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Given how many accounts online are bots or anonymous, will they ever be able to shake out which real people which personas belong to? Or will it be a case of "w

Given how many accounts online are bots or anonymous, will they ever be able to shake out which real people which personas belong to? Or will it be a case of "we said this is you, so that makes it you"?

miltonlost 1y ago
The latter. Checking for identity won't matter to ICE. They already break into apartment buildings without warrants and arrest children and US citizens. There's 0 logical reason to believe ICE will do anything in good faith considering their past and current behavior as well as by the words of Trump himself. https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-...
SteveNuts 1y ago
Yes, they’ll use bots to detect the bots. I guarantee it’s not hard to detect outliers (bots) via many different heuristics at this point. It’s going to turn into a perpetual game of whack a mole just like SEO and ad blocking.
- netsharc 1y ago
  I'm going to modify my keyboard to generate em-dash when I input "-"...
  - froober 1y ago
    That works well until the following doesn't compile int x = 1 — 2;
    - SAI_Peregrinus 1y ago
      #define — - fixes that issue for C.
  - rockercoaster 1y ago
    Option+shift+dash, on a default English Mac keyboard. Easy to remember—"modify [option] the dash [dash] to make the biggest common form of it [shift]", or else you can think of it as modifying the underscore (shift + dash) to sit higher on the line (with option).
bilbo0s 1y ago
There are already attribution technologies that are reliable and definitive. There's no real technical reason that they wouldn't have the capability to directly attribute accounts. Now.. is any of that gonna stop John or Joan Q Public who has a running disagreement with their asian or hispanic neighbor from calling in a "tip"? Probably not. Will that tip result in an automated digital proctology exam that may land them, or people they may have been communicating with (like grandma), in ICE custody? I'm thinking probably so. The danger here is not really technology. The danger here is people. They are essentially automating the "snitch-to-detainment" pipeline.
- Hizonner 1y ago
  > There are already attribution technologies that are reliable and definitive. Gonna stop you right there and ask you to back that up. It's not plausible. Especially not if people are actively trying to mess up the "attribution".
  - CamperBob2 1y ago
    E.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755016 from 2022. Only N-gram frequency analysis, no modern ML techniques needed. Probably time for somebody to revisit this topic with an actual model.
    - Hizonner 1y ago
      That's not even close to "reliable and definitive". I'll give you "suggestive". And it presumably has certain volume requirements.
      - CamperBob2 1y ago
        What on Earth makes you think that the people who will be using this kind of tech will care how "reliable" or how "definitive" it is? False positives aren't a bug with ICE, they're a perk of the job!
      - 1y ago
PunchyHamster 1y ago
The causation chain here is "we don't like someone so we find dirt on him online and arrest them over thought crime"

miltonlost 1y ago

The latter. Checking for identity won't matter to ICE. They already break into apartment buildings without warrants and arrest children and US citizens. There's 0 logical reason to believe ICE will do anything in good faith considering their past and current behavior as well as by the words of Trump himself. https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-...

SteveNuts 1y ago

Yes, they’ll use bots to detect the bots. I guarantee it’s not hard to detect outliers (bots) via many different heuristics at this point. It’s going to turn into a perpetual game of whack a mole just like SEO and ad blocking.

netsharc 1y ago
I'm going to modify my keyboard to generate em-dash when I input "-"...
- froober 1y ago
  That works well until the following doesn't compile int x = 1 — 2;
  - SAI_Peregrinus 1y ago
    #define — - fixes that issue for C.
- rockercoaster 1y ago
  Option+shift+dash, on a default English Mac keyboard. Easy to remember—"modify [option] the dash [dash] to make the biggest common form of it [shift]", or else you can think of it as modifying the underscore (shift + dash) to sit higher on the line (with option).

bilbo0s 1y ago

There are already attribution technologies that are reliable and definitive. There's no real technical reason that they wouldn't have the capability to directly attribute accounts. Now.. is any of that gonna stop John or Joan Q Public who has a running disagreement with their asian or hispanic neighbor from calling in a "tip"? Probably not. Will that tip result in an automated digital proctology exam that may land them, or people they may have been communicating with (like grandma), in ICE custody? I'm thinking probably so. The danger here is not really technology. The danger here is people. They are essentially automating the "snitch-to-detainment" pipeline.

Hizonner 1y ago
> There are already attribution technologies that are reliable and definitive. Gonna stop you right there and ask you to back that up. It's not plausible. Especially not if people are actively trying to mess up the "attribution".
- CamperBob2 1y ago
  E.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33755016 from 2022. Only N-gram frequency analysis, no modern ML techniques needed. Probably time for somebody to revisit this topic with an actual model.
  - Hizonner 1y ago
    That's not even close to "reliable and definitive". I'll give you "suggestive". And it presumably has certain volume requirements.
    - CamperBob2 1y ago
      What on Earth makes you think that the people who will be using this kind of tech will care how "reliable" or how "definitive" it is? False positives aren't a bug with ICE, they're a perk of the job!
    - 1y ago

PunchyHamster 1y ago

The causation chain here is "we don't like someone so we find dirt on him online and arrest them over thought crime"