• ooterness@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m speculating, but my guesses are:

      • Gathering enough karma to post on subreddits that have a minimum threshold.
      • Getting enough post and comment history to pass a casual inspection, either by human moderators or spam filters.
      • Maturing the account to the point where it can be sold to another shady company.
      • Generally having a lot of bot accounts ready, just in case.

      Once mature, it’s usually used for spam or astroturfing. There is a noticeable uptick around big elections, wars, etc.

      I saw one repost-bot that metastisized into the most vile porn-spam-bot you can imagine, but they’re usually more subtle than that.

      • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Possibly vote manipulation as well, where else do the sites to buy upvotes and downvotes get those voter accounts.