
Russian trolls hit Reddit, too - rbanffy
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/reddit-identifies-nearly-1000-suspicious-russia-connected-accounts/
======
dang
All: could you please keep political talking points and the shallow-angry
comment style out of threads like this? I know it's hard, but it's possible if
you try.

Low-information internet attack mode is the biggest threat to Hacker News
these days, and when you add that acid to one thread it seeps into others.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

------
fastball
I found it interesting that they actually published the list of accounts:
[https://www.reddit.com/wiki/suspiciousaccounts](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/suspiciousaccounts)

~~~
fastball
Looking through some of them, I would be interested to see a bit more detail
into how they identified these accounts.

Because, for example, this account[1] never seemed to post anything political
at all, but is included in the list.

1:
[https://www.reddit.com/user/reggaebull](https://www.reddit.com/user/reggaebull)

~~~
JamesLeonis
The account is created on October 14th, 2015. Posts dogs and cats to relevant
channels, then posts political articles from a dead domain (butthis.com). But
two months later the account goes dark. Looking at what other posts (and their
subreddits) posted this domain [1] I can't help but think this is suspicious.

Then I see the four TESTING posts at the bottom of the list, all on July 1st
2015. They even use TESTING URLs of butthis.com, and no other posts are made
from an earlier date. Every account that posted one of these TESTING posts is
also banned in the same way as the OP's account.

One of those TESTING post accounts [2] left a little russian in his links too
[3].

I would be _very_ interested in seeing these accounts' upvote/downvote
history.

[1]:
[https://www.reddit.com/domain/butthis.com/](https://www.reddit.com/domain/butthis.com/)

[2]: [https://www.reddit.com/user/ser005](https://www.reddit.com/user/ser005)

[3]:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/test/comments/3ayiwh/test_post/](https://www.reddit.com/r/test/comments/3ayiwh/test_post/)

------
aristocles
This is propaganda from intelligence agencies. The "RUSSIAN TROLLING" is an
organic movement of right-wring nationalism that is building in America.

Russians may have tried to stoke the flames of the divide in America, but its
real, and its here.

~~~
slabity
> This is propaganda from intelligence agencies.

What is? This article? The source? Or the arguments in general?

Claims like this require hard evidence provided in the same context, or they
will be dismissed outright.

~~~
daxorid
> Claims like this require hard evidence

This is an interesting take. The CIA/FBI/GCHQ have provided precisely zero
evidence to the public on their various, and extensive, list of claims that
Russia did bad thing X.

Why is the burden of proof on the conspiracy theorist to prove a negative
assertion, and not on the intelligence services - many of whom have a storied
history of making things up - to prove a positive assertion?

~~~
slabity
I did not say the intelligence services do not have any burden of proof. Their
claims absolutely require evidence that can stand up to scrutiny. I'd say they
even require harder evidence because of the history you mention.

You can say their claims are unsubstantiated, or if they have provided
evidence then you can provide counterarguments against it. But accusations
like 'intelligence propaganda' need proof as well.

------
Quequau
I've been a moderator over at Reddit for over a decade.

Personally I found Steve Huffman's claims to be disingenuous, deceptive, and
self serving. I have no idea if there will ever be any consequences for that
but I feel like Reddit would be a better place if there were.

~~~
yanslookup
Which claims? That Russian trolls used reddit to influence US voters?

~~~
SiempreViernes
I would guess OP doubts that Reddit cares at all...

~~~
realusername
Reddit generally never acts on anything (whatever the subject) unless it
appears in the news and they are in the spotlight. There's very rarely any
proactive action from Reddit.

~~~
chatmasta
That’s because every time they make a change, no matter how small, they get a
very loud reaction from pissed off users, many of whom generate the bulk of
Reddit’s content.

------
darepublic
During the elections r/politics and reddit generally was intensely pro
Hillary. The margins who supported Trump did so regardless of some Russian
originated postings of comments (like this one). Actually did you know I am an
agent of the government of Malaysia. You've all been trolled and influenced in
ways you don't even realize yet.

~~~
justherefortart
No it wasn't, it was pro Sanders and still is.

~~~
monochromatic
During the primaries, yes. Once Sanders was out, r/politics just looked like
the internet wing of the Democratic Party.

~~~
justherefortart
Hardly, butthurt sanders fans (and lots of shills) everywhere. Hell, they're
still all over reddit.

~~~
lesss365
/r/politics flipped right after the DNC convention. Filled quickly with rabid
pro-Hillary accounts, and any voice critical of her candidacy was quickly
silenced with a flood of down votes and horribly formulated arguments and
claims

~~~
mistermann
I was there and my experience was also exactly like this, and not subtly
either, it was unmistakable.

Is it difficult to find threads from a specific date?

------
txsh
> In comments, Huffman also noted that these troubling accounts were most
> active in /r/funny, /r/uncen, /r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut, /r/gifs,
> /r/PoliticalHumor, and /r/The_Donald, a notorious pro-Donald Trump
> subreddit.

Russian trolls are active in many other subreddits such as /r/politics. But
Huffman only lists the rightwing subreddits he personally disagrees with. He's
using Russian propaganda to create his own propaganda.

Reddit needs a CEO who doesn't engage in amateur stuff like this.

~~~
SippinLean
>Huffman only lists the rightwing subreddits he personally disagrees with

8/10 of the top 10 subreddits he mentioned were left-wing or neutral:

* funny

* uncen

* Bad_Cop_No_Donut

* gifs

* PoliticalHumor

* The_Donald

* news

* aww

* POLITIC

* racism

------
galieos_ghost
Why does nobody talk about the fact that Clinton and Democrats spent 10s of
millions astroturfing various online communities? You could see r/politics go
from fairly balanced to rabid pro-clinton when CTR got fresh funding
infusions. You can check Alexa rankings and see the massive traffic surges at
the same time. You could see sentiment shift on weekends when the shills were
off.

Hell, the CIA had an entire "Meme warfare division" according the vault7
leaks.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/correct...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/correct-
the-record-online-trolls/484847/)

[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xyvwdk/meme-
warfa...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xyvwdk/meme-warfare)

~~~
SippinLean
Considering it was so easy for you to find two articles about it, it appears
many people are talking about it, counter to your claim of "nobody."

Maybe no one's discussing it in this thread because this article is about
something specific.

~~~
lesss365
It's hardly mentioned in many popular political forums, and when it is
mentioned the user posting gets overran with claims of being a Russian agent,
or that it's a conspiracy

