New Study: At Least 15% of All Reddit Content is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public…
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https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-in-human-behavior%0A
        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
          512·
          11 months ago

          As long as it’s not run by corporations there’s no problem. This is the big advantage of the fediverse where it’s not a single site run for profit, but a whole bunch of servers operated by individuals largely running on donations. We can see how the fediverse is already refusing to federate with threads.

          • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            As long as it’s not run by corporations there’s no problem.

            Just because the fediverse doesn’t have sponsorships doesn’t mean corporations aren’t interested in poisoning the well. Anyone could be a bad actor. Heck, it could be anyone. I could be a corporate shill and you’d never know.

            Wikipedia runs on donations. Does that mean that outside entities aren’t interested in biased editing?

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
              49·
              11 months ago

              The nature of the network makes it much more difficult for corporations to subvert the network, and the incentive structures are also different. The question isn’t one of interest, but one of structure. It’s much harder for corporations to bias a distributed network that’s not run for profit than platforms they own and manipulate themselves. And of course there are lots of instances of biased editing on wikipedia, but there’s no comparison compared to corporate platforms.

              • Isoprenoid@programming.devEnglish
                2·
                11 months ago

                I’m not convinced. You’ve made several claims, and maybe it’s obvious to you as to why it’s hard for corporations to infect the fediverse, but not to me. I’m probably too smooth brained to see it.

                Here is Phil Jamesson using the behaviour of Reddit and the upvote system to get to the top of /r/videos:

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69bFOYklP-E

                What is stopping the marketing team of a corporation to influence the fediverse using similar and more advanced techniques? Lemmy uses an upvote system. Why can’t it be abused like Reddit’s system?

                I’ve already seen several examples of small scale brigading. I can’t mention examples because it would immediately make this post another target.

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
                  49·
                  11 months ago

                  Once again, it’s a question of incentives. People operating individual servers have no interest to allow corporate interference on the platform. The kind of small scale brigading you refer to is an organic phenomenon. I also don’t know what you mean when you say you can’t mention examples because this post will be a target. What will this post be a target of exactly, you’ll get a few downvotes. Why are you worried about that exactly?