467 upvotes, 34 direct replies (showing 25)
View submission: Suspected Campaign from Russia on Reddit
We do have systems in place for catching coordinated behavior on the platform. While we have been happy with the progress that has been made, there will always be more that we can do. This is where we really encourage users, moderators, and 3rd parties to report things to us as soon as they see them. As was mentioned in a previous article[1], this group did have particularly good OpSec (meaning they were good at hiding their tracks), so collaboration was particularly helpful. Here is a previous post[2] that discusses how we are thinking about content manipulation on the platform.
1: https://medium.com/dfrlab/top-takes-suspected-russian-intelligence-operation-39212367d2f0
Comment by LineNoise at 06/12/2019 at 23:20 UTC
244 upvotes, 10 direct replies
Has reddit taken any serious look at the patterns of use around gilding and the funding of it?
With the “gilded” listings and iconography offering content boosting of a form that begins to interact with laws in some jurisdictions around political advertising, with what such listings collate into public pages and the use of these listings off site it would seem worth not only some scrutiny, but some public data on how the system is being used and where the money is entering that economy.
Comment by PopWhatMagnitude at 06/12/2019 at 23:40 UTC
77 upvotes, 2 direct replies
As a former moderator and a user who has noticed suspicious accounts, the Reddit Team needs to make it much simpler to report accounts. Especially for mobile app users. It's insane to me that when I'm in someones profile and see highly suspect behavior I can't just click to report to admins the same way users can report a comment to mods with a reason, such as "Clearly a Russian Troll Farm Account".
Comment by bennzedd at 07/12/2019 at 00:00 UTC
56 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Congrats, my friend. For all the shit we give Reddit, and mostly deservedly so, you are now the first major social media platform to GIVE A SHIT about foreign hacking and misinformation campaigns.
Tell Facebook they suck. Thanks.
Comment by shiromaikku at 06/12/2019 at 23:17 UTC
26 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Are you then considering improving the reporting function? "Suspected Bot" and "Suspected coordinated behaviours" are more specific, while "spam" is too generalised and doesn't feel like anything will come of it.
Comment by ChadFlenderman at 06/12/2019 at 23:49 UTC*
23 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I had an older account I created 8ish years ago that was hacked and used to push Trump propaganda. I recovered the account at one point but am unable to post anything with the account anymore. I deleted the pro-trump comments once I gained access, but always thought the incident smelled like Russia. have you noticed other accounts that have been potentially hacked and taken over by Russians also?
Comment by [deleted] at 07/12/2019 at 00:11 UTC
13 upvotes, 4 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by BeerJunky at 06/12/2019 at 22:13 UTC
42 upvotes, 10 direct replies
That’s always the problem isn’t it? You can create great tools to detect stuff but the game keeps changing. I’m in infosec and it’s always a battle against someone that’s one step ahead.
Comment by [deleted] at 06/12/2019 at 23:05 UTC
14 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by MiscWalrus at 06/12/2019 at 21:48 UTC
36 upvotes, 7 direct replies
Way better than Facebook, fucking Russian collaborators.
Comment by FC37 at 06/12/2019 at 22:30 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Does Reddit then pass on any evidence of foreign interference and collaboration to law enforcement authorities?
Comment by farfromjordan at 07/12/2019 at 00:19 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Do you look for sites that buy Reddit accts and sell them ones to track?
Comment by suckit1234567 at 06/12/2019 at 23:05 UTC
4 upvotes, 5 direct replies
This is where we really encourage users, moderators, and 3rd parties to report things to us as soon as they see them.
You say that. It sure does sound great, but there is a severe lack of transparency on what happens when reports are made by users. I report things all the time. Nothing happens. I get no feedback. I feel like I'm talking to a wall.... whether or not something happens. Honestly your reporting system feels like the button on an elevator that opens or closes the door. But that's par for the course for tech companies - reddit is no different.
Comment by PublicLeopard at 07/12/2019 at 00:20 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
those were real UK govt documents. what does is matter if you "believe" (on what evidence lol) that it's "similar" to some FB Russian campaign. if they are real docs, does it matter if the source is Russian Chinese or British?
Good job however on cracking down on vote manipulation... on accounts and comments with max 48 karma. and banning a sub with half a dozen posts and a dozen comments.
Maybe put some energy into investigating just how 100% against the subreddit rules political posts from the top moderator of worldnews consistently get 10,000s of upvotes within an hour of posting in worldnews.
Comment by BlackeeGreen at 07/12/2019 at 00:48 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is only the operation that you caught. There are more.
Comment by [deleted] at 06/12/2019 at 23:33 UTC*
6 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by KyloTennant at 06/12/2019 at 23:38 UTC
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
So why is /r/The_Donald still not banned?
Comment by FearAzrael at 07/12/2019 at 00:46 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I have been wondering for some time if the trend on Reddit to normalize and propagate suicidal/defeatist thoughts is partly a Russian operation to make American citizens feel helpless.
Is there anyway to look into this?
Comment by lightrider44 at 06/12/2019 at 23:22 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
When are you going to stop the r/Bitcoin sub being hijacked by corporate interests? It's been going on for years and you just allow rampant censorship and abuse to happen there. I guess there's only consequences for users and subs that aren't aligned with the financial well being of your executives.
Comment by TrumpIsARapist3 at 07/12/2019 at 00:21 UTC
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
When is the Russian propaganda sub The_Donald going to be banned?
Comment by KingAngeli at 07/12/2019 at 00:31 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My worry is for subs like T_D where the behaviour would go unreported. I say this because you have these accounts with a million karma who post academic quality research based reports and the person is either a high level political aid or more likely a foreign agent tasked with spreading division in the U.S.
Comment by ZorglubDK at 06/12/2019 at 23:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
So the rumors about a certain sub running a discord (pede central or something to that effect) from where they coordinate their brigading; are either completely fictitious..or your system does not catch such 'organic'/non-botting coordinated behavior?
Comment by [deleted] at 06/12/2019 at 23:51 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
so you are saying this is what i looks like at reddit hq?
https://i.imgur.com/7iL5Way.gifv
how long till our cyber brains are hacked and the Russian Puppet Master Putinpie has full control?
https://i.imgur.com/PSJ4ZbW.gifv
Comment by LeBunghole at 06/12/2019 at 23:55 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What was the purpose of this campaign? What exactly does that mean and what would it affect?
Comment by viixvega at 07/12/2019 at 00:46 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Do the systems usually just catch coordinated efforts to make extra spicy memes?
Comment by Gootchey_Man at 07/12/2019 at 00:25 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Why do all the top comments have next to no votes compared to the post itself?