rigorousintuition.ca

I don't know if the RI forum has ever discussed Reddit, but it seems like a worthy topic for the conspiracy-minded. It is owned by Conde Nast, which is the publisher of numerous mainstream magazines including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. Content appearing on the front page of Reddit appears there depending on how many votes it gets, and is viewed by around a billion people a day. That being the case, it is an obvious target for manipulation by corporations and political ideologues alike. While the site gets a massive number of visitors, less than 1% actually participate as active content-submitting and voting members, so manipulation isn't as difficult as it might seem at first blush. Front page items typically receive a total of 10-20,000 votes (up and down combined), but a snowballing effect typically takes place after the first few hundred. The top comment on a front page item typically only news a few hundred votes.

In light of all of the anti-Monsanto protests recently, I became interested in how content manipulation of the site works. To my complete lack of surprise, I found dozens of users whose comment history shows that they spend literally all day every day talking about how great Monsanto and GMOs are and smearing detractors. A small sampling:

http://www.reddit.com/user/JF_Queeny
http://www.reddit.com/user/firemylasers
http://www.reddit.com/user/MennoniteDan
http://www.reddit.com/user/ephantmon
http://www.reddit.com/user/fe_fi_fo_fum
http://www.reddit.com/user/ethidium-bromide
http://www.reddit.com/user/scuderia
http://www.reddit.com/user/hexaploid
http://www.reddit.com/user/sludgehammer
http://www.reddit.com/user/poopsatchel
http://www.reddit.com/user/ray192
http://www.reddit.com/user/sieziggy
http://www.reddit.com/user/adamwho
http://www.reddit.com/user/joeflux
http://www.reddit.com/user/DrunkenBeetle
http://www.reddit.com/user/NilRecurring

Regarding the first user name on that list, astute corporate historians may note that Monsanto was founded by a fellow named J. F. Queeny. As far as I can tell, the user JF_Queeny is one of the master accounts directing the activity of others. JF_Queeny is the moderator of an obscure subreddit r/GMOMyths which seems to be essentially a staging area for raids on any and all anti-Monsanto threads which appear on the site. JF_Queeny has to be run by multiple actual people, because the account posts content non-stop around the clock. Like I said, not really surprising, but it's kinda interesting to watch corporate stealth PR in action in real time.

The main political subreddits are also heavily moderated. They have a liberal slant, but a heavily mainstream liberal slant. I've already been banned from one of them.

There's a conspiracy subreddit, which is a cut above Above Top Secret, but sometimes not by much. There's also r/HailCorporate, which is dedicated to ferreting out corporate manipulation of the site. Numerous other interesting subreddits exist, for practically any topic you can imagine, plus a large number, of course, dedicated to porn. Anyways, would be interested to hear what other RI'ers have to say about the site.

edit: added more info

did you start a thread on reddit about these sockpuppets?

justdrew » Mon May 27, 2013 8:37 pm wrote:did you start a thread on reddit about these sockpuppets?

Not as such, but I have started pointing out their shillery in various other threads. It would be a full time job to actually keep up with them.

operator kos wrote:
Not as such, but I have started pointing out their shillery in various other threads. It would be a full time job to actually keep up with them.

That is the point isn't it. They (in this case monsanto, tho more generally PR companies as a whole) have the resources to employ people full time to run sock puppetry operations. Most 'ordinary people' don't have the time or resources to effectively combat organisations that have the money to employ people to shill and spam for them.

Reddit is self aware to the extent that Hail Corporate exists. http://www.reddit.com/r/HailCorporate/

If you want to understand the strategy the use you should check the research that has been done on Wikipedia which was basically the first place they took over in this way. This kind of thing is aided and complemented by the promotion of libertarian "socially liberal + fiscally conservative" ideology to the antisocial internet masses. Re wikipedia it is often quite obvious take for example the page on the treatment of Tourette's Syndrome which contains items like this:

some pharmaceutical PR agent wrote:Stimulants (like Adderall and Ritalin) are underused in the treatment of ADHD when tics are also present because of fears that they increase tics.[5][6] Experimental treatments like deep brain stimulation, nicotine, marijuana and complementary and alternative medicine approaches have widespread appeal but unproven safety and efficacy.

Thanks, wikipedia "volunteer" population.

Yeah, I thought of Wikipedia too when I was writing this. Same principle... anyone can participate but there's a core of superusers (quite a few of whom seem to live in Langley, Virginia, hmm...) who control much of what the average user sees.

On older article, but relevant:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks


Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media

Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

Centcom said it was not targeting any US-based web sites, in English or any other language, and specifically said it was not targeting Facebook or Twitter.

Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.

Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.

It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".

This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.

• This article was amended on 18 March 2011 to remove references to Facebook and Twitter, introduced during the editing process, and to add a comment from Centcom, received after publication, that it is not targeting those sites.