this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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I don't think there's any question about the interference campaign existing. At this point the question is about influence. How effective are these trolls?
And what was the second country, and why isn't that a problem?
It also suggests that Reddit has been sitting on this data showing signs of foreign interference and just didn't care to do anything about it.
That's how much they care about moderation.
Considering they don't pay moderators, I don't think they do.
Obligatory fuck /u/Spez.
This type of behavior needs to be regulated. Foreign interference isn't acceptable, and if Canada passes the online harms act then the ensuing regulator needs to handle situations like this or at least hand out massive fines for greed and indifference.
Well of course they don't care unless you can make money off it!
As opposed to, I dunno, overseeing community moderation to keep making money off it's golden go--oh, they didn't make any money at all? Spent it all on executive salaries? Wow. How is Reddit still alive?
I'm guessing it would be America, which is less of a problem because statistically most Redditors are American, and the two countries are diplomatically and socially very close, so a large number of Americans visiting a sub about small Canadian towns is less surprising than large amounts of Russians.
It'd be like if /r/queenstown had Australia as its second-biggest country of origin. Aus and NZ are so closely related (not just geographically, but socioculturally) that you'd expect that to be true, especially given Australia's comparatively large overall population compared to other potential candidates (per capita, you might not be surprised if a country like Tonga or Fiji were even higher, but in absolute terms that would be very surprising).
I guess the question comes down to posting. Is it better for an American to weigh in on issues facing Red Deer, or a Russian? If they're honest, I think either is fine. If they're cosplaying as an Albertan, both are problematic.
Both are foreign interference. Do you go to random threads of foreign small towns and weigh in. No. These people are politically or financially motivated.
Random foreign small towns? No. But I might have (when I was still using Reddit) gone to the community sub of a town where I have friends or family living, or where I'm going to visit soon/visited recently. And that sort of thing is far more likely to happen between Canada and America than it is between Canada and Russia.
I'd really like to know that too. US maybe?
That's what I'm guessing.
But if there are a bunch of Americans coming to Albertan subs and astroturfing political opinions, I'm not sure that's actually better than Russia.
I don't give a shit if it's an American or Russian who wants to warp our discourse, our political conversations are still getting bent out of shape.
Oh absolutely. In no way is it any better, it just adds to it.
It would be good to know what percentage of users/posts were from country #2 and Russia as well.
It’s a lot more likely a US citizen was raised in/has family in a small Canadian town though.
And speaks English
AFAIK during the seeding stage trolls try and get engagement. The moment they get people to engage, the game shifts to amplification. That way the people amplified are not the trolls themselves but actual people from the US, allowing them to keep distance from the future misinformation.