I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

There are no fake accounts. There are only accounts or not.

There are no sockpuppet bloggers; those are called bloggers.

If you go down the fake road, you have to realize real news by real reporters is often wrong. I’ve had someone in law enforcement tell me the news accidentally labeled them the victim on televised news and didn’t correct it.

Classbooks written for US public school students- I understand that some content in them has been incorrect and intentionally biased.

There is truth, but it’s an ideal.

I’m glad that this is calling out those that are manipulating people, but on the other hand- what is the goal?

Will shaming bring fairness?

We could have communist dictatorial leaders enforcing their version of truth, if you’d rather have that sort of thing.

Our president should tell the truth, and it should be a scandal if not, to a point of course, because I’d bet most have lied at times.

But if it’s time to activate something like a libel superpower on the internet, how would that even work in a fair and practical way?

Freedom of speech cannot be freedom only to tell truth; truth can be aspired to, but not necessarily known by all, and what’s understood to be truth by some may change. So, really, what should be done?

Btw- I’ve done my best in past years to tell the truth as much as I can when I’m not kidding around, and it typically makes things difficult, but better. I’m not recommending anyone fake up things to boost rep. But, it’s happening, it’s not good, and I don’t see how AI or oversight or a control play would end well when it comes to enforcing truth. However, the notion of a “fake” account is what allows most of the users to post content on HN and Reddit more freely.

Unsure if this is part of the assertion or not, but some of these appear to be actual people with LinkedIn profiles and careers. It was unclear to me if they were spawning new identities to author the content.

> By the way, there are no fake accounts. There are only accounts or not.

Yes, until we see a great advancement in AI, actual meat based mammals are driving these accounts.

> There are no sockpuppet

Sometimes it seems like half of Twitter is fake accounts. You've never seen photos or videos of a Bangladeshi click farm? 50 people sitting in small cubicles running proxy-connected virtual machines on desktop PCs, posting stuff, upvoting things on reddit, etc?

I assure you that such things exist. Some of the places that used to do MMORPG gold mining to trade virtual currency for real money have shifted into the market, because it's much more lucrative.

You've never seen the pictures from China of 1 person sitting in front of a board with 40 budget android phones mounted on it, upvoting and reviewing apps?

Yeah, this has been going on for a long time. The methods evolve, but the bullshit stays the same [1]. Good rules of thumb:

1. If it praises a product, the article was paid for

2. If it has a link that looks even slightly out of place, that link was paid for

3. With few exceptions, most of the revenue for the publication comes from selling features and backlinks (much more than subscriptions and ads).

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

If this isn't black-hat, what is? Specifically, an author not disclosing an affiliation or payment, fake accounts promoting it, and fake accounts commenting on those promotions. In the continuum between white and black, what's left on the black side? :-)