3 ms·

I've been talking about this for awhile now, but I used to run a marketing service that streamed all reddit content in real time and did text analysis and bot d

I've been talking about this for awhile now, but I used to run a marketing service that streamed all reddit content in real time and did text analysis and bot detection. It's definitely a rough estimate but about ~65% of text content was determined to be a bot. I am entirely convinced that there are large entities (political campaigns, nations, etc.) that are using bot networks on social media sites like reddit to simulate "consensus" in online discussions and thus gently sway public opinion.

TeMPOraL 4y ago
> It's definitely a rough estimate but about ~65% of text content was determined to be a bot. A scary number. I wonder about a per-subreddit distribution, though. I imagine the primary subreddits have slightly worse human-to-bot ratio, niche subreddit somewhat better, with non-political, non-easily-monetizable subreddits having the best. Did your analysis also attempt to identify troll farms? Would the content produced by protein bots be grouped in the ~65% of bot content, or the remaining 35%?
- a123b456c 4y ago
  Ok how do we know you're not a bot?
  - friendlyHornet 4y ago
    Dear fellow human, you have won cake. There will be a party in your honor Please lie on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party.
SqueamOssi 4y ago
Yeah - I can't believe how much this HN discussion seems like a human generated thread.
anigbrowl 4y ago
Spot on. I am interested in any publications that might have come out of your research if you care to share.
HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
> large entities (political campaigns, nations, etc.) that are using bot networks on social media sites I think this has been conventional wisdom for a few years now.
- 93po 4y ago
  And even if they aren't using bots, it's a documented fact they're using humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record The methods matter less than that it's happening at all.
93po 4y ago
It's wild how low quality so many of the comments are on reddit, to the point that it makes me wonder "Why did this person comment something so empty and non-contributing to a post that already had 3000 comments?" I don't know whether to believe people are so wasteful of their own time or whether this is just low-effort bot posting to build consensus. Combined with how harshly and instantly main subreddits like /r/politics and /r/news shadow ban accounts, it's basically impossible to dissent

TeMPOraL 4y ago

> It's definitely a rough estimate but about ~65% of text content was determined to be a bot. A scary number. I wonder about a per-subreddit distribution, though. I imagine the primary subreddits have slightly worse human-to-bot ratio, niche subreddit somewhat better, with non-political, non-easily-monetizable subreddits having the best. Did your analysis also attempt to identify troll farms? Would the content produced by protein bots be grouped in the ~65% of bot content, or the remaining 35%?

a123b456c 4y ago
Ok how do we know you're not a bot?
- friendlyHornet 4y ago
  Dear fellow human, you have won cake. There will be a party in your honor Please lie on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party.

SqueamOssi 4y ago

Yeah - I can't believe how much this HN discussion seems like a human generated thread.

anigbrowl 4y ago

Spot on. I am interested in any publications that might have come out of your research if you care to share.

HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago

> large entities (political campaigns, nations, etc.) that are using bot networks on social media sites I think this has been conventional wisdom for a few years now.

93po 4y ago
And even if they aren't using bots, it's a documented fact they're using humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record The methods matter less than that it's happening at all.

93po 4y ago

It's wild how low quality so many of the comments are on reddit, to the point that it makes me wonder "Why did this person comment something so empty and non-contributing to a post that already had 3000 comments?" I don't know whether to believe people are so wasteful of their own time or whether this is just low-effort bot posting to build consensus. Combined with how harshly and instantly main subreddits like /r/politics and /r/news shadow ban accounts, it's basically impossible to dissent