Check back in a couple of hours to see that the account will have been deleted. It seems to be a pattern of accounts being created, posting a bunch of news-like links, and then being purged. It is probably to make it impossible to filter out whatever it is they’re trying to push.
propaganda bots on reddit does that, they do alot of AI, or post certain controversial topics and then delete thier accounts so reddit doesnt catch on immediately and ban the pattern of bots later on.
or less likely is spammers/botters (like OF or link farmers)
This is new to me—how long has such activity been occurring on lemmy? Is there any way to spot such bad actors? Is this sort of thing happening all over the fediverse?
Really seems like there’s basically no places left on the web where big forces aren’t swaying the minds of the innocent…
Lemmy is absolutely inundated with bad faith actors who seem suspiciously intent on sewing as much division as possible, getting the left to be as politically ineffectual as possible, and never offering anything as a viable solution. There’s no meaningful barrier for entry so it’s pretty trivial to make a bunch of accounts and push an agenda.
That’s by no means limited to Lemmy, but Lemmy is absolutely littered with them. It’s been like this for quite a while.
another forum i am in casually mentioned lemmy as one of thier targets for spamming thier businesses, but its far less than they do on reddit though, which is still a large market for them.
I remember Hexbear admins flirting with a system to throttle new accounts, because they experienced a similar problem (troll accounts posting “Fuck Tankies!” as many times as possible before they get booted).
I know a few forums simply won’t let you create an account without an admin’s permission, which seems heavy handed.
Feels like there should be a good technical framework for addressing this. Idk what that is, though.
Welcome to the fediverse, where there’s no central authority on account creation, and users can create 1 account at time on different instances and there’s nothing you can do about it
Check back in a couple of hours to see that the account will have been deleted. It seems to be a pattern of accounts being created, posting a bunch of news-like links, and then being purged. It is probably to make it impossible to filter out whatever it is they’re trying to push.
propaganda bots on reddit does that, they do alot of AI, or post certain controversial topics and then delete thier accounts so reddit doesnt catch on immediately and ban the pattern of bots later on.
or less likely is spammers/botters (like OF or link farmers)
This is new to me—how long has such activity been occurring on lemmy? Is there any way to spot such bad actors? Is this sort of thing happening all over the fediverse?
Really seems like there’s basically no places left on the web where big forces aren’t swaying the minds of the innocent…
Lemmy is absolutely inundated with bad faith actors who seem suspiciously intent on sewing as much division as possible, getting the left to be as politically ineffectual as possible, and never offering anything as a viable solution. There’s no meaningful barrier for entry so it’s pretty trivial to make a bunch of accounts and push an agenda.
That’s by no means limited to Lemmy, but Lemmy is absolutely littered with them. It’s been like this for quite a while.
another forum i am in casually mentioned lemmy as one of thier targets for spamming thier businesses, but its far less than they do on reddit though, which is still a large market for them.
i seen them crosspost, or post something from reddit verbatim.
Annnd they deleted their account again
4 hours later.
“400 couldn’t find person” when looking at the account.
I remember Hexbear admins flirting with a system to throttle new accounts, because they experienced a similar problem (troll accounts posting “Fuck Tankies!” as many times as possible before they get booted).
I know a few forums simply won’t let you create an account without an admin’s permission, which seems heavy handed.
Feels like there should be a good technical framework for addressing this. Idk what that is, though.
Welcome to the fediverse, where there’s no central authority on account creation, and users can create 1 account at time on different instances and there’s nothing you can do about it