You don't need to fake the likes yourself to get the effect you want.
The same thing was happening on Instagram and Facebook - just at a much smaller ratio - mostly because they stopped the problem earlier and the bot technologies got better and easier while TikTok was trying to grow and doing nothing to stop it - not because Instagram and Facebook were less fake.
Now, does either of the original strong claim or the subsequent weak claim match reality? It’s anyone’s guess, I’m leaning on likely for the latter and maybe for the former. But that’s not the point. Giving fake citations to make one’s argument appear stronger is what irks me, and again ironically, it’s almost a parallel of appearing more viral with fake likes.
Edited to add: your comment here is a perfect example of two problems on HN: using citations to give the impression of being well-supported when the citations say something else (occasionally the exact opposite); and lately, using AI slop as evidence.
I wonder if you are able to map any part of this to any part of the comment you are replying to.