I have a feeling that there is a lot of professional manipulation being done on Reddit.
Practically all posts that encourage people to do something about their digital freedom and privacy, the post gets downvoted and comments contain all sorts of pro-corporate statements.
Even in case of posts that are just links to news or videos, without any additional opinions by OP.
Is there any research about this phenomenon?
It is plagued with bots and moderator shills. I don’t know about their organic userbase.
If you were an organization with ideas to push, would you just ignore reddit? It’s pretty cheap to pay people to manage social media, especially if you don’t care about some slop from LLMs.
If it’s “full of”, I don’t know. I don’t use it anymore.
It’s one of the most popular sites on the internet so of course it is. Brokers have been selling accounts and engagement since Reddit was born, I can only assume it’s pretty big business now.
Reddit has paid shills, vigilante company employees, and customers who believe their chosen corporation is a gift from god. The mobile carrier and phone subs are the worst.
The most popular per capita location for redditors, is eglin air force base. It’s an entirely astroturfed platform for US propaganda talking points.
You asked a question, let’s see if we can all work on an answer.
Is there any research about this phenomenon?
I don’t even know what journals would publish such research. Starting with Google Scholar to get an idea of where to look for more information.
Just looking for reddit:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&q=redditAdding some search words:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&as_ylo=2025&q=reddit+manipulationThe top, for me, result is: “Debunking a politically motivated rumor on Reddit: the context of the 2024 U.S. Republican presidential campaign” from “Journal of Documentation”, which sounds fake (not my field).
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jd-02-2025-0052/full/htmlClearly, one should not restrict themselves to the first journal that seems to touch on the subject. Please attempt both a depth and a breadth search, switching as personal energy and interest levels shift.
Searching the Journal of Documentation for reddit:
https://www.emerald.com/jd/search-results?page=1&q=reddit&fl_SiteID=1000445And now one can engage in weeks of reading and reviewing papers.
It is my hope that others already have the knowledge to shorten this search.
Edit: “Understanding Reddit” by Elliot T. Panek looks interesting, but is a whole book.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003150800/understanding-reddit-elliot-panek
