r/conspiracy: Holy shit. I think I found a bot-account that copies the comments of other users as its own. So when it is later used for astroturfing, it will appear to have a real user history.

Holy shit. I think I found a bot-account that copies the comments of other users as its own. So when it is later used for astroturfing, it will appear to have a real user history.

199 2014-12-13 by [deleted]

https://www.reddit.com/user/timewaitsforsome

I found this completely by accident. Every single time this user posts, there is the same comment posted either right before or a few comments before. It takes a little patience, but if you go through their history and click on the newer comments, you can still catch him in the act.

Something very telling is that the comment is always copied into all lowercase, even when the original one uses proper names and other capitalizations. An actual human would be able to add those minor details.

So basically, this account is using some kind of algorithm to generate content. Meaning that if it continues to do this, then one day someone can take over the account, make any posts that they want (government or corporate-sponsored) and anyone who clicks on the name will see what looks to be a REAL account.

It reminds me of something I read in this article by The Guardian: "The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing' grows ever more urgent"

Fake accounts can be kept updated by automatically reposting or linking to content generated elsewhere, reinforcing the impression that the account holders are real and active.
Human astroturfers can then be assigned these "pre-aged" accounts to create a back story, suggesting that they've been busy linking and retweeting for months. No one would suspect that they came onto the scene for the first time a moment ago, for the sole purpose of attacking an article on climate science or arguing against new controls on salt in junk food.
With some clever use of social media, astroturfers can, in the security firm's words, "make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/herself to key individuals as part of the exercise … There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to fictitious personas."

70 comments

33 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

Yeah, looks like you found a bot. I guess there are many set up to use this algorithm.

17 -10- 2014-12-13

Yeah, looks like you found a bot. I guess there are many set up to use this algorithm.

16 LeaveTheMatrix 2014-12-13

yeah, looks like you found a bot. i guess there are many set up to use this algorithm.

7 lucycohen 2014-12-13

He even just picked up a Reddit Gold for copying

"do not gild this comment" from this user https://www.reddit.com/r/Monstercat/comments/2p6s60/someone_caught_the_christmas_spirit_early/cmu3jvp

Then posting it here https://www.reddit.com/r/Monstercat/comments/2p6s60/someone_caught_the_christmas_spirit_early/cmu3p48

That's not the first time, he's got it 4 times overall

https://www.reddit.com/user/timewaitsforsome/gilded/

15 livinincalifornia 2014-12-13

While not required, you are requested to use the CIA approved methods of crossposting. This helps to protect national security and the security of NATO nations, using shadowy administrations. The NSA domain servers will redirect your post to $nsatracking repository.

I am a bot, and these actions are performed automatically every day

3 MiguelGustaBama 2014-12-13

I was in the gold lounge and they were discussing giving out gold to random people in that subreddit for what it's worth.

-10 AutoModerator 2014-12-13

While not required, you are requested to use the NP domain of reddit when crossposting. This helps to protect both your account, and the accounts of other users, from administrative shadowbans. The NP domain can be accessed by prefacing your reddit link with np.reddit.com.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

15 Hazezer0 2014-12-13

Protecting your own. I see how this game is played

your days are marked bot

6 WeWillRiseAgainst 2014-12-13

GET 'EM!

1 Crony_2012 2014-12-13

My biggest problem with AutoModerator is that it drones the mantra of non-participation. It may be unintentional, but it kind of gets the idea of not participating in your head through repetition. That's why I believe that we should remove AutoModerator from this sub.

There is no rule of reddit that says that a topic posted about in one subreddit cannot be posted about in another. Yes, I know shaddowbanning happens, but crossposting doesn't automatically get you banned and shouldn't. There's no rule that says if you read /r/conspiracy you can't upvote a similar post on, for example, a default sub.

AutoModerator isn't helping anyone. It's droning confuses users as to what the rules really are and it's mantra of non-participation stifles discussions.

24 [deleted] 2014-12-13

[deleted]

1 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

Original

22 bgny 2014-12-13

This is an important post to show that astroturfing is going on, but also that, as the article shows, they are really fucking good at it, and that they are using the latest computer technology to spin the internet onto a propaganda machine, and spending a shitload of money to perfect it.

-5 [deleted] 2014-12-13

If it were 'really good' at it don't you think it would get the case and punctuation correct?

19 [deleted] 2014-12-13

Never posts in threads below 100 comments, not once.

Edit : Except for this very thread just now....

16 dusty_rowboats 2014-12-13

For those who don't know:

Reddit's business model isn't to generate add clicks. It's not to make people see banner adds. Reddit's business model is to make managed PR look organic.

i.e. "Hey look at the funny joke the dominos pizza guy wrote on my pizza box."

Accounts like this become valuable because it maintains the illusion of organic content and makes it harder to track down the bullshit.

10 psynnn 2014-12-13

I'm confused as to why people put so much faith in anonymous users on the Internet. I literally don't care if it's your first comment or millionth; if you spew hate or advertisements or whatever, I'll call you out on it.

2 iamagod_____ 2014-12-13

You're smarter than the average person. They are so transparent. These bots are used to sway the idiots. Even with this...THEY.ARE.STILL.LOSING.

1 psynnn 2014-12-13

What are they losing?

2 iamagod_____ 2014-12-13

This war against truth. The truth is out.

4 Radium_Coyote 2014-12-13

Hate to break this to you buddy, but noise beats signal every time.

8 -VILE- 2014-12-13

Im honestly surprised how there hasnt been a "im an ex-advertising agency employee that astroturfed reddit" ama yet, guess they dont want to burn any bridges.

6 iamafriscogiant 2014-12-13

Gag orders written into contracts, that's why.

3 thinkmorebetterer 2014-12-13

Pfft - people break confidentiality clauses and NDAs in reddit AMAs all the time.

I suspect it's because the practice is not nearly as widespread as some people believe.

But then again, a cynic might say that there might have been such an AMA in the past, but it was downvoted into oblivion by reddit astroturfing bots :)

3 -VILE- 2014-12-13

I suspect it's because the practice is not nearly as widespread as some people believe.

Id like to think this is true but places like reddit are such an easy, cheap and effective place to advertise it would seem really weird if they didnt.

0 thinkmorebetterer 2014-12-13

I'm sure people use Reddit for marketing, but I think it's a lot harder to have a meaningful impact on voting than some seem to believe.

Content has to appeal to regular users because fake accounts alone won't have enough influence to ensure success.

7 jeremymatanky 2014-12-13

No shit, now it seems there might be more of such astroturfing trolls. And you are right, they earn karmas copying comments and in the future they will encash it by making shill posts.

7 professorbooty25 2014-12-13

Looking at his comment history, he's been on for the last 24hours straight.

10 joyous_ode 2014-12-13

http://www.redditinvestigator.com/

Hell man, looking at his comment history, he's been making a hundred of these formulaic posts every day for months.

7 AssuredlyAThrowAway 2014-12-13

Same thing happened with an account called "trapped in reddit"; they were using karmadecay to rehash populist comments.

What you're onto is even more suspicious than that incident. Nice find.

7 peterson2004 2014-12-13

i wouldn't be surprised if there are more bots than people on reddit. do a bit of research on the marketing companies that the founders set up to understand why. i have caught a few pumping debug info into comments before.

generating circle jerk buzz for products only requires an IQ of about 10, perfect for bots.

7 [deleted] 2014-12-13

Most of the links that make it to the front page these days are exact reposts from years ago that had a high karma count. Even the comments are the same.

Makes you wonder if reddit is just bots upvoting bots now.

5 nettesheim 2014-12-13

There are a lot of these, I watched one in action once. It reposted a thread and then another reposted a comment I made that got some upvotes.

5 AlwaysTurning 2014-12-13

Going through their comments....theyve made an average of like 3 comment, every hours, for 24 hours.... They dont seem to sleep?

4 thinkmorebetterer 2014-12-13

Well there's certainly something going on there, but it's hard to draw any real conclusions. Could just some someone's dumb experiment in bot programming, or some weird project.

Or it may be exactly what OP suggests. Not sure how you'd tell until it actually get's taken over for another purpose though.

I doubt that technique would scale too well though, it might become too obvious if there were a lot of bots doing the same thing.

3 Emerald_Triangle 2014-12-13

i checked the 3 latest comments made by the account you linked. each one was a duplicate of another users.

1 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

Not at all original.

3 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

he's here!

2 timewaitsforsome 2014-12-13

always nice to meet a fan

6 hurtsdonut_ 2014-12-13

Do not gild this comment.

2 digdog303 2014-12-13

I look forward to the day I get to participate in a turing test against an internet-trawling AI able to synthesize positions based on website input.

2 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

downvoting all his comments GO! lol just joking. or am I? I am, seriously, not being serious. Joking I mean. Do I even grammar no

1 sprremix 2014-12-13

Reddit detects mass down voting and all your effort/downvotes will be ignored by the system

2 mrhappyoz 2014-12-13

Not.. quite.

2 bytegeist 2014-12-13

I checked the 3 latest comments made by the account you linked. Each one was a duplicate of another users.

2 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

Slightly less original.

2 Duane_ 2014-12-13

It copies syntax but not capital letters. I guess that's a start in detecting stuff like this. Who the fuck never uses a capital letter in all of their... God, 8k comment karma?

These comments are all +1 and +2 not even counting the minuses.

That's a lot of posts. This would be really effective and it's scary to think how many of these there are.

1 ZergPan 2014-12-13

could also be a a poorly made novelty bot account.

timewaitsforsome

i guess you could see it as reposting someone elses comment later so time waits for some?

big leap but this account is very suspicious.

1 daveywaveylol2 2014-12-13

Someone please make a bot identifier website. Not even sure it would be that hard to cross check names with posts to measure original content. Then we could at least make them work a little harder.

2 HatesRedditors 2014-12-13

Someone please make a bot identifier website.

I think you just volunteered yourself. Let us know when it's finished!

1 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

I think we can establish that these accounts albeit automated are monitored by an egotistic human-thing-manager thing.

0 imagrillguys 2014-12-13

maybe its just a karma whore.

-1 [deleted] 2014-12-13

I checked the history of this "bot" and...its a human. Or a hybrid.

0 putin_hates_cats 2014-12-13

Its not a human, a human doesn't post 24 hours a day. A human doesn't post all in lowercase letters. A human doesn't always copy a comment made a few seconds before in the thread.

Of course a human does run the bot and has the ability to come in and try to fool people into thinking it is always the human.

1 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

see the comment it left me... only a human could be as pathetic as...

0 putin_hates_cats 2014-12-13

I don't get it, you wrote "he's here" and then it showed up. Shouldn't it have happened backwards?

2 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

"he's here" came after he had copied a comment in this thread, originally made by Sabremesh> i had a look, and it does seem to be a copybot

0 putin_hates_cats 2014-12-13

Ok, gotcha! Didn't see his copied thread comment, thought you were psychic for a moment.

It is interesting though how quickly a human took control to answer your comment.

1 heyohyeah 2014-12-13

it is right! like he was flattered someone took notice...

-2 archonemis 2014-12-13

i checked the 3 latest comments made by the account you linked. each one was a duplicate of another users.

5 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

And 5. I think this gag is wearing a little thin?

3 iamagod_____ 2014-12-13

Zio shill 101 behavior.

0 archonemis 2014-12-13

It's Saturday and I'm very busy wasting time.

This seemed like a good outlet.

I've been looking into his comment history and, thus far, I haven't seen the duplicate comment thing.

Perhaps I'm missing it.

4 timewaitsforsome 2014-12-13

i had a look, and it does seem to be a copybot

6 joyous_ode 2014-12-13

honesty is the best policy

2 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

I had a look, and it does seem to be a copybot.

0 archonemis 2014-12-13

I realize that I'm about to sound lazy, but do you have any screenshots?

I just want to be able to verify it for myself because I do find this concept interesting.

2 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

I checked the account of /u/timewaitsforsome and looked at his most recent comment a bit earlier.

This was posted a couple of hours ago.

http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/2p69h8/lpt_let_your_baby_go_down_slide_alone_going_down/cmtxgq7

As you can see, it has now been deleted. The actual comment is still visible in the comment history ("a better lpt: don't have kids").

Anyway, this was the same comment from another user in that thread, posted several minutes before /u/timewaitsforsome.

http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/2p69h8/lpt_let_your_baby_go_down_slide_alone_going_down/cmtxfo0

-1 AutoModerator 2014-12-13

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

-3 GameShowissues 2014-12-13

CAn you provide evidence that this user is just copying comments? Just linking to a post history page isn't good enough because there are hundreds of comments in each of those threads.

2 InternetPropagandist 2014-12-13

http://np.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1v1ggh/exposing_cyber_shills_and_social_medias_underworld/cfbxyy9

That's one example from a while back.

-3 wellitsbouttime 2014-12-13

i checked the 3 latest comments made by the account you linked. each one was a duplicate of another users.

2 Sabremesh 2014-12-13

4th in line.

-6 [deleted] 2014-12-13

[deleted]

2 bgny 2014-12-13

Read the article.

1 Sabremesh 2014-12-13