The former officials of the island of Roosevelt used taxpayers money to finance a scheme elaborated to manipulate the press while facing a violent reaction about the dazzled service in the Tramway of Roosevelt Island, according to an explosive state investigation.
The officials supervise the tram of Roosevelt Island, whose cableways are intended for the East River between the center of Manhattan and the Roosevelt Island in EAST 59th Street, paid $ 168,680 to the status laboratories of the public relations firm to orchestrate the one -year campaign in the new general of Stateign Office.
The officials of the Operational Corporation of Roosevelt Island aimed to divert complaints about months of tram breakdowns, overcrowding and inappropriate adaptations for passengers with disabilities, according to the report published last week.
While the report found that some of the tram service problems could be attributed to an excess of tourists who use the tram to enjoy panoramic views, said that residents and blogs also raised Hackles about the coverage of the media that only bleorists and ignore management.
Months later, according to the report, state officials found that the guilt game of the “tourist trap” was part of a carefully calculated erroneous information campaign that was paid by the Executive Board of the tram.
Between October 2022 and October 2023, the Public Relations team produced 17 positive articles on Rioc executives and planted them in several blogs. According to the report, ROIC officials edited and reviewed the articles that state laboratories had written about them, and the shots of the head equally organized for puff pastry pieces, all hours of work.
Labs state, whose mission is “to help our clients to take and the most proof of their digital identity and see each other online,” according to their website, did not give the request for comments from the publication.
Status Labs also helped Rioc executives manipulate the Google search engine optimization algorithm and google and move legitimate negative items of lower local blogs in the search pages, according to the report.
“If the content of a user does not appear ‘in the first pages of results,’ that content ‘may also not exist,’ says the report, citing the Google SEO start guide.
The Roosevelt Island Daily News reported closely about the problems and tram management, in addition to the accumulation of tourists, labeling 419 articles on its under “Rioc Nigligence” website. The Roosevelt Islander, another local newspaper that has covered the ROIC, was also entitled in the report as the objective of the SEO campaign.
“This was difficult to detect. SEO manipulation has digital footprints. We follow all public meetings, and did not take much to connect the points. It is good to have confirmation now and additional details, but it is not surprising,” Siad Theo Gobblevelt.
Rick O’Conor, editor of Roosevelt Islander, described the findings of the report as “extremely worrying”, but added: “In my opinion, the current administration of Rioc has greatly improved communications with local media and the public. It is like the night and day.”
Bryant Daniels, director of Communications and Community Affairs of Rioc, declined to comment on the report, citing pending litigation.
The next Rioc meeting, scheduled for April 10 at 5:30 pm, was canceled, according to the company’s website.
An explanation for cancellation was not included in the notice.
Four Rioc executives were appointed and accused of using public funds to protect their reputation.
An executive received a monthly Status Labs progress report as a contract manager, the Reviene report. One of these reports detailed how the Executive Board suppressed the negative content of the Google pages that specifically contained the surnames of the members of the Executive Board.
Since the four Rioc executives appointed in the report are no longer employed and consult that the state laboratory contract was not renewed, there is no “immediate danger of continuous misuse or state resources,” the report found.
The executive personnel may have violated the Code of Ethics of the Public Officers of the State of New York, in accordance with the report. Currently, a State Ethics Commission is reviewing the report of the Inspector General to obtain more actions.
Watchdog and the State General Inspector Lucy Lang, who leads the state of New York in her mission of investigating “accusations of corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest,” the report directed. He called these “inappropriate, selfish” and “contrary to public policy.”
Local rookies and residents have a long criticism of the RIOC. In March 2022, the Anonymous Charter of Rioc’s employees said that their executives have “a long history of corruption, ethics scandals and a culture of harassment, intimidation and favoritism due to complacents.”