• @Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    4620 days ago

    They’re not just “casually” stealing comments. They steal a random comment from the video, then have a bunch of other bots give it a bunch of thumbs up so that it appears towards the top and accumulates more upvotes than most human comments make. 95% of the time it seems, the real comment has one or two upvotes and is buried so far you have to scroll multiple pages to reach it.

    • DarkThoughts
      link
      fedilink
      520 days ago

      They likely downvote the original comments with their bots to bury it.

      • @Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        420 days ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised, but I’m not convinced downvoting comments has any effect on YouTube.

    • smokebuddy [he/him]
      link
      English
      5
      edit-2
      20 days ago

      it also makes it a lot harder for skeptics taking a look at their account to reveal they’re a bot. When every actual post is a clear copy and paste but the history is mixed with comments that seem legitimate it takes more digging that’s just not worth doing

    • @0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      520 days ago

      I’ve also seen a comment where other bots argued with themselves in the replies and ended up recommending a scam.

      • Possibly linuxOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        120 days ago

        I don’t often invest in a 401k but when I do I use shady services recommended to me by bots.

      • DarkThoughts
        link
        fedilink
        120 days ago

        That’s usually about this Indian (or Pakistani?) guy I think about investments. I’ve even seen that one on Reddit.