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from the say-it-often-enough-and-people-will-tend-to-believe-you dept.
I used natural language processing techniques to analyze net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC from April-October 2017, and the results were disturbing.
NY Attorney General Schneiderman estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans' identities were stolen and used in spam campaigns that support repealing net neutrality. My research found at least 1.3 million fake pro-repeal comments, with suspicions about many more. In fact, the sum of fake pro-repeal comments in the proceeding may number in the millions. In this post, I will point out one particularly egregious spambot submission, make the case that there are likely many more pro-repeal spambots yet to be confirmed, and estimate the public position on net neutrality in the "organic" public submissions.
The author's key findings:
- One pro-repeal spam campaign used mail-merge to disguise 1.3 million comments as unique grassroots submissions.
- There were likely multiple other campaigns aimed at injecting what may total several million pro-repeal comments into the system.
- It's highly likely that more than 99% of the truly unique comments³ were in favor of keeping net neutrality.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday December 03 2017, @04:37AM (9 children)
Well, if everyone is finished professing undying love for aristarchus, this was something of a serious question. Usually when my karma dips, as I imagine happens to everyone, there is an identifiable or at least proximate down-mod somewhere in my stats. Recently I have not been able to identify the source of the karma dip, which is puzzling. Thus the question.
Of course, the entire system is rather opaque, and not that important, unless someone is using "troll" or "flamebait" for disagree, or particular editors are biased and prejudicial against the submissions of certain soylentils. Things like this can damage SoylentNews.
It can be almost as bad as it getting out that almost all the comments on a proposed FCC policy change were spoofed, and who would have the admin super-powers to spoof emails massively? Just asking.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:19AM (1 child)
Finished? We'll let you know when we are finished with you, you dirty, stained, opaque douche nozzle. As the carrion crow said - step your game up. Don't be so fucking opaque. Change the water in your douche. Maybe put a little lavender or something in it. That stagnant ditch water you spew isn't going to get past any pussy lips. Hell, it doesn't even make it in the door. It just gets you kicked under the porch, out of sight, and out of mind. Have a crummy day, nozzle!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday December 03 2017, @08:21AM
Triggered, are we? Thank you for your contribution. I cannot really say that it improves SoylentNews, but it does provide some fiber. Or "Roughage", as we used to call it. Republican, I take it? Celebrating the Senate passage of the "Death to all Republicans Tax Bill"? Oh, yes, 51 votes, American will not forget this. Machiavelli wrote (while we are on the topic):
Surely you have read "The Prince", even though it is really only a job application, but more relevantly, the Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [wikipedia.org]; great stuff. Or does your "opaque" comment signify that you are a internet functioning illiterate? My apologies, of course.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday December 03 2017, @10:11AM (2 children)
Easy. You have trolled so much that there are enough incoming downmods to confuse you as to their origin. Maybe a comment got a -1 Troll and then a +1 Underrated mod, leaving a karmic balance of -1. Discussions are archived after a month. Maybe someone got around to reading one of your 3½-week-old comments and downmodded it. It's a problem of your own making, and has everything to do with your own toxic behavior rather than your imagined persecution by the site's editors.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:37AM (1 child)
You know, takyon, I am starting to believe you are correct. The entire system has grown so large that it exceeds the ability of a single human consciousness to comprehend. Or, it is rigged. But if only there was some automated tool, some algo-rythum, that could explain karma in human terms, you know, "karma -h". Are we not capable of this? Or do we enjoy aristarchus' paranoia more than we do jmorris'es? Seriously, the dude is deadpan paranoic. He thinks I am out to get him, which, actually, I am, but that is no reason for him to think that I am! So, to repeat: assignable moderation! I want to know who modded me what, when, and up the ying-yang how! Can we do this? If not, I will go down-mod jmorris One More Time!!! Must drive him crazy, you know. But then again, that is not too far for him. Seriously.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 05 2017, @02:11PM
You already make unprovoked attacks on users all the time, as you have done with this reply name dropping jmorris for fuck all reason. Now you want to see who modded who so you can go on a rant or witch hunt every time someone mods down one of your comments. Gee, I wonder what effect that would have on the "toxicity level" of the site. I think it has already been explained to you that that won't be happening anytime soon. Luckily for you, you will still be able to whine in off-topic threads such as this one.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @10:27AM (2 children)
I'm not a fan of yours, aristarchus, but my karma never ever dips. Learn from me!
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:12PM (1 child)
Ah! If only I had the karma of an AC! But seriously, my soylentalish Anonymous Coward, you are not trying hard enough! There are enough right-wing nut-job haters on this site that anyone should be ashamed to not be down-modded!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @08:38PM
+1 Wise Words
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday December 03 2017, @12:16PM
You know there's a daily report of all of the moderations you've received, right?
https://soylentnews.org/messages.pl?op=display_prefs&userfield= [soylentnews.org]
Comment Moderation → Web | Email
#Opaque
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]