All but 3 Bulgarian Parties Give Up Use of Internet Trolls

Five of the eight parties in Bulgaria's Parliament have signed a declaration to renounce the use of trolls on the Internet to promote their political ideas.

Signatories include 2 of 3 coalition partners, conservative GERB and right-wing Reformist Bloc, the nationalist Patriotic Front coalition which backs the government, and two opposition parties, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Bulgarian Democratic Center (which is in reality a parliamentary group dominated by MPs from a party that recently adopted the same name).

The liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), left-wing Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), and nationalist Ataka, refused to take part in the initiative, news website Dnevnik.bg reports.

Launched by the Reformist Bloc, the initiative aims at preventing the parties from hiring people to comment on articles and reports online to disseminate certain claims that meet their own political goals and to make specific suggestions to readers.

A GERB member proposed at the Wednesday signing ceremony that an international organization be invited to monitor if the agreement is being upheld.

Trolls operating on the Internet in Bulgaria amount to 1000-2000 people.