Team Alpha in Spring 2008
Organized comment troops began in Korea in Spring 2008, when the National Intelligence Service (NIS) recruited far-right young citizens to engage in ultra-conservative commenting in Internet forums. They were called “Team Alpha.” Team Alpha primarily targeted a forum called “Agora,” hosted in Daum.net, one of the largest Korean portal sites. Agora was the-then digital hub of public opinions. These troopers were apparently voluntary, under the nominal “great cause” to protect the future of conservatism.
In fact, these groups were hardly voluntary: they were under control of the NIS, following orders of the agency in terms of when, where, and what to comment. NIS’s goal was ideological—to suppress progressive voices in online spaces. To amplify far-right voices in the Internet, NIS even employed a Search Engine Optimization tool called VEX (Visitor Exchanger). Their comments were explicit in name-calling and highlighted anti-communist sentiment, evoking Cold War-era propaganda.
Meanwhile, ideology was not the only reason underlying young commenters' participation. The recruited commenters were paid for their activities. For example, the team’s leader earned about $4,000 a month, which is way above the average salary in Korea. Furthermore, uploading an image that attacks the opposite party could earn up to $200 per image. According to an interview of a former Team Alpha member,
[Quote from http://hankookilbo.com/v/04b605dc166d4dd6b7277d67b54ae1fd ](We earned) between $25 to $50 per piece on average. If you had an image like a protest violence scene, (content value) increased up to $200.
