I think if Reddit corporate wanted to make bot accounts that looked legitimate, they could do it. I would not be surprised if their god-like powers over the site would allow them to re-write the history of a sub and create fake posts that weren’t actually made in that subreddit at that time, or even falsify the age of an account. Ideally, the admins of a site would know the red flags of a bot account. Given that these are all on r/programming, that circumstantial evidence makes me inclined toward thinking these are made by a hobbyist programmer who is dissatisfied with the protest, rather than Reddit corporate astroturfing. However, if someone could provide a complete history of these bots’ comments and posts, that could provide some insight.
I put together all the proofs OOP had collected so you guys don’t have to open a bunch of archived imgur tabs:
spoiler
“Promoting diversity and inclusion”
Arch linux/rust enjoyers: thigh highs or get tf out
It’s in r/programming, they’re all already wearing thigh highs
Then there’s no inclusivity issue anymore
I think if Reddit corporate wanted to make bot accounts that looked legitimate, they could do it. I would not be surprised if their god-like powers over the site would allow them to re-write the history of a sub and create fake posts that weren’t actually made in that subreddit at that time, or even falsify the age of an account. Ideally, the admins of a site would know the red flags of a bot account. Given that these are all on r/programming, that circumstantial evidence makes me inclined toward thinking these are made by a hobbyist programmer who is dissatisfied with the protest, rather than Reddit corporate astroturfing. However, if someone could provide a complete history of these bots’ comments and posts, that could provide some insight.
Even funnier alternative: The GPT posts are by someone who is pro-protest doing black propaganda