>1. Downvotes shouldn't matter to you. They typically don't. However, the notion that it could be due to a disingenuous concerted effort makes me feel rather i

>1. Downvotes shouldn't matter to you. They typically don't. However, the notion that it could be due to a disingenuous concerted effort makes me feel rather indignant. Downvotes equate to reduced visibility on HN, it's tantamount to a soft silencing. Nobody likes to be unduly silenced. It's not just me, virtually any comments that criticize a certain regime tend to rapidly sink to the bottom of the thread, and I strongly suspect banality ain't the reason. >2. I doubt downvotes matter to the 50 cent parties and disinformation trolls of the world, either, if only because a downvote provides so little payoff. Due to the way HN works, the reduced visibility results in ability to steer the conversation in different directions by expressing preference for friendly or unrelated comments, while inducing volatility in the thread such that it ends up flagged or moved off the main page. Moreover there's the notion of kinetics. If you take a valid but otherwise true comment and downvote it right after it hits, people are going to pay it less attention. Comments more friendly to whatever objective can then become established as the thread makes its way on to and off of the main page. In other words, it's pretty low effort and high payoff. The cost is essentially a few dozen accounts above 500 karma, and the reward is you censor or otherwise derail content critical of you on HN. That isn't hard for a government operation. You could of course still be right. Could be a combination of false equivalency with the U.S. and people thinking stuff like this is conspiracy shit, not knowing any better. All we can do is speculate.