News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:New on Reddit: Comment search, improved search results re... by Izkata on Friday April 15, 2022 @01:46PM (#31043252)
They're referring to Correct the Record, which flooded the site with fake accounts to push narratives that supported the US Democatic party.

It was really obvious when something unexpected happened, like that video of Hilary collapsing and having to be pushed into a vehicle during the presidential campaign - for several hours the sockpuppet accounts didn't know what to say so comments from regular users started making it to the top again.

(Quick edit, had the wrong organization in mind before)

Re:New on Reddit: Comment search, improved search results re... by mathgorges on Friday April 15, 2022 @02:57PM (#31044244)
Thanks for citing something! I've been a casual Reddit user since ~2008 and felt very lost in this discussion.

In case anyone is in the same boat as me, heres an article on the subject: https://www.thedailybeast.com/hillary-pac-spends-dollar1-mil...

Re:New on Reddit: Comment search, improved search results re... by stimpson_j_cat on Friday April 15, 2022 @03:16PM (#31044502)
That was an SPAC in 2016, OP said "the night of the DNC primary in 2015." I was there for the CTR debacle, the SPAC hasn't existed since 2016(?), do you think they're still funding accounts?
Re:New on Reddit: Comment search, improved search results re... by Izkata on Friday April 15, 2022 @06:23PM (#31046649)
The DNC primaries started in early 2016, so they're definitely misremembering part of the timeline. If we go by "primaries" and not "2015", then they probably are remembering CTR - it lines up almost exactly to when they started.

And yeah, it's probably not them but it definitely feels like something is still going on. In the Chicago subreddit, for example, on anything that touches a politically-charged topic, the comments and votes will be exactly opposite what they might be on a different day.

Re:New on Reddit: Comment search, improved search results re... by TMWNN on Friday April 15, 2022 @03:16PM (#31044511)
>It was really obvious when something unexpected happened, like that video of Hilary collapsing and having to be pushed into a vehicle during the presidential campaign - for several hours the sockpuppet accounts didn't know what to say so comments from regular users started making it to the top again.

Same thing happened after Trump's 2016 election win. For a day or two, it was possible to post something non-leftist to /r/politics without having it be mercilessly downvoted; as if the shills were awaiting orders.