Government dismantles “rapid response” phantom blogging unit

Their main job was to track online criticism of the PPP civic government and create fake social media profiles to respond to the criticism. They were also tasked with writing letters that praised the PPP Civic to the state owned Guyana Chronicle under phantom names.

Government dismantles “rapid response” phantom blogging unit

The David Granger administration has decided to end the services of at least 20 persons who were employed by the former PPP Civic administration to respond to social media criticism of the government.

The persons were told that their services were no longer needed at the end of May. The members of the unit, which went by the name “rapid response”, worked out of the Office of the President and reported to former Information Liaison Officer Kwame McCoy.

Their main job was to track online criticism of the PPP civic government and create fake social media profiles to respond to the criticism. They were also tasked with writing letters that praised the PPP Civic to the state-owned Guyana Chronicle under phantom names.

Although they worked from the Office of the President, they were on the payroll of the National Communications Network and other government agencies. NCN found itself being responsible to pay the salaries for 20 of the phantom bloggers although none of them worked at the state-owned television station.

A number of the phantom bloggers are relatives of members of the former PPP Civic government.

The Unit also brought together at least one senior official of the Government Information Agency and a former Public Relations Official attached to the One Laptop Per Family project.

News Source understands that just after the APNU+AFC coalition took office, the unit was discovered and members of the unit met with officials of the new government and sought to explain their role.

A decision was made just after that meeting for the unit to be disbanded.

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