Is anyone else noticing an uptick in far-right content and Russian propaganda on reddit lately?
To me it almost seems like reddit has started pushing it.
Is anyone else noticing an uptick in far-right content and Russian propaganda on reddit lately?
To me it almost seems like reddit has started pushing it.
Yes. I noticed it. It’s maddening. On certain things, half or more if the posts are Russian assets or bots. Reddit could do something about it, but in classic corporate fashion, the Russians increased their user engagement metrics, so they won’t do anything about it.
How do you tell that they’re Russian bot and assets, and not American or indian or any other country?
I dont doubt it. What kind of topics? And how can you tell they’re bots?
politics and news, just look at the comments that are collapses and hidden, alot of them are very unusual, they often use buzzwords, and out of date info. sometimes the hidden comments dont make sense.
The assets are easy to spot because they spout Russian propaganda, are more articulate, show up suspiciously early in threads, and often post when it is night in the USA. I generally assume the threads with a sheer mass of early comments spouting Russian propaganda are bots, since they have bad grammar, and almost never respond. I guess they could just be from a huge troll farm with bad grammar that almost never response to comments.
How do you determine that something is Russian propaganda specifically?
It’s usually not subtle, and are almost always outright lies. Statements along the lines of ‘Ukraine is infested with Nazis, so invasion was justified’, ‘The threat of Ukraine joining NATO caused the war’, ‘Russia is the new Rome’, etc.
Ahhhhhhhh good tips thanks
Also only happens before elections and in communities with a lot of users. They don’t go in to small and moderately sized groups geared toward specific topics.
It’s honestly frightening. If that’s what we know about God knows what else is influencing us and we don’t know they’re doing it
sometimes they also use buzzwords too, like saying both sides, and or use it in 3rd person.
Ah good tips
russian trolls are the meat of reddits account and engagement numbers, somewhere like 43-50+% of comments are bots on the site. reddit is just doing performative actions, by going after lowest hanging fruit: OF accounts, advertisers, and people like us.
reddit is basically a hybrid between FACEBOOK/youtube, and X. i also seen significant amount of reposts from truth socials too.
How did you determine that?