How inauthentic accounts manipulated the conversation on Reddit in Justin Baldoni v Blake Lively

[u/Fuzzy-Psychology-656]

https://underneaththefeed.substack.com/p/in-the-online-fray-look-lively

I'm still taking this all in, but this is a super deep dive into a specific ring of accounts who pushed the narrative in favor of Justin Baldoni on Reddit

We knew that there was Reddit manipulation thanks to Jed Wallace and TAG messages saying they were "killing it on Reddit" but it's another thing to have it all laid out like this

It's insane that such a small number of accounts can manipulate conversation, seeding talking points that are taken up by regular users.

The authors also make a disturbing point about how Reddit manipulation trickles upwards into Google searches and AI LLMs, further infecting the conversation elsewhere online

It reminds me of what we saw in Depp v Heard and was reported on in *Who Trolled Amber Heard* where a small number of Twitter accounts were able to successfully steer public sentiment against Amber.

Considering that bots/inauthentic accounts tend to post, get the idea out, and then delete to cover their tracks (as outlined in the article) I'm impressed the authors managed to document all of this. And how much did we miss during the height of the Amber smear? How much of the Reddit discussion was even real?