4 ms·

It's often not somebody from Germany, but a troll farm of humans or LLMs controlled by an intelligence agency with the explicit goal of making you miserable and

It's often not somebody from Germany, but a troll farm of humans or LLMs controlled by an intelligence agency with the explicit goal of making you miserable and disenchanted. This has been ongoing since at least 2020 across all social media platforms.

fragmede 2y ago
Do people really actually believe that?
- throwaway290 2y ago
  It's a thing Russian government was doing. It's pretty documented. do you think they stopped? Their bots are not very difficult to notice if you look at profiles. Weird usernames used to give it away too
  - dleink 2y ago
    I went to school with some Russians so I was often able to pick out troll profiles based on slight grammar mistakes and word choice. I imagine LLMs are going to make this harder.
    - throwaway290 2y ago
      I'm a Russian and sometimes I think they did evolve to levels that are harder to detect now. Or I am just more paranoid from seeing the trolls and over the place and knowing about LLMs. Or there are more people who got converted by those trolls into zombies. Or all 4.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- energy123 2y ago
  Read these articles and see if your doubt holds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215899
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
What is the difference between that and masses of years using downvotes or reporting to make everyone they disagree with feel miserable and disenchanted? I feel like the notion of a troll farm is exaggerated while the influence of regular users and moderators in manipulating others is ignored.
EnigmaFlare 2y ago
You've fallen for a conspiracy theory. This is something people say over and over again but without any data to support it.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- energy123 2y ago
  I don't think so. Have a read of these articles and get back to me. Beyond examples, it would be highly surprising if they weren't doing it. I think the burden of proof is on the person saying that they wouldn't do the thing that any sensible realist actor would do to a rival. That would be a level of bizarre incompetence that is too much to fathom. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covi... https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook... https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-covert-influence-operations/ https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266870/online-rumours-civil-war-philippines-tied-chinas-covert-agenda https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266870/onli... https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/politics/iran-covert-influence-campaign-trump/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/politics/iran-covert-influenc... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ng24pxkelo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ng24pxkelo
  - EnigmaFlare 2y ago
    I looked at half of them and found nothing about how much stuff people see on social media is this. One apparently had its content seen by 140 million Americans. So what does that mean from the point of view of an individual? Is it most of what they saw? 10%? 1%? 0.0? I have no idea and neither do you. It's a popular misinformation technique of news companies to do this - planting a false idea in the heads of their enthusiastic audience using truthful information presented in a blustery way that leads people to believe something it doesn't actually say.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Nextgrid 2y ago
The platform itself does a wonderful job of promoting outrageous/divisive content since this yields much more "engagement" (which is how they make money) than feel-good, innocent content. This disgusting business model itself is the problem, not some malicious foreign actors (though they no doubt can take advantage of the free exposure the platform will give them if their content "engages" enough people).

fragmede 2y ago

Do people really actually believe that?

throwaway290 2y ago
It's a thing Russian government was doing. It's pretty documented. do you think they stopped? Their bots are not very difficult to notice if you look at profiles. Weird usernames used to give it away too
- dleink 2y ago
  I went to school with some Russians so I was often able to pick out troll profiles based on slight grammar mistakes and word choice. I imagine LLMs are going to make this harder.
  - throwaway290 2y ago
    I'm a Russian and sometimes I think they did evolve to levels that are harder to detect now. Or I am just more paranoid from seeing the trolls and over the place and knowing about LLMs. Or there are more people who got converted by those trolls into zombies. Or all 4.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
energy123 2y ago
Read these articles and see if your doubt holds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215899

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

What is the difference between that and masses of years using downvotes or reporting to make everyone they disagree with feel miserable and disenchanted? I feel like the notion of a troll farm is exaggerated while the influence of regular users and moderators in manipulating others is ignored.

EnigmaFlare 2y ago

You've fallen for a conspiracy theory. This is something people say over and over again but without any data to support it.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
energy123 2y ago
I don't think so. Have a read of these articles and get back to me. Beyond examples, it would be highly surprising if they weren't doing it. I think the burden of proof is on the person saying that they wouldn't do the thing that any sensible realist actor would do to a rival. That would be a level of bizarre incompetence that is too much to fathom. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covi... https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook... https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-covert-influence-operations/ https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_Black_Lives_Matter https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266870/online-rumours-civil-war-philippines-tied-chinas-covert-agenda https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266870/onli... https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/politics/iran-covert-influence-campaign-trump/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/politics/iran-covert-influenc... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ng24pxkelo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4ng24pxkelo
- EnigmaFlare 2y ago
  I looked at half of them and found nothing about how much stuff people see on social media is this. One apparently had its content seen by 140 million Americans. So what does that mean from the point of view of an individual? Is it most of what they saw? 10%? 1%? 0.0? I have no idea and neither do you. It's a popular misinformation technique of news companies to do this - planting a false idea in the heads of their enthusiastic audience using truthful information presented in a blustery way that leads people to believe something it doesn't actually say.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Nextgrid 2y ago

The platform itself does a wonderful job of promoting outrageous/divisive content since this yields much more "engagement" (which is how they make money) than feel-good, innocent content. This disgusting business model itself is the problem, not some malicious foreign actors (though they no doubt can take advantage of the free exposure the platform will give them if their content "engages" enough people).