this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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It probably seems weird asking this on Lemmy, but of course posting this on Reddit would get banned or taken down. Reddit doesn’t like being critical of Reddit. Anyways….

Over the last 10 years as a Reddit user I’ve believe the amount of accounts that are bots or foreign bad actors has tipped past 50%. I have no statistics to speak of, but would love if somebody did and could share.

Based purely on some of the conversations, posts, rage bait, strong ideologies, etc… I’m pretty convinced that a reasonable sample of humans could not or would not act the way they do on that platform. So often now I see posts that I feel are specifically attempting to sow discord and disagreement.

Does anyone else agree? What percent of users do you think are bots? Foreign bad actors?

Sadly, I think Reddit has no desire to find out or do anything about it. There would be no upside to them correcting their advertising numbers.

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[–] tht@social.pwned.page 1 points 12 hours ago

Probably a big chunk, thats why i left

[–] Majestic@lemmy.ml 33 points 4 days ago (5 children)

"Foreign bad actors" Sigh. This is propaganda framing.

The fact that reddit is astroturfed by the US government, US actors like Hillary's campaign in 2016, etc is very well known. Reddit even did an oopsie many years ago admitting that the most active reddit city was a US air force base with influence operations located there, aka psyops, aka propaganda bots.

If it has foreign "bad actors" they don't control the narrative, they don't control the main big subs, they don't have an in with the admin team, they don't run even a large minority of bots.

If these mythical creatures people like you believe in (as a result of the US policy of always accuse your enemies of what you're doing to hide it better) to pretend that the problems are all those evil foreigners do exist they exist as grains of sand caught in a mighty torrential river of US propaganda machines and influence operations. They exist hopeless. Helpless. With no friends on the admin team unlike the US propagandists, fighting a pointless fight where they are almost certainly subject to frequent, near immediate bans after mass downvotes by controlled moderators and/or mods who just are that happy to prevent any viewpoint but the US one from existing.

Even framing your question like this is a massive pushing of US propaganda. This isn't so much a question as a weaponized trojan horse that starts from the point of view of the people who control the most bots and the narrative totally on reddit.

The only thing approaching foreign, non-US "bad actor" astroturfing and botting would have to be the zionist bot effort which is admin and main subs moderation team backed and also backed by the US government by the way who doesn't care to get upset about it or raise it as an issue and demand it stop because they're supplying weapons to that genocide.

I mean the way you state it is literally the line being pushed by US government censorship proponents who are angry any foreign voices, any voices but their own are getting through.

[–] slowmotionrunner@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Your point is fair and I didn’t mean to imply that bad actors are purely foreign. There are plenty of domestic bad actors. Please excuse the “propaganda framing”.

This was my subjective opinion based on the kinds of discussions and posts I see.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A lot of it IS foreign though. I don’t know about a majority, but it’s wild.

Interesting research into bots by The Flashbulb

[–] OmanMkII@aussie.zone 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah there's a lot of foreign influence, some of it successful as well:

Romania's national security council (CSAT) has declassified two documents this week that reveal a coordinated propaganda campaign that boosted an obscure far-right and pro-Kremlin candidate into the country's first round of presidential elections.

https://news.risky.biz/risky-biz-news-declassified-documents-reveal-russias-election-info-ops-in-romania/

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Just because the US does it doesn't mean other countries aren't also doing it. OP said bots or foreign bad actors. Sure, a narrow scope that utilizes propaganda language, but your comment is some false dichotomy whataboutism tankie shit

For sources on foreign influence in U.S. social media, consider:

  • A study detailing Russian influence operations on Twitter and their effects during the 2016 election.
  • Research highlighting ongoing influence campaigns by various countries, including Russia and China.
  • Reports analyzing foreign influence tactics.
[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Well, he could have just said bad actors, but then the answer would be a lot higher...

[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago
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[–] stembolts@programming.dev 39 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Just an opinion from someone who has been around the internet for a long while. It wouldn't surprise me if most of the comments are bots. I remember what it was like to interact with humans, even dumb humans, and they aren't nearly as blatantly agenda-driven as commenters on what I'd call "visible social media".

There are plenty of people who have a vested interest in disrupting means of communication and organization and they are investing a great deal in "false idea proliferation".

My 0.02¢.

Oh, you asked for a percentage, in the popular subs? 80+%. In niche subs that don't affect the Overton Window? 5-30%. And yes, these numbers are favricated outward from my butt hole.

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 10 points 4 days ago

Probably on the nose.

Source: former forum user that moved to Facebook during the consolidation that moved to reddit during the monitization that moved to the fediverse during the enshitification.

I have no nostalgia about leaving sites that turn to shit or become rage bait click holes. It's just stupid time wasting media.

[–] Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 4 days ago

You take your fractional pennies and get out of here with those rough guesses I can't refute or deny!

I'd honestly be surprised if a majority of any social space was bots... However I do believe a majority of initial posts are bot generated. Especially for news based spaces. It just makes sense to plug in a bot to whatever biased news source you subscribe to and just have it post new articles every 5 minutes.

Much like the average American voter, I believe in that 50% silent users who are often forgotten. 25% active users, and that other 25% can be whatever ghosts in the system the OP is after.

My numbers are also butthole deriven.

[–] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

…interact with humans, even dumb humans…

Hi, it’s me, the dumb human.

[–] Wrufieotnak@feddit.org 8 points 4 days ago

Nice try bot.

[–] fool@programming.dev 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Everyone's speculating so I'll put in something concrete:

About 3 months ago, r/wholesomememes mods clamped down on karma-farm bots as hard as they could...

causing no new posts to appear for two entire days.

Hey there friends! It’s only been a few days since we started cracking down on the spam bots and excessive reposts that have been plaguing r/WholesomeMemes - and now there is nothing left! --mod

[–] jrs100000@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

That was reposts as well. Its not like anyone was wasting their life making fresh Facebook grade memes for that that cesspit.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago

foreign bad actors

[–] static_slabs@feddit.rocks 3 points 3 days ago

Oh nice! More shitstirring. 😃👍

[–] jrs100000@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I would bet the actual number of active bot accounts is probably lower than many people think. Maybe 20-30%. Those accounts are more active than humans though, maybe accounting for half of all the posts. Many of these bots arnt even proper LLMs, they are just scripts recycling generic comments, catch phrases and old memes and upvoting each other endlessly.

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[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There would be tons of downside if they revealed the bot count. Their website would probably crash and burn. I think it's well past 50% now. Well past.

[–] bokherif@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah posts getting easily 100K+ upvotes in hours, I’ll say over 70%

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Pointless drivel too, stuff like "what's your favorite color, and why?".

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm a foreign good actor (to non-Australians), does that count?

Not to brag or anything, but I was nominated for a couple of acting awards in recent years.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Are you Bluey? That's exciting!

[–] MargotRobbie@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Bluey is also from Queensland, so...close enough.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago (9 children)
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[–] Ibex@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (6 children)

It’s probably higher than that. Every time I comment on there it feels like a play with the way people act and respond. Like it’s not real, or they have a script to follow. No real person would act the way most Redditors operate.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also important to remember that karma farming is a thing over there, alongside the circle jerk. There's thread after thread of people just saying the same shit over and over because it's guaranteed karma.

[–] smokebuddy@lemmy.today 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I was on there recently and saw the same LET THEM FIGHT GIF posted 12 times in the same thread and all of them had some number of upvotes

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[–] Pechente@feddit.org 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sure this can be bots but at least when I was still active this behavior was also just karma whoring by real people. Comment fast before the thread „expires“ and become one of the top rated comments.

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[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] sirboozebum@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It has basically been taken over by the IDF

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