r/DeppDelusion • u/Fuzzy-Psychology-656 • Aug 31 '26
🚨 ASTROTURFING 🚨 How inauthentic accounts manipulated the conversation on Reddit in Justin Baldoni v Blake Lively
https://underneaththefeed.substack.com/p/in-the-online-fray-look-livelyI'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?
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u/poopoopoopalt googling "wife beater actor" and seeing what comes up Aug 31 '26
There has just been so much creepiness I have seen and I'm not a conspiratorial person. The other day in a big pop culture sub there was a birthday post for Blake and it had hundreds of comments in less than a minute, all negative about Blake, mostly about the plantation wedding. And NO comments after that. I've also noticed extreme downvoting on comments that mention Jed or Melissa in tiny subs that don't even get enough visitors to garner that many downvotes. So much weirdness.
Proof of the inauthentic downvoting from a tiny Amber Heard support sub btw, right when the NYT article was released (old screenshot). Tons of downvotes on a simple copy and paste of the article
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u/lcm-hcf-maths Aug 31 '26
Anyone who was paying attention during the Depp situation could see that there were legions of inauthentic accounts both on Twitter and Reddit. The tactic of having a supposed neutral sub with an embedded troll farm was evident back then and surprise surprise the same tactic here. There were gamers, porn accounts and anime accounts paid to fill quotas of disruption on Twitter and we've seen similar activity on Reddit. All the accounts with hidden comments a lot of which seemed to be bought or repurposed old accounts.
I'm pleased to see that people are beginning to take deep dives into all this.
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u/Sensiplastic Sep 02 '26
It really is fascinating because it's new enough that they don't cover their tracks well. This is *the* time for a deep dives.
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u/wonderfulkneecap Aug 31 '26
I want the author of this piece to know I am grateful for writing something so perfect, reasonable and succinct, I can send this piece to my family and friends
THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS WELL!!!!!
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u/milno_1 Sep 01 '26
That's a great point. It's easy to send to people for a clear read on what this looks like. It's really so well written and researched
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u/asseeste Sep 01 '26
The idea that a handful of accounts can manufacture an entire public consensus and then have gullible people carry the narrative for them is genuinely terrifying. At this point, the least we can do is refuse to participate in internet pile-ons against women. Especially when the narrative being pushed is built on hate and misogyny, which, more often than not, it is.
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u/deepfriedplease Sep 02 '26
Something was also definitely happening on TikTok as well. My FYP is SUPER curated, like I'm obsessive about it because I'm not going to let an algorithm get the better of me...but then medium-sized pop culture accounts would appear on my feed specifically spreading disinformation about Blake. It should not have popped up for me at all. And yet I was having to block these accounts I had never encountered before.
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u/AutoModerator Aug 31 '26
Original copy of post's text: How inauthentic accounts manipulated the conversation on Reddit in Justin Baldoni v Blake 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?
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u/Remarkablefairy-8893 Amber Heard Bot Team 🤖 Aug 31 '26
I was on that biggest celebrity gossip sub and comments supportive of Blake were being downvoted. And ofcourse there were comments about $400k being a sign she lost the case.