Reddit's Massive Turkish Vote Brigade Problem & Appealling to Mod Censorship Tendencies
4 2018-03-19 by neckbeardgamers
Recently even one of Reddit's founders, Steve Huffman wrote an announcement complaining about Reddit's alleged Russian bot/troll problem. After examining some of the sources of the pro-Hillary, American Democratic whiners that keep this myth alive, I found that the allegedly powerful Internet Research Agency of Russia with its puny $1.25 million monthly budget is directed toward domestic and international audiences and thus even all that small million dollar sum wasn't directed to interfering in the 2016 American election. Meanwhile the Clinton campaign spent $1.2 billion and the Trump campaign $612 million, so by comparison even if Russia invested $1.25 million solely into the American election, it still wouldn't influence much. Infact on Reddit the only thing I have noticied time and again is that on almost every subreddit if you don't simply circlejerk against Russia and support the media war mongering against Russia, it will be bad for your karma and "because having higher karma is desired, users behave in ways that will get them karma", which in this case involves bashing Russia. In my real life workplace and day to day conversation there is no concern for finding a Russian under everyone's bed contrary to this internet political discussion furor.
All that Russia misdirection has allowed the arguable largest national vote brigading and botting group to get far, far less attention than they deserve: the Turkish brigaders, trolls and botfarms. In thread after thread I noticie the top voted comments are mostly Turks having a monologue with other Turks, it is a surreal and pathetic scene:
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/85a3q3/turkishbacked_forces_have_taken_full_control_of/
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/83lvb0/turkish_mosque_attack_with_molotov_cocktails_in/
Practially all of /r/syriancivilwar(a really shitty ultra-censoring sub full of mostly nerds thousands of miles away) and /r/combatfootage is a never ending Turkish state propaganda wankfest ever since Turkey invasion of Afrin dubbed with the Orwellian title "Operation Olive Branch" started.
Have Russia/Russians ever been able to turn /r/worldnews, /r/europe into circlejerks of their state's official talking points as much? Russia may have a weak and tentative state social media program, but the actual Russian population is not fanatic to turn into millions of footsoldiers for the program. Russia also cannot get 20,000-40,000 people in Germany to attend a Putin rally, but the fanatic Turkish diaspora can turn out those numbers when Erdogan visits the Turkish immigrant colonists of Germany who have no intention of assimilating. Turkey has a state social media program and the ultra-nationalist population to back it up. To give an idea of how fanatic the Turkish population is, watch this old AKP election video titled Millet Eğilmez. A text description by the anthropologist Jenny White who focuses on Turkey:
The AKP video for the 2014 local election showed a mysterious stranger in a foreign-looking trench coat cutting the rope that held up an enormous Turkish flag. As the falling flag’s ominous shadow floated across the land, citizens of every persuasion began to run toward the flagpole, masses of them diving into the Bosphorus to swim to the flag’s rescue. In a chilling special-effects ending, citizens swarm on top of each other to create an enormous cone-shaped hive, seen from the sky. One young man, his face aglow with fervor, climbs on the backs of the others to the top of the pile and grabs the broken end of the rope, flinging himself outward to certain death while pulling the flag back up.
That election video presented the Turkish population as a fanatic zombie like mass or Zerg herd(Starcraft) and it actually worked, in Turkey. While in Western societies it would have backfired for insulting the nation as a fanatic, dumb mass. But Turks are proud to be a fanatic, ignorant, ultra-nationalist, bloothirsty mob so it worked! And that is also why the Turkish state's social media efforts are much more effective and potent on Reddit than Russia's or those of other nations. Turkey has massively insulted almost every country with its diplomacy and engaged in patently hostile actions in an official matter against almost every Western country that matters, and yet on a Western dominated medium like Reddit, Turkish brigaders, trolls and bots are amazingly able to bully their positions through again and again. Here is just a small fraction of the articles about the Turkish state's inverventions on the internet:
http://www.techeye.net/news/how-turkish-trolls-tried-to-kill-movie
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323527004579079151479634742
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/turkey-social-media-yeni-safak-facebook-twitter-manipulation/
https://twitter.com/grantwahl/status/473941181487800322
Time and time again, whenever I try to counter Turkish propaganda on Reddit my posts are deleted and very funny activities happen with voting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/7x8ea2/rturkey_captured_flag_of_greekgreek_cypriot/
(I would cite more but even ceddit is not indexing a lot of the deletions...)
Recently I had an accidental hint at what is really happening behind the scenes. A while ago I read a great article about [the Turkish embassy in Belgium being the source of threats to journalists in that country(https://stockholmcf.org/turkish-embassy-turns-out-to-be-source-of-threats-sent-to-journalists-in-belgium/)(mostly Turkish ones) and posted it to /r/belgium. It seemed to be very welcomed by the actual userbase there, infact if you check the related discussion tab, after I posted that article on their own several people who frequent that sub reposted the same article to other subs. I checked the post history of one of the Erdogan shills on that thread and got a brief glimpse at what is the real power of Turkish partisans, of Reddit, they don't care about free speech in any sense and are willing to censor their oponnents. I found that an Islamist Kosovo Albanian "Ottoman seed leftover" and self proclaimed Erogan fan created a thread to not only censor that thread but to get mods to filter the media source I posted in the future!
/r/belgiummeta: Turkish embassy
Dear mods,
I urge you to check the source of that post, and ponder whether such propaganda could not be considered 'haat zaaien' when paired with the message it delivers concerning a large portion of the migrant population of the country this subreddit represents.
This is nothing more than slander en masse.
And as usual on Reddit the useless waste of space mods instead of defending free speech, instead felt powerful and haughty at being presented yet another chance to abritrate what information we should or should not be able to access since they already accidently stumbled on internet power and authority that most of them anyway shouldn't have:
The source of that post seems to be a propaganda outlet, yeah. I'll start up a discussion with the other mods whether or not we should start filtering out such content - same with the Gatestone Institute article posted earlier.
Most users on r/belgium seem to be critical enough to spot propaganda when they see it, but it's still annoying.
If you go on that meta thread you will be greeted with the familiar [deleted] seen all over on Reddit... On Youtube biased Tyrone posted a hilarious critique of 4chan janitors(which is their term for mods) that applies equally well to Reddit mods:
He is a janitor on the internet, on an anime image board. He does it for free. He takes his job very seriously. He does because it is the only amount of power and control he will ever have in his pathetic life. He deletes threads he doesn't like, because whenever he gets upset he has an asthma attack. He deletes threads he doesn't like because they interfer with the large backlog of inter-Chinese girl cartoons he still has to watch. He will never have a real job. He will never move out of his parent's house. He will never be at a healthy weight. He will never know how to cook anything besides a Hot Pocket[American microwaveable sandwhich pocket]. He will never have a girlfriend. He will never have any friends. ...
Indeed the German Marshall Fund recently published the results of shocking study that shows how rooted the Turkish penchant for totalitarianism against the Turkish political party that Turkish citizens feel most distant to is:
German Marshall Fund: Dimensions of Polarization in Turkey
About half of the respondents supported wiretapping the phones of supporters of the “other party,” and 37 percent said they are against participation of the members of this group in elections.
In my experience most Reddit mods are the social losers of the West and should not even hold the internet authority they do. So when Turks massively complain and report posts instead of that making them angry at Turkish attempts of censorship and instead of them taking action against constantly reporting whiners turning Reddit into a shithole of threads full of the word [deleted], they instead feel an ego boost as the Turkish complaints recognize their authority to delete material! Indeed there is even some Greek loser neckbeard mod that only posts mostly about vidya games and to janitor on /r/europe, /u/greekball who frequently reports my posts again and again with the goal of getting me banned from Reddit subs and Reddit. In the glory days of the pre-Reddit internet during the "phpbb era" on the better forums such whiners would be looked at as vermin but those cowards are the probably the secret to why Reddit discussion after discussion is full of [deleted] comment chains.
Now I cannot prove that appealing to the vanity and authority of Reddit's neckbeard mods is why Turkish vote brigaders are so successful on Reddit, but it is a start.
Why do you guys think the Turks are able to bias Reddit so easily?
Aside:
Isn't pathetic /u/kn0thing suppossed to be half-Armenian, shouldn't he be concerned that the nation that committed and denies the Armenian genocide is so easily able to game Reddit again and again? Instead of talking about that publicly, Reddit is co-operating with the Western mainstream media in looking for a Russian under everyone's bed... I have yet to found a Russian there despite what the corporate controlled media war-mongers write.
25 comments
1 AutoModerator 2018-03-19
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1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
tl:dr;
Like the Western corporate, mainstream media Reddit too is obsessed with a "Russian under every bed." Despite the hysteria, I don't notice Russian viewpoints getting any traction on this medium, all I notice instead is Turkish vote brigaders, trolls, etc. I posit that the eery success of Turkish viewpoints on Reddit is due to the Reddit Turks jibbing well with the vanity or Reddit's ultra-nerd moderators. Turks have to be massively using the report function of Reddit as even the German Marshall Fund indicates more than 1/3rd of Turks think the supporters of the Turkish political party they hate the most shouldn't be allowed to vote. Instead of defending free speech, Reddit's cancerous neckbeard mods feel empowered by the constant Turkish reports to censor comments and ban users and take censoring action.
1 ID_7854 2018-03-19
There's a post just a few down from you in the new queue which calls Assad "A Boss" because he's driving a car through an area his army and Russians have just murdered half the civilians.
And you don't see any pro Russian view points lol
The Hillary/Trump hundreds of millions you quote are for the entire campaign, that's t-shirts, flags, venues etc etc not specifically all for electronic shit.
The IRA has hundreds of employees and they're pretty good at mixing in, they definitely influenced people.
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-mueller-indictment-a-russian-novel-of-intrigue
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Not hundred of millions, Hillary's campaign was $1.2 billion! I already gave the source.
What, what? Are you talking about this submission:
Nice editorializing their buddy.
Oh wow, so the Russian agency that pathetic whining propagandists like you complain about that has the mission to influence domestic Russian and international opinion has hundreds of employees. Well I am sure that led Clinton to lose an election in a monstrous large and powerful country of 300+ million where billions are spent on Presidental elections!
Btw did you get a good night sleep with the Russian in your blanket?
1 ID_7854 2018-03-19
There's no Russians under my bed, I have one who cleans my windows though. Very cheap, they're desperate for work.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Thanks for proving you have no reading comprehension ability.
Btw what does this article by a non-kool aid drinking Western analyst say about what Western policy lead to in Syria:
Let me guess he is funded by the Russians in your bed?
Or what did the secular Syrian opposition say about how their opinion on opposing Assad change during the course of the Syrian Civil War in this PBS piece?
1 g9g9g9g9 2018-03-19
Good post. There definitely needs to be more attention towards propaganda on reddit.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
I think it is happening even in this thread, the initial thread and my only comment in it are already being down-voted. Which proves what I was trying to complain about.
1 g9g9g9g9 2018-03-19
Weird, I thought you downvoted me for the brevity of my comment. And I can't see the score on your posts yet.
I wonder if they have tools that notify them whenever new posts with certain keywords are mentioned.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
The initial thread was at a high of 6 points once, but now it is sitting at 0 or 1 point. I made a huge tactical mistake of also challenging the Hillary campaign, Western media, "Russian under every bed narrative," so the thread has to go against the synergy of Turkish shills, Hillary/Western triumphalism ones as well. Being right or writing a well reasoned post doesn't matter on Reddit, it is what group you cater to that matters more.
1 Rose_Thug 2018-03-19
You have such an obvious agenda man. Keep playing games on reddit.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Reddit comment search yielded this on the above whiner, who infact has an obvious economic interest:
1 Rose_Thug 2018-03-19
It is, absolutely. I never denied it.
I feel as if the MSM misleads so many to what is actually happening over there. These kind of one sided posts dont do any good. Maybe Turkey is sick of being a puppet to the US.
Would you care to mention any of the positives about Turkey ir nah?
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Yeah the mainstream media lies by being massively pro-Turkish and cowing to Turkish demands as if Turkey is some uber powerful country they are helpless to stop. Back in 2008 Turkey was still the same country full of ultra-nationalist, miserable scum that hate and genocide Western values.
That made zero international headlines that the head of the fake secular TSK lionized a flag that idiot fanatic Turkish high school drew with their actual own blood(the Turkish flag is red). But when Erdogan traumatized a Turkish girl by saying she could be a martyr for the Turkish military:
It received massive coverage. Why the discrepancy for two very similar actions? Well it is a difference in timeline. Today Western leaders realize in the future Turkey be the next Iran with the constant virulent anti-Western rheteric of Turkish politicians, media, etc, so they magnify news against Erdogan and Turkey. In 2008 the West they still had hopes that the Turkish Republic would carry their dirty water. But the war mongering and anti-human stances of General Büyükanıt who was the imagined defender of secular Kemalism on the blood flag his alleged polar opposite, Islamist Erdogan on the crying girl not happy by the news she could be a future martyr for the Turkish Armed Forces were not different in any substance.
Since you want to be a propagandist can you present any positive news on that fanatic hovel of a country? For I find little that is worthy of praise there.
1 Rose_Thug 2018-03-19
A propagandist? Seriously? Here you are accusing people of being shills and spreading propagands when that is literally what you are here doing by definition.
I dont have time to argue with someone so dramatically emotionally invested in propagating their agenda on reddit.
Economy, Military, Medical, Exports and Human Rights have all had amazing advances since 2014.
You're so salty it is laughable, enjoy your reddiy games. I'm getting back to real life.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Haha! What planet do you live on where Turkey is improving in those categories:
This is the reality just after the Turkish coup in July, 15, 2016 and thanks for illustrating the depth of pro-Turkish shills on Reddit:
This is an old post I wrote that gives just a tiny glimpse of how much the AKP regime lies about key indicator indicators:
But the Turkish government lies all the time and their GDP figure and economic growth figures are all lies. These are the games that the AKP plays with GDP calculations:
And:
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/turkey-how-turks-became-richer-overnight.html
In 2006 the AKP liars pulled the same stunt:
I will not included that link as the crappy Reddit automod deletes automatically all posts linking to that Turkish source.
Another good article where a Western economist, Erik Meyersson looking at freight traffic, energy consumption, construction permits, bank loans shows the AKP is likely lying with their reports of high economic growth, because it is not consummate with those aforementioned indicators:
A Turkish economist, Dani Rodrik destroys the AKP myth that Turkey is gaining ground economically vis a vis the rest of the world under their rule:
More from Rodrik, as he points out when you compare Turkey to its developing nation competitors, not the developed world, Turkish GDP growth is anemic by comparison and Turkey is actually losing ground to its closest economic rivals:
Keep in mind he is not questioning the official figures given by the Turkish government that much compared to Meyersson.
In conclusion get you be wrong and get more owned? Not possible, I don't think.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Aside:
When did Hillary Clinton shills from a political campaign lost over a year ago come to dominate this subreddit? I haven't posted here in a while and didn't know how bad things had become.
1 garyp714 2018-03-19
Lost me there. IRA alone was spending that per month.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Yeah and over a year that is only $15 million. Meanwhile:
Also look at the original justice department document instead of the pro Killary Klinton whining and spinning media you probably prefer:
So in a campaign where Hillary Clinton's team alone spent $1.2 billion you want to complain that a Russian agency that deals with social media campaigns in Russia and the whole word that has a meanly $1.2 monthly budget(or $15 million yearly) and act like Russia stole the election from Hillary or was more than a fart in the election?
Really when did this sub become so pathetic and canvassed by Hillary koolaid drinkers and people who buy the stupid shit the media spins about the allegedly all powerful IRA even after its puny budget is revealed? And when did Reddit in general become such a shithole where it is just a battle of various blind, ignorant shills who are very dumb and ignorant, but there is a lot of them, so not matter what intelligent reply you could craft is more time wasted since it will buried and the idiot groups will always win?
Infact there is massive evidence Hillary Killton's campaign even canvassed Reddit:
Also see /r/TheRecordCorrected
1 cutol 2018-03-19
Interesting Turkey + Facebook collusion anecdote.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
Thanks for the additional info, you one of the only good faith res-ponders in this now quite miserable sub. Yes the bullying, ultra-aggressive, muslim josh mentality of the Turkish government combined with the pathetic policy of large Wester corporations to put $$$ above allegedly sacrosanct Western values also accounts for the huge power of the Turkish state narrative on the net. A twitter I follow recently linked to this article about how the totalitarian Turkish state bought Sandvine/Procera Networks Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) devices and FinFisher “lawful intercept” spyware install nation state backed malware on Turkish citizens pcs(they probably most heavily targeted supporters of the Kurdish national movement) and even neighboring Syrians:
1 little_lord_fauntler 2018-03-19
Ergodan is a fucking ghoul.
The martyrs are immortal! YPG will win.
1 neckbeardgamers 2018-03-19
I used Reddit comment search and found a trove of info in the posts of the mod of /r/syriancivilwar /u/Woofers_MacBarkFloof that shows there is heavy Turkish botting activity on Reddit:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
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1 ID_7854 2018-03-19
There's a post just a few down from you in the new queue which calls Assad "A Boss" because he's driving a car through an area his army and Russians have just murdered half the civilians.
And you don't see any pro Russian view points lol
The Hillary/Trump hundreds of millions you quote are for the entire campaign, that's t-shirts, flags, venues etc etc not specifically all for electronic shit.
The IRA has hundreds of employees and they're pretty good at mixing in, they definitely influenced people.
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-mueller-indictment-a-russian-novel-of-intrigue