this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023

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New Study: At Least 15% of All Reddit Content is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public Opinion (web.archive.org)

submitted 10 months ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml

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[–] magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh 13 points 10 months ago

Only 15% ?

[–] ULS@lemmy.ml 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All social media inevitably turns into marketing.

[+] yogthos@lemmy.ml -10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

all corporate social media that is

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All social media that becomes popular enough for corporations to notice.

[+] yogthos@lemmy.ml -8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As long as it's not run by corporations there's no problem. This is the big advantage of the fediverse where it's not a single site run for profit, but a whole bunch of servers operated by individuals largely running on donations. We can see how the fediverse is already refusing to federate with threads.

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As long as it’s not run by corporations there’s no problem.

Just because the fediverse doesn't have sponsorships doesn't mean corporations aren't interested in poisoning the well. Anyone could be a bad actor. Heck, it could be anyone. I could be a corporate shill and you'd never know.

Wikipedia runs on donations. Does that mean that outside entities aren't interested in biased editing?

[+] yogthos@lemmy.ml -6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The nature of the network makes it much more difficult for corporations to subvert the network, and the incentive structures are also different. The question isn't one of interest, but one of structure. It's much harder for corporations to bias a distributed network that's not run for profit than platforms they own and manipulate themselves. And of course there are lots of instances of biased editing on wikipedia, but there's no comparison compared to corporate platforms.

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'm not convinced. You've made several claims, and maybe it's obvious to you as to why it's hard for corporations to infect the fediverse, but not to me. I'm probably too smooth brained to see it.

Here is Phil Jamesson using the behaviour of Reddit and the upvote system to get to the top of /r/videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69bFOYklP-E

What is stopping the marketing team of a corporation to influence the fediverse using similar and more advanced techniques? Lemmy uses an upvote system. Why can't it be abused like Reddit's system?

I've already seen several examples of small scale brigading. I can't mention examples because it would immediately make this post another target.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=69bFOYklP-E

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[+] yogthos@lemmy.ml -6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Once again, it's a question of incentives. People operating individual servers have no interest to allow corporate interference on the platform. The kind of small scale brigading you refer to is an organic phenomenon. I also don't know what you mean when you say you can't mention examples because this post will be a target. What will this post be a target of exactly, you'll get a few downvotes. Why are you worried about that exactly?

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Will this post be a target of exactly, you’ll get a few downvotes. Why are you worried about that exactly?

Often when brigading happens, it's not just the one comment that gets downvoted, you're whole post history gets downvoted. Heavily downvoted posts don't show up in feeds, and you end up struggling to interact with the community. Some communities will outright ban (or shadow ban) a heavily downvoted account. Its forced ostracism.

Once again, it’s a question of incentives. People operating individual servers have no interest to allow corporate interference on the platform.

It may not be openly allowed, I understand that. The problem is when you have bad faith actors and shills. They pretend to be not associated with a corporation, but they subtly push an agenda.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml -4 points 10 months ago

You do realize votes don't actually have any value right? And I have yet to see any community on lemmy ban account based on downvotes, this is just something you've made up here. There's a reason why lemmy has a public mod long where you can see the reasons for bans. Show me a single instance of people being banned because their comments were downvoted.

Yes, people will try to push agendas, and this is nothing new or exclusive to social media. The real problem with commercial platforms is that a private entity controls the content on the platform deciding what people see using opaque algorithms, and introducing biases into content that benefit the company running the platform. That's why corporate social media is so problematic. Again, you can compare wikipedia as an example to see the huge difference between an open and transparent platform compared to closed private ones.

There is simply no actual evidence to support your position I'm afraid. Mastodon network is literally millions of users now, and anybody who uses it regularly can see a drastic difference with corporate platforms.

[–] JimboDHimbo@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 months ago

If anybody else is having a hell of a time attempting to read this article because it keeps auto refreshing:

https://archive.is/D60ep

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm surprised it's that low.

[–] Xel@mujico.org 1 points 10 months ago

There is quite a lot of organic interactions in most subs although some big subs and niche subs have Astroturfers

[–] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

And these studies were done years ago!

[–] HowMany@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

oh. the irony. or haven't you seen what you've linked to?