https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/1ilcbij/rshortguys_is_a_russian_psyop/
created by Fun-Marketing4370 on 09/02/2025 at 10:57 UTC*
464 upvotes, 26 top-level comments (showing 25)
Russian bots are using subreddits like r/short, r/shortguys, r/truerateddiscussions, and more to harm the mental health of western citizens, primarily teens and young adults.
Below is a case analysis of a bot I've identified to illustrate this point. I was able to locate this bot within the very first post I interacted with on r/shortguys.
Take u/Desperate-External94 for example. I believe them to be a bot. They’re very active in r/shortguys.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that these bots are often active in teen spaces, r/teenagers, r/teeenagersbutbetter, r/gayteens, r/teensmeetteens… they want young people to click their profile in order to be exposed to their propaganda.
There are even more clues if you care to find them. Accounts like this are being activated on a massive scale for the purpose of harming the mental health of western citizens.
EDIT: Additional findings below 👇
There seems to be two bot types, I call them "farmers" and "fishers".
"Farmers" post in the sub all day everyday and only that sub
Example of a likely farmer bot: u/NoMushroom6584
"Fishers" post in the sub too, but also some other strategic subs, usually involving young people like r/Genz, r/teenagers, and weirdly, subs for different countries. Disproportionally, countries within the Russian geopolitical sphere of influence. I believe the goal is to lead people from those subs back to subs like r/shortguys, where the farmers have cultivated lots of propaganda.
Example of a likely fisher bot: u/Landstreicher21
I’ve observed the same thing with r/truerateddiscussions, r/smalldickproblems, r/ugly, and more
Comment by goodbyeACpocketcamp at 09/02/2025 at 11:53 UTC
307 upvotes, 6 direct replies
It will never not weird me out that reddit has teenager subreddits. Sorry but this site should be 18+ without subreddits for predators to go into. Why is there allowed to be subreddits for minors on a website that has an insane amount of porn? I know they will look for it regardless BUT there are literally minor subs on a website with porn. Wtf?
Comment by rainbowcarpincho at 09/02/2025 at 11:25 UTC
62 upvotes, 1 direct replies
why is it hard for bots to upvote posts or get post karma?
This is really sad. There's a whole industry out there trying to make kids hate themselves, and it's not the diet industry this time.
Comment by SoulofZ at 09/02/2025 at 13:53 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It’s hard for bots to upvote posts, but they can upvote comments. That’s why bot accounts often have comment karma but not post karma. This is often a dead giveaway.
Is there a source for this?
Comment by Kaneshadow at 09/02/2025 at 14:20 UTC
8 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You're kidding, "true rated discussions" was not an organic community? Color me shocked.
But on the other hand, how does getting short guys to self-select help them, wouldn't that just breed a race of towering American supersoldiers?
Comment by mfb- at 09/02/2025 at 11:56 UTC
31 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I'm not convinced this is a bot, or from Russia.
Why would a bot duplicate letters all the time?
Why would a Russian bot support fighting Russia[1]? Seems to be deleted, here from the profile:
russia wants it'ss soviet territory back inculding us, so it'ss in our best intrest to stay united against it long live nato!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
they have almost no post karma. It’s hard for bots to upvote posts, but they can upvote comments.
Bots can repost popular content and get upvotes from humans.
Comment by ShrewSkellyton at 09/02/2025 at 16:31 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The user you listed is encouraging users not to kill themselves, though? Looks like he's trying to convince other men to turn to homosexuality because that's what he did as a result of being short. Maybe inform that subreddit of him being a groomer or bringing awareness to grooming in general?
Not sure about the typing pattern, is it possible their keyboard doesn't register certain letters unless they press down (seems to happen on the most used letters a and e)
Comment by stop_shdwbning_me at 09/02/2025 at 17:14 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A lot of the personal identity subs are hardcore misanthropic and victimizing in a way that goes way beyond "misery love company" to the point there has to be some social engineering going on.
It's not that active or extreme as it was in its "glory days" but r/hapas for instance used to be vehemently against the existence of the people its about and many of the posts were documenting murders and other crimes committed by them - but this wasn't like r/coontown which was geared towards haters outside of the group but for the group itself.
Comment by orange_jooze at 10/02/2025 at 02:58 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
local man discovers existence of slightly dumb and semi-literate internet users, claims international conspiracy
Comment by lazydictionary at 09/02/2025 at 13:01 UTC
14 upvotes, 2 direct replies
my dad is south azerbijani andd my mumm is north azerbijani butt I wass bornn in sweden and lived there for 10 years before moving toooo thee uk with thee whole family, I am noww 19 I should alsoo sayy that I have visited azerbijan at least 14 times and iran at least twice
Nothing about this account looks like a bot. Russians doing propaganda usually have good English and spelling.
Comment by Edhop at 09/02/2025 at 21:44 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don’t have receipts like you OP but I’m fairly certain there’s bots throughout reddit. Tell tale sign are comments parroting the same talking points in the comments of political posts with +5 upvotes.
It’s seems innocuous but it has a big effect on casual browsers who come to reddit to listen in (lurk) on important news events.
Comment by Weedity at 09/02/2025 at 20:05 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
According to redditors every differing opinion on reddit is a Chinese Russian bot
Comment by boozillion151 at 11/02/2025 at 16:39 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
They're doing it with every sub and have been for years. And its not a psyop or troll farm filled with govt agents (some prob are). Their population has been raised to hate America. They do it for fun. As one chinese commenter posted a while back on Reddit: Americans are extremely self centered. We talk with someone online and just assume they're American. (For examples just check out r/shitamericanssay). Most of the rest of the world is at least bi if not multilingual, something Americans don't hold in high regard. Combine those two and Americans believe just about anything they read online because the Internet has to be American right? The point it to sow dissent. Go to the sub about apples and talk smack about oranges. Go to the sub about oranges and talk smack about apples. Cause as much division as you can. They do it for shits and giggles. We are a country full of morons and we eat it up.
A quick glance at Reddit or any social media will show you how well it's working. One day we'll realize that Russia played the long game and we actually lost the cold war.
Comment by Sysiphus_Love at 09/02/2025 at 16:40 UTC*
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
That isn't Russia, those are the same social media shitbot things that have been destroying reddit for years. Russia doesn't run them, US and possibly Israeli intelligence does. The goal is to vandalize and discredit the forum
e: and propagate domestic propaganda and disinformation
Comment by c74 at 09/02/2025 at 19:35 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
why russian? i think we should all be more leery of sweden. sweds have gotten a pass for far too long and we would all do better to be more suspicious of their motives. say no to meatballs!
Comment by doesnt_use_reddit at 09/02/2025 at 16:23 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by obi_wan_jabroni_23 at 09/02/2025 at 13:01 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I mean, Twitter and Facebook are just insanely overrun with very very blatant Russian bots. Facebook ones particularly don’t even try to hide it (and this was before Elon became president, and Zuckerberg relaxed things).
Not really a surprise that they’d come for Reddit as well. As much as I despise it all, I am pretty fascinated in it. If anyone knows any good documentaries about the subject I’d be interested to know. I saw a HBO one a few years ago which was great.
Comment by XysterU at 10/02/2025 at 18:42 UTC*
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I'm pretty sure they add extra letters as a way of emphasis. Like the way people (mostly young girls) drag out the pronunciation of words. They have written plenty of sentences without the extra letters that are plain legible English.
They're literally telling people not to kill themselves. I'm not sure what's a psyop about that.
Who the fuck posts? It's an incredibly low percentage of reddit users that post. Having no post karma is not uncommon.
You don't even reference a single comment or anything in their profile that suggests this is a psyop or propaganda account. Like seriously, what's your accusation? because you present zero actual evidence. The leap to this account being a propaganda psyop is insane lol
Edit: OP is actually insane lmao https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/s/pWmbxLX2r9
Comment by Inquisitor--Nox at 09/02/2025 at 13:05 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Tried to post about detrans here but was not allowed to. Anyway not sure if psyop but definitely attempts are being made to just turn it into a hate machine.
Comment by ComradeCatilina at 09/02/2025 at 13:55 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
To be frank, this sounds like a weed induced conspiracy (like the Pope being a reptilian because he preaches in a building resembling a snake head - Paul VI audience hall).
Comment by [deleted] at 10/02/2025 at 02:41 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by JosephGrimaldi at 10/02/2025 at 05:26 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The end of the internet as we know it.
Comment by merlin_theWiz at 11/02/2025 at 03:17 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
That's a blurry ass picture of a clock but the time is clearly a few seconds after 4 o'clock, the second image was taken roughly 10 seconds afterwards. If it was 10:10 the minute hand would be further clockwise than the hour hand.
Comment by [deleted] at 11/02/2025 at 11:22 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
все кончено, они нас обнаружили
Comment by Reddit-Bot-61852023 at 15/02/2025 at 03:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
half the random subs popping up on r/all are as well
Comment by goddamn_slutmuffin at 09/02/2025 at 18:53 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
r/ OptimistsUnite is also a sub I'd bet money on being astro-turfed. Not sure by who, but I have a feeling the top 3-5 most active mods are all the same person or work for the same think tank type thing.
It's filled with posts from top mods* that are propaganda aimed at centrists and those who are younger and tired of negativity on Reddit. They do this by mostly censoring and cyber bullying people who likely are depressed/struggling with social media addiction and anxiety, and saying it's for their own good.