this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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The exact same scenario plays out when .ml users chime in a .world news thread about China/Russia and the reverse happens. On .world the .ml tankies get downvoted into the ground and on .ml the .world users who call out tankie shit get banned. That is an instance cultural clash that fits the exact scenario.
For the anti Dem stuff plenty of us who vote for them don't actually like them and it doesn't take bots to drum up votes for posts that criticize them, but we will downvote the ones that seem to be discouraging others from voting Dem. If they were brigading then the anti Dem posts would get upvoted even more on .world.
There are likely to be malicious actors, probably some vote manipulation. But overall it seems far more likely that in Lemmy the vast majority is still valid users both posting and voting, but that there are malicious actors who are trying to sway directly instead of through bots.
I’m sure some of it is organic but there have been times when I see a post and read the comments and they are all talking in a way that pushes a similar opinion. Then I see the same post reposted and notice the same accounts using the similar comments if not the exactly same. Often times being overly prepared with links and info dumping like a lot of effort was made to support their opinion. It is very sus.
We may not be able to verify when it is happening but we absolutely do know there are organized efforts to shape public opinion by using multiple accounts to push talking points. And this is done by many different types of organizations, from countries like China and Russia, but also by companies like Monsanto or the fossil fuel industry. It has been happening rampantly for years.