Thread

Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

neilv · 1790603264 · focus · HN ↗
> REDCmts sells one Reddit comment for $9.99 and 100 for $699.99, from what it calls "real, aged accounts", and shows a gallery of brand mentions it says it delivered. Soar says its accounts are "aged and manually warmed" for weeks before a single brand mention. Bazzly advertises automated replies to every post that looks like someone shopping.
Why doesn't Reddit make sure that shilling is disallowed by their ToS, and then sue these companies and all their customers?
1. Isamu · 1790614299 · focus · HN ↗
  What does it cost for Hacker News comments? Is there no YC startup for manipulating this discussion?
  1. tripleee · 1790636335 · focus · HN ↗
    A lot of these services are sold privately. I have no doubt it exists for HN
    Promenade1676 · 1790637071 · focus · HN ↗
    When I did dev relations I just messaged people who had decent accounts and an email or other contact and offered them some freebies on our platform, which did lead to a decent number of them posting about it, like I solicited ~200 accounts and had ~10 comment or post about it in the next month. Maybe some kind of service where people could opt into offers?

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.