Lead Editor – Newsgathering
Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Nicholas Morris has dismissed as “fake,” screenshots circulating on social media which purport to show messages calling on Government communications personnel to coordinate online attacks against the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
The first screenshot, attributed to Morris, reads: “Everyone here is paid 20,000 plus to be a voice against the PNM. Find a propaganda angle and push it out.”
A second purported message says: “Colleagues who are unafraid of the PNM, those who wish to undertake (sic) the Job the PM give them, please proceed to create an issue from this article. Those who wish to take Mr Young’s feelings to play. Do as you wish.”
Neither image contains a date or timestamp and it is unclear which article is referenced in the second message.
Guardian Media contacted Morris, who immediately rejected any association with the screenshots.
“That is not true,” he said.
Morris said he has repeatedly been the subject of false claims on social media and described the screenshots as another attempt to target him. He also denied any group chat existed to coordinate such activities.
Shortly after the first version of this story was published on Guardian Media’s website yesterday morning, another screenshot began circulating on social media, appearing to show Morris leaving a group chat.
However, the profile picture displayed in that screenshot differed from the profile picture shown in the earlier screenshots containing the alleged messages.
Guardian Media understands from multiple sources, however, that the group chats themselves are legitimate and comprise communications specialists, communications officers and communications managers employed across various government ministries.
The sources said the reference to a $20,000 salary aligns with the salaries of some communications personnel.
The allegations come amid previous scrutiny of the Government’s use of communications personnel and social media.
In May, Guardian Media revealed the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) had hired nine out of a proposed batch of 12 social media influencers, with combined monthly salaries totalling $85,398.92.
The influencers were among 416 people hired by the Authority between April 29 and November 30, 2025, shortly after the April 28 general election.
Informed sources told the Guardian Media Investigations Desk that 12 influencers were identified and nine were hired and placed under ordinary job titles with salaries of up to $12,500 a month. They were assigned to corporate communications roles to defend the Government online and respond to critics.
Similar allegations surfaced more than a decade earlier.
In 2011, Campus Chronicle, a publication of Caribbean Communications Network, revealed an organisation known as “tntgoodblogs” was allegedly paying university students to inundate newspaper websites and Internet chat forums with pro-government sentiment.
The investigation reported the organisation recruited students to post reader comments beneath stories published by the Trinidad Guardian, Trinidad Express and Newsday praising then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her government while attacking the Opposition and countering anti-government opinions expressed by other commenters.
Students who spoke to Campus Chronicle on condition of anonymity said they were paid to author comments or blogs attacking the Opposition and were promised free BlackBerry smartphones with unlimited internet access so they could continue posting during classes.
