Big Brother is Watching

[SoonerCoug]

The LDS Church is moving into the 21st century.

The PR department has hired people whose job is to act like average citizens and tweet favorable things about the church. Their bosses approve all their tweets. They do not represent themselves as church employees. (They have regular names on twitter.)

How do I know this?

One of these Church employees targeted me and several other several apostates on twitter, took several of them to Meet the Mormons. Everyone was asking her why she did it, and all she would say was that she is "fascinated by apostates." She also said that everything she posts on twitter has to be approved by her boss. After the movie, she finally confessed that she was doing her job for the PR department by engaging apostates. She is just an innocent, true blue Mormon whose job is to tweet and counter the message of apostates and possibly to identify & challenge dissenters (speculative on the last phrase).

It's bad enough that the church employs people to tweet covertly and act like normal happy Mormon people, even if it's not to identify dissenters.

Your tithing dollars at work, folks.

[San Juan Sun]

Are they still taking applications? Seems like easy money.

[SoonerCoug]

Are they still taking applications? Seems like easy money.

They were as of one month ago. Social media jobs. No joke. Kate Kelly was joking about applying for one.

[SCcoug]

They made you go to Meet the Mormons even though Nik already went for you? Chilling.

[SoonerCoug]

They made you go to Meet the Mormons even though Nik already went for you? Chilling.

I didn't go.

My point is that the Church's PR department is employing people to tweet and act like they aren't church employees. I find that super creepy. Why don't they just tweet out of official LDS church accounts. Why do they have to pretend they aren't employed by the church??

[ERCougar]

I know sooner has cried wolf a few times, but this one has legs, imo. There's enough noise about this from other places that I believe it. It's not all that surprising for a big organization to use these kinds of tactics, but it does seem a little distasteful for a church to do it.

[Walter Sobchak]

Movie only? or did they dine at City Creek Center after?

If only the former, then

But if the latter?!

[SoonerCoug]

Movie only? or did they dine at City Creek Center after?

If only the former, then

But if the latter?!

It seems to be less about the movie and more about the fact that they are giving $$$$ to people to pretend not to be church employees but tweet things that require prior authorization from the PR department.

These facts are from the horse's mouth.

I'm going to see if Peggy Fletcher Stack will pick this up:

@SoonerCoug: @religiongal 1) Paid to tweet about church. 2) Not representing selves as church employees. 3) All tweets require Church authorization.

[Walter Sobchak]

they are giving $$$$ to people to pretend not to be church employees but tweet things that require prior authorization from the PR department.

Also, lest you forget, she probably gets paid less than her male counterpart. The press is going to have a field day with this!

[SoonerCoug]

Honestly this sounds like something the Church of Scientology would do.

The LDS Church is desperate to stop the bleeding.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Weren't we going to give Sooner one thread for all his stuff?

[Walter Sobchak]

Weren't we going to give Sooner one thread for all his stuff?

Who is this "we" to which you refer? Big Brother?

[SoonerCoug]

Weren't we going to give Sooner one thread for all his stuff?

Tell us what you think about a church employing people to pretend not to be church employees while tweeting PR office-approved tweets.

I'm curious about your opinion. This is real. It fits with the whole lack of openness, totalitarian motif the Church has going.

[Non Sequitur]

This sort of thing happens all the time with social media. Every time I read a 5 star review on Yelp, I just assume it was posted by someone linked to the restaurant. I applaud the BOT for being progressive enough to even know what the Twitter is.

[Commando]

Big Brother? Lol. I wonder why you of all people would feel threatened by the Church dispatching a Troll Patrol.