[mejutoco]

Reddit famously started with a lot of fake users. I think the founders mentioned it in an interview. Even the Swedish guy from the show Succession was inflating his numbers. And those attributed clicks from Facebook (especially fb) and Google, better not to look too close.

[han-tyumi]

Reddit is a little different as their intention was to populate the platform with content in the early days [1], not to mislead investors with fake metrics.

Mind you that Huffman and Ohanian did this manually, while founders today can use LLMs to fill their platforms with bots that can interact "naturally" with users. I wonder how many are already doing it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeDzx4SUME

[kevinventullo]

I have no real proof, but based on the volume of replies/likes I get on throwaway comments, I strongly believe TikTok does this.

[danuker]

How far has Reddit come from "no censoring" (3:39).

[pests]

Thanks for the spoiler. :(

[mejutoco]

Sorry. It is not important at all for the plot, no worries.

[pests]

No worries! Half joking as I literally just started the show a day or two ago and am loving it and even had it on in the background while I read your comment.

[beezlewax]

Happens in the show Silicon Valley too.