6 ms·

Is it possible that those users were deleted after this was revealed?

etjossem 9y ago
Nope. The fake entries added by the photoshopper don't even produce any associated posts in title search results [1]. If they were real posts from a deleted user, they'd still appear in title queries with [deleted] as their author. [2] It's a photoshop and you've been lied to. I hope this teaches you to think more critically about things, especially when they're what you want to believe. Thanks for playing. [1] https://www.reddit.com/search?q=title%3APaul+Ryan+Sides+with+the+Khans&restrict_sr=&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/search?q=title%3APaul+Ryan+Sides+with... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/18ejnd/are_old_posts_under_a_deleted_account_no_longer/c8e324r/ https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/18ejnd/are_old_posts_...
Karunamon 9y ago
That appears to be what has happened. Contrary to etjossem's post, Google still has the history of their posts. howard_lowery: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_sides_with_the_khans_vs_trump/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_... john_valtierra: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sputtering_us_economy_torpedo_clinton/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sput... frank_calder: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_trump_says_he_was_being_sarcastic_about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_tru... terry_moore: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan_calls_donald_trump_a_black_soul/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan... carlos_liu: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_trump_is_guaranteed_to_win_as_top_joke/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_tru... All appear to be single-purpose accounts that only posted in /r/politics, all are currently banned or deleted.
- etjossem 9y ago
  Okay - you're right. I'm surprised none of those show up in a title search. Reddit's search feature must be broken, because title queries are supposed to show even if the author is deleted. So it looks like someone did make super obvious sockpuppets that posted some pro-Democrat content once. I still don't think you can generalize that to a trend - certainly nothing on the order of the Russian bots. If anything, /r/politics had a reputation at the time of being extremely favorable to conservatives.

Nope. The fake entries added by the photoshopper don't even produce any associated posts in title search results [1]. If they were real posts from a deleted user, they'd still appear in title queries with [deleted] as their author. [2] It's a photoshop and you've been lied to. I hope this teaches you to think more critically about things, especially when they're what you want to believe. Thanks for playing. [1] https://www.reddit.com/search?q=title%3APaul+Ryan+Sides+with+the+Khans&restrict_sr=&sort=relevance&t=all https://www.reddit.com/search?q=title%3APaul+Ryan+Sides+with... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/18ejnd/are_old_posts_under_a_deleted_account_no_longer/c8e324r/ https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/18ejnd/are_old_posts_...

Karunamon 9y ago

That appears to be what has happened. Contrary to etjossem's post, Google still has the history of their posts. howard_lowery: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_sides_with_the_khans_vs_trump/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8e2/paul_ryan_... john_valtierra: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sputtering_us_economy_torpedo_clinton/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm7zz/could_sput... frank_calder: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_trump_says_he_was_being_sarcastic_about/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm88x/donald_tru... terry_moore: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan_calls_donald_trump_a_black_soul/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm79m/khizr_khan... carlos_liu: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_trump_is_guaranteed_to_win_as_top_joke/ https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4vm8xn/donald_tru... All appear to be single-purpose accounts that only posted in /r/politics, all are currently banned or deleted.

etjossem 9y ago
Okay - you're right. I'm surprised none of those show up in a title search. Reddit's search feature must be broken, because title queries are supposed to show even if the author is deleted. So it looks like someone did make super obvious sockpuppets that posted some pro-Democrat content once. I still don't think you can generalize that to a trend - certainly nothing on the order of the Russian bots. If anything, /r/politics had a reputation at the time of being extremely favorable to conservatives.