Reddit Manipulation by Marketing Agencies

• Reddit is regularly manipulated by large financial services companies with fake accounts and upvotes to change the conversation and make it more positive. - professional marketing agencies openly brag about manipulating conversations on Reddit.
• Manipulation is widespread, with agencies offering services under the guise of "reputation management".
• Agencies use different IP addresses, real emails, and avatars to make manipulation look natural.
• Agencies offer services to change the conversation on Reddit, get rid of negative threads, and start new threads.
• There are concerns about the lack of action from Reddit in addressing the issue of manipulation.
• Fake comments and conversations being hard to spot makes shilling big business.
• Tactics like astroturfing and manipulating discussions are not new to online forums.
• Manipulation on Reddit is part of a larger issue of online comment manipulation and synthetic shares creation by hedge funds.
• The manipulation is driven by the pursuit of profit and control over the narrative on Reddit.
• There is a lack of transparency and accountability in online discussions, with many users unaware of the extent of manipulation on the platform.