I have 2 accounts in the top 1% of reddit and neither was contacted for manipulation. Spammed? Oh, sure, ALL the time! But never the whole “Hey… can I buy your account?” kind of way.
Crazy thing I’ve been noticing more and more. When I search “[thing I want to know] reddit” there are always one or two comments in the top results from reddit, usually much more recent than the others, very clearly shilling a product. Sometimes it’s an edit purely to include a product the user just thinks is really great that sends you to an affiliate link-ridden site.
The Impact of Corporate Trolls on Reddit: A Growing Problem
The rise of social media has brought about a new battleground for the spread of misinformation, manipulation of public opinion, and promotion of products and services. Reddit, one of the most popular social media platforms, has not been immune to this phenomenon.
Two significant studies, the Pew Research Center study conducted in 2018 and the Computers in Human Behavior study published in 2020, have shed light on the prevalence and impact of corporate trolls on Reddit.
Pew Research Center Study: Unveiling the Reach of Corporate Trolls
The Pew Research Center study, conducted in 2018, delved into the experiences of 2,505 adult Americans who use Reddit.
The findings were alarming, revealing that a considerable portion of Reddit users had directly encountered the influence of corporate trolls.
The study found that 11% of the respondents had been contacted by a bot or troll attempting to promote a product or service. Even more concerning was the discovery that 13% of the respondents had witnessed a company manipulate public opinion on the platform.
The study’s demographic analysis further highlighted the targeted nature of corporate trolling. Younger users, particularly those aged 18–29, were significantly more likely to be contacted by corporate trolls, with 17% of them reporting such experiences, compared to only 7% of users aged 65 and over. This age-based discrepancy underscores the strategic approach of corporate trolls in engaging with a demographic that is often more susceptible to their influence.
I popped over to Reddit for the first time since third party apps were cruelly shut down. It’s clear that Reddit has sunk to new lows. Obviously trolling and a marked decrease in the quality of content
what I noticed is that posts have huge amounts of upvotes, even from small communities, and often no comments or when it does have comments its often very basic stuff, almost AI like
And a significant part of the remainder are repost bots recycling old popular posts and comments in order to farm karma, which will eventually be sold to OnlyFans spammers, political ops, and corporate shills.
Reddit feels less genuine for sure, than it would have even as far back as 3 years ago. The mod purge probably accelerated things greatly but in general it’s felt like Reddit was going corporate astroturfing route for a while. Real discussions are very sparse compared to the amount of people telling you “to solve problem, buy this expensive thing!”
At this point the only thing Reddit has is a numbers advantage. The videos are no huge loss because at this point since you’re forced to use their (god awful) mobile app they either autoplay obnoxiously or automatically popup obscuring the comments (discussion is 90% of why I go to a forum why make it harder to see comments?).
The desktop experience is still okay but the constant pushing to get you to enable notifications is very irritating.
They’ve taken over moderation too. I criticized a local restaurant that got passed down from father to son, and got banned. I did call the son a trump loving shitstain so that might’ve had something to do with it.
I would’ve banned you for saying “Trump loving” followed by “shitstain” because there really is no need to say the same thing twice and waste everybody else’s reading time…
It pisses me off how kid-friendly everything has become online. You can’t swear at people and call them fucking idiots no matter how warranted it may be. People censor “removed” because it’s a ‘gay-slur’ but in the UK it’s a food type and a fag is a cigarette. “LatinX” and “unaliving” are things. There’s Reddit subs where people can say “nigga” without being banned because it’s assumed they’re all black. But it’s online so there’s no way of fucking knowing!!
I feel like the Internet is turning into a fucking kiddie day care centre for young adult Americans.
It’s insidious too. I didn’t realise how much I was self-censoring until I came to Lemmy and started swearing more in comments. On Reddit I’d been talking like a guy surrounded by children, afraid to swear, lest I offend someone.
At least here I feel like I can express thoughts and feelings.
Fellow lemmings, I, for one, am glad that there are no corporate trolls trying to manipulate public opinions on Lemmy, it is the same warm, fuzzy feeling I get when I was watching multiple time Golden Globe nominated summer blockbuster, Barbie, now available on Blu-Ray and select streaming services.
I don’t know about you, but I sure hope Barbie sweeps the Golden Globes next month (and then the Oscars next year.)
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
The studies are from 2018 and 2020, “new study” in the post title is a complete lie
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I have 2 accounts in the top 1% of reddit and neither was contacted for manipulation. Spammed? Oh, sure, ALL the time! But never the whole “Hey… can I buy your account?” kind of way.
Reddit sucks!
Crazy thing I’ve been noticing more and more. When I search “[thing I want to know] reddit” there are always one or two comments in the top results from reddit, usually much more recent than the others, very clearly shilling a product. Sometimes it’s an edit purely to include a product the user just thinks is really great that sends you to an affiliate link-ridden site.
This is paywalled, can you please post the text?
http://farside.link/scribe/https://medium.com/collapsenews/new-study-at-least-15-of-all-reddit-content-is-corporate-trolls-trying-to-manipulate-public-b249bd42ab42
https://12ft.io/https://medium.com/collapsenews/new-study-at-least-15-of-all-reddit-content-is-corporate-trolls-trying-to-manipulate-public-b249bd42ab42
Either the article is really short of neither of those worked at least for me on mobile.
Here’s the text that I got on my desktop:
spoiler
The Impact of Corporate Trolls on Reddit: A Growing Problem The rise of social media has brought about a new battleground for the spread of misinformation, manipulation of public opinion, and promotion of products and services. Reddit, one of the most popular social media platforms, has not been immune to this phenomenon.
Two significant studies, the Pew Research Center study conducted in 2018 and the Computers in Human Behavior study published in 2020, have shed light on the prevalence and impact of corporate trolls on Reddit.
Pew Research Center Study: Unveiling the Reach of Corporate Trolls The Pew Research Center study, conducted in 2018, delved into the experiences of 2,505 adult Americans who use Reddit.
The findings were alarming, revealing that a considerable portion of Reddit users had directly encountered the influence of corporate trolls.
The study found that 11% of the respondents had been contacted by a bot or troll attempting to promote a product or service. Even more concerning was the discovery that 13% of the respondents had witnessed a company manipulate public opinion on the platform.
The study’s demographic analysis further highlighted the targeted nature of corporate trolling. Younger users, particularly those aged 18–29, were significantly more likely to be contacted by corporate trolls, with 17% of them reporting such experiences, compared to only 7% of users aged 65 and over. This age-based discrepancy underscores the strategic approach of corporate trolls in engaging with a demographic that is often more susceptible to their influence.
I popped over to Reddit for the first time since third party apps were cruelly shut down. It’s clear that Reddit has sunk to new lows. Obviously trolling and a marked decrease in the quality of content
what I noticed is that posts have huge amounts of upvotes, even from small communities, and often no comments or when it does have comments its often very basic stuff, almost AI like
Is that recent? I haven’t used Reddit since a few months and that phenomena was previously only on promoted posts (read, ads)
like 2 months ago
Well, if you’re going to defraud investors by pumping up your numbers before your IPO, you might as well go all out.
And a significant part of the remainder are repost bots recycling old popular posts and comments in order to farm karma, which will eventually be sold to OnlyFans spammers, political ops, and corporate shills.
I’ll see the same post on 2 or 3 subs and it will just be something I saw a year or more ago.
Reddit is run by the same cabal of mods across thousands of subreddits. Of course they’re open to manipulation.
The percentage is that low?
Reddit feels less genuine for sure, than it would have even as far back as 3 years ago. The mod purge probably accelerated things greatly but in general it’s felt like Reddit was going corporate astroturfing route for a while. Real discussions are very sparse compared to the amount of people telling you “to solve problem, buy this expensive thing!”
At this point the only thing Reddit has is a numbers advantage. The videos are no huge loss because at this point since you’re forced to use their (god awful) mobile app they either autoplay obnoxiously or automatically popup obscuring the comments (discussion is 90% of why I go to a forum why make it harder to see comments?).
The desktop experience is still okay but the constant pushing to get you to enable notifications is very irritating.
Maybe Reddit needs a paid verified seal, let’s make it…umm… blue to distinguish between real people and big corporate greed. /s
They’ve taken over moderation too. I criticized a local restaurant that got passed down from father to son, and got banned. I did call the son a trump loving shitstain so that might’ve had something to do with it.
I would’ve banned you for saying “Trump loving” followed by “shitstain” because there really is no need to say the same thing twice and waste everybody else’s reading time…
Does a local biz owner count as a corporate troll?
It pisses me off how kid-friendly everything has become online. You can’t swear at people and call them fucking idiots no matter how warranted it may be. People censor “removed” because it’s a ‘gay-slur’ but in the UK it’s a food type and a fag is a cigarette. “LatinX” and “unaliving” are things. There’s Reddit subs where people can say “nigga” without being banned because it’s assumed they’re all black. But it’s online so there’s no way of fucking knowing!!
I feel like the Internet is turning into a fucking kiddie day care centre for young adult Americans.
It’s insidious too. I didn’t realise how much I was self-censoring until I came to Lemmy and started swearing more in comments. On Reddit I’d been talking like a guy surrounded by children, afraid to swear, lest I offend someone.
At least here I feel like I can express thoughts and feelings.
People here definitely don’t mind expressing themselves. That’s both a good and bad thing. Remember gamergate? Yeah those idiots are here too.
You have got to be fucking shitting me?! Fagg-OT is a FOOD! You fucking spanner twat mods/admins.
Reddit-rot is spreading to Lemmy. Fuck this noise.
Fellow lemmings, I, for one, am glad that there are no corporate trolls trying to manipulate public opinions on Lemmy, it is the same warm, fuzzy feeling I get when I was watching multiple time Golden Globe nominated summer blockbuster, Barbie, now available on Blu-Ray and select streaming services.
I don’t know about you, but I sure hope Barbie sweeps the Golden Globes next month (and then the Oscars next year.)
Et tu, Barbie?
I can’t believe THE Margot Robbie is on the fediverse.
Good for you, girl!
I know, I can hardly believe it either!
Wait, no, now my astorturfing cover is blown. 😭
You’re kidding yourself if you think they aren’t also on Lemmy.
removed by mod
What are you talking about? We’re not active on Lemmy. We don’t even have time to be here, we’re too busy enjoying a refreshing Starry
Okay but actually imagine preferring Starry over Sprite.