this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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They absolutely are. Astro-turfing is a well established and effective practice.
In places with a real audience, sure. I'm not convinced it happens to any meaningful degree here.
In spaces that tend to run leftist where the number of people required to stir shit is infinitely smaller than somewhere like reddit or Facebook? Why? All they have to do is show up and say something stupid and 100 people will parrot them here and on more prominent social media.
They literally get more bang for their buck doing it here.
Because having an insignificantly small group of people stirred up provides an insignificant advantage.
Also much more information about the people posting is publically available here than any corporate owned platform.
Do you have any actual, credible evidence of astroturfing on ActivityPub?
I strongly disagree. Disrupting niche communities on the edge of the left and propagating harmful narratives is an incredibly effective strategy. Look at all the people who were on here around the elections in 2024 encouraging people not to vote. Given how many people echoed that sentiment, it seems like it was pretty effective.
Honestly, believe it or don't. I don't really care. I'm not about to make a concerted effort to convince you. It's not a thesis. To me it seems pretty self-evident that what we know is happening on larger social media would also be happening here, where there's a much juicer target. Also, like, the effort they put in isn't exactly stellar. Ducks quack.
That was being spread on the major platforms as well. And those messages were coming from server admins here too -- are you suggesting db0 is a psyop?
There's no evidence that any action on ActivityPub translates to meaningful results in that election.
I know you feel like it's true, and you're welcome to feel that way.
Useful idiots abound on social media, including Lemmy. Every user who echoes astro-turfing doesn't need to be a paid actor. That's the whole reason anyone does it anywhere.
Again, you're welcome to follow your feelings.
Prove it by finding a user that you think is a bot. Show me a bot user.
Nah I'm good.
You are, in fact, no good.
You think they would waste their time here when Facebook is right there and has millions upon millions more users?
What's the signal to noise ratio on Facebook? Do you know how to reliably get a message out to your followers that won't get diverted because of the algorithm?
Now what about Lemmy?
Found the bot that was programmed to argue bad points.
It does. Source: The fucking reports screen every time I log in and my instance isn't even large.
Got a few examples?
Nope, I treat reports as confidential. Well, "every time" was a bit of an exaggeration, cause I mostly get spam or "I disagree with this so I report it" reports, but astro turfing does happen multiple times a month.
Sure.
Are you paid or just a troll?
Just someone who can also see modlogs and knows why you aren't posting examples.