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Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

forbes.com

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Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#11

Post by Zaheer »

Trend to watch in next few years: Phony Actors

This same thing happens on all social networks - facebook, instagram, reddit, twitter, etc all have accounts on them that may have naturally grown and are now paid to post / influence content on their respective platforms. I've seen this first hand on Instagram how large of an effect it can have in promoting apps, products etc. Previously disclosing affiliations / paid promotions was limited to a much smaller set influencers. Now, these platforms give anyone from a kid with spare time to a professional marketing agency a means to build accounts and leverage the vast reach of these networks for their own gain. Facebook is _starting_ to realize this and clamp down on it for fake news. But there are many more avenues and it'll be interesting to see how this really gets solved if at all.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#12

Post by Eupolemos »

ffef wrote: post #5

IIRC didn't reddit use fake users and content when they launched?

I think that is a pretty standard and often needed tactic when starting a forum or community. A community is pretty binary; it's either dead or it isn't, so a it needs to be jumpstarted.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#13

Post by Rmilb »

tootie wrote: post #4

I don't understand why "financial services" are called out in the headline. They're being manipulated by shady digital marketing companies who have some financial clients among many others.

Financial services account for a substantial portion of the US GDP and some may argue has big sway in the way our laws are written, and now in steering conversation about them on a popular site.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#14

Post by anon2264 »

Reddit has some pretty extreme heavy handed political censorship. All Republican posts from the main Republican subreddit (the_donald) are censored from the front page (what most read). Techdirt is censored from r/news and r/worldnews and some of the other main subs. And for pretty repulsive apparent reason... All of the posts from r/conspiracy about the DNC corruption and subversion that was proven were censored. Wikileaks is censored from the front page as well. One day a thread criticizing the $38billion Obama gave to Israel hit the front page. Guess what? Censored. That time, it was taken completely off of reddit, not just the front page. Aaron Swartz is rolling in his grave.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#16

Post by seppin »

tootie wrote: post #4

I don't understand why "financial services" are called out in the headline. They're being manipulated by shady digital marketing companies who have some financial clients among many others.

cause people don't like them, and it's fun to read bad things happening to bad people.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#18

Post by tptacek »

anon2264 wrote: post #14

Reddit has some pretty extreme heavy handed political censorship. All Republican posts from the main Republican subreddit (the_donald) are censored from the front page (what most read). Techdirt is censored from r/news and r/worldnews and some of the other main subs. And for pretty repulsive apparent reason... All of the posts from r/conspiracy about the DNC corruption and subversion that was proven were censored. Wi…

Objection! Claim that /r/the_donald is the main "Republican" subreddit assumes facts not in evidence.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#19

Post by codingdave »

mrfusion wrote: post #15

If you were designing Reddit today what would you do to prevent this kind of stuff?

Tiered subreddits. You would need to earn credibility in open discussions, and earn your way up into more serious discussions. So there would end up being multiple layers of credibility, with only vetted accounts participating in the highest levels.

Re: Reddit is being manipulated by big financial services companies

#20

Post by Drumlin »

vostok wrote: post #9
hacker_9 wrote: post #7

It's a shame this has happened. It used to that aggregated news was the best news because it wasn't opinionated. It also didn't need to focus on the big ticket items (murder, sex, drugs) like newspapers, as sales weren't a concern, so you have science, tech, and I kid you not, actual good news to read about! But now with the pay-to-get-upvotes scams going on, we get utterly biased and even ridiculous stories constant…

> "Donald Trump's war on media is 'biggest threat to democracy' says Navy Seal who brought down Osama Bin Laden". What is this an example of? This sounds like exactly the kind of thing that I would expect on the front page if there was no vote manipulation.

It comes from the politics sub, which - to put it mildly - is one of the most suspect subs for manipulation on Reddit. They let that sub appear on the homepage, yet they ban a lot of other similar subs that are on the other side of the spectrum. It's one of those issues where I look at Reddit and think... something isn't right.
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