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Comment by VictorPath | Hacker News Reader

And the difference between CCP bot and CIA bot can easily be recognized. CCP bots generally don't sway and entice people using words. CIA bots are very good in making specious arguments. They understand how they can imbue people with rage.

You know what, I'm a native Chinese living in Beijing now. On some Chinese websites, such as Zhihu, the Chinese version of Quora, I saw a lot of people calling others names. Those who support Russia call the other ones American spies or Taiwan spies, those who support Ukraine call the opposites "yellow Russians".

I was thinking that people on Hacker News would be a little more reasonable, since it's "hacker" news. Yet, I see you are calling each other "Communist bots" and "CIA bots"... What a day.

Have there been at least one verified report about american comment far, BTW? There's been dozens about Russian and Chinese over the last 15 years.

There has, yes. Straight from the Senate. [1]

There's a 300 million dollar budget to counter "chinese influence" and "promote transparency." Where does that money go? Who knows. But traditionally this goes to paying for media narratives, and in the 21st century, online comments are definitely a good bang for your buck. And star witnesses are also a good way to counter the influence of a country and demand transparency. They've done it before. [2]

I don't think we'll know the reality of this until 20 years down the road.

[1] https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FY21%20B...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony

This money can go to a lot of different activities, and I don't see any reason to believe that it's actually about comment farms and not "white-hat" PR.

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