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I don't see this as a problem at all, as long as these commenters are representing the opinions of Hillary. I actually believe that people/organizations should

by harigov 11y ago

I don't see this as a problem at all, as long as these commenters are representing the opinions of Hillary. I actually believe that people/organizations should be given an opportunity to respond to these comments "officially" using the same channels that commenters make use of.

tamana 11y ago
The campaigns already have an opportunity -- they can create an account, and some services like Reddit give "Verified" tags in the site
pessimizer 11y ago
If they were marked as being paid representatives, this wouldn't be a story. Plenty of people working for all of the campaigns participate in social media.
maxerickson 11y ago
What restrictions do you perceive to exist? On reddit, all they have to do is create an account. They can attest that the account is official wherever they want. The issue that arises with this article is that the people using reddit perceive paid comments as an abuse of the channel, especially when the for pay nature of the comments is obscured.
wille92 11y ago
What about pro-Hillary comments coming from unofficial social media accounts? The article didn't say exactly where these comments would be coming from. I assumed they would be "astro-turf" type users that purport to be everyday reddit users but are actually affiliated with this Hillary PAC.
- oh_sigh 11y ago
  So what if they are? As long as they don't misrepresent themselves, why not?
  - alistairSH 11y ago
    As long as they don't misrepresent themselves An astro-turf user is by definition misrepresenting themselves. They gain credibility by presenting themselves as unaffiliated with the candidate.
  - jbob2000 11y ago
    But that's what they do. There is software out there that allows one person to manage hundreds of different "personas". So they use this software to login to facebook as "Jane Smith", make a couple comments, then login as "John Doe" and reinforce the comments "Jane" made.
r00fus 11y ago
Are they above the board? I know at sites like DailyKos there are lots of concern with Sanders supporters that Hillary is buying commenters and even the site itself. The Hillary supporters claim this is "required given the money being raised on the other side" - $2B is a figure thrown around, and that not doing this is essentially ceding the field.

by harigov 11y ago

tamana 11y ago

The campaigns already have an opportunity -- they can create an account, and some services like Reddit give "Verified" tags in the site

pessimizer 11y ago

If they were marked as being paid representatives, this wouldn't be a story. Plenty of people working for all of the campaigns participate in social media.

maxerickson 11y ago

What restrictions do you perceive to exist? On reddit, all they have to do is create an account. They can attest that the account is official wherever they want. The issue that arises with this article is that the people using reddit perceive paid comments as an abuse of the channel, especially when the for pay nature of the comments is obscured.

wille92 11y ago

What about pro-Hillary comments coming from unofficial social media accounts? The article didn't say exactly where these comments would be coming from. I assumed they would be "astro-turf" type users that purport to be everyday reddit users but are actually affiliated with this Hillary PAC.

oh_sigh 11y ago
So what if they are? As long as they don't misrepresent themselves, why not?
- alistairSH 11y ago
  As long as they don't misrepresent themselves An astro-turf user is by definition misrepresenting themselves. They gain credibility by presenting themselves as unaffiliated with the candidate.
- jbob2000 11y ago
  But that's what they do. There is software out there that allows one person to manage hundreds of different "personas". So they use this software to login to facebook as "Jane Smith", make a couple comments, then login as "John Doe" and reinforce the comments "Jane" made.

r00fus 11y ago

Are they above the board? I know at sites like DailyKos there are lots of concern with Sanders supporters that Hillary is buying commenters and even the site itself. The Hillary supporters claim this is "required given the money being raised on the other side" - $2B is a figure thrown around, and that not doing this is essentially ceding the field.