This is something that is difficult to prove either way, especially with the amount of group think that gets posted to the top of popular subreddits. Reddit is

This is something that is difficult to prove either way, especially with the amount of group think that gets posted to the top of popular subreddits. Reddit is basically the perfect breeding ground for this sort of thing. In fact if I was an internet marketing type I can't think of why I wouldn't target reddit. We have a lot of younger unemployed people out there today who are probably thinking "damn, if only somebody would pay me to browse reddit all day". Facebook etc are doing similar things with "sponsored likes", the main difference being that this is at least less surreptitious but it certainly shows that astroturfing is very very big business. Hell for all I know, I'm the only "real" person on HN and all of the rest of you are hired by various interest groups to try and persuade me of various things..