farm worked in the interests of the state, engaged in the promotion of public policy and ideology. Under Karin, bot farms were refocused solely on eliminating the enemies of Karin himself, the enemies of his friends or those who criticized Karin’s projects. Well, suppose you just write a negative post about the NCPC, immediately you receive the fakes that mix you up with dirt. For example, many of those selected in the NCPC refused to become its members. All of them were attacked by bots: discrediting evidence, insults, etc. However, they could not stir up the topic, because they worked inexpertly. By the way, as far as I know, the bot farm in KazMedia will be reorganized. Now they are all sitting in one place, as I said, and soon will be sitting in different places and working remotely on outsourcing.

– In connection with what was the decision made?

– Because they were exposed. Due to the fact that all of them were in one place, their IP addresses were the same.

– How many people are approximately working on a bot farm?

– Differently. For example, in KazMedia – about a hundred people. In addition, each of them has at least ten accounts on social networks. It turns out that about 1000 accounts. The Institute of Eurasian Integration has about 50 people.

– How does recruitment to the bot farm take place? Do they give ads in the heading “vacancy”?

– Honestly, now I don’t know. It used to be that ordinary employees were recruited to a government agency and they did this work or recruited people by acquaintance. Now I don’t know the mechanisms. I only know that the remote employees are called “housewives”. This is a fixed term.

– Are there well-known bloggers in these farms?

– Of course there are, but they only receive one-time orders. Bloggers are already “last day”. The opinion of a blogger is the opinion of one person, which can be listened to, or can be ignored. In addition, bloggers write, even for money, exclusively for their audience, and not for the customer’s audience. As a rule, bloggers working for the state write a post to order, and then this post is downloaded on social networks. By the way, the source of the post can also be a tough botter. Accordingly, as soon as the customer stops paying the blogger, he can write against him.

– And how do they pay for the services of the bot farm?

– In cash.

– How much does a farm employee get per post?

– Payment is not made for the post, there is a monthly salary in the amount of 50 to 100 thousand tenge ($130-260).

– And how many bloggers charge for posts?

– From 20 000 tenge to a million ($50-2600), or even more.

– The work of these structures, if I understand correctly, is paid from the budget, that is, from taxpayers?

– Yes. For example, the Institute of Eurasian Integration receives state grants for scientific research, and of that money they pay for the needs of the bot farm. How is the bot farm in KazMedia financed? I can’t say, because I am not well informed about it.

– Do we have Russian bot farms?

– Not now. And before they worked exclusively with us. Now they have left the game because our Kazakh players have appeared and now there is no need for the services of the Russians. There are some people, the so-called “quilted jacket sect”, who for the money discuss the topic of love for Russia. Also earlier, Ukrainian bot farms were involved.

– Can outsiders use the services of a bot farm?

– Only private one. In principle, each major official has his own small bot farm with 5-6 people. And if negative pressure begins against him, he involves them.

– And how much are the services of a bot farm?

– Much depends on the complexity, nature of the activity and the number of units involved in the work. I don’t know the exact prices of private companies, but, according to rumors, the minimum cost of a service starts from two million tenge ($5.2 thousand).

– And what services do the bot farms offer for this money?

– Protection from negativity or its creation on the network.

– And how is the negative removed?

– There are different methods: distraction, creating a new precedent with another person or company.

– But the negative, even if everyone has forgotten about it today, may come up again tomorrow …

– This is the basis for a new agreement. An order is usually issued for a period of a month. The first week is preparation, developing a defense strategy.

– What social networks are used by bot farms?

– Almost all. Depending on the purpose.