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Ref shilling: I think there should be a very straightforward test for whether someone should hit "publish" on a piece of content, or a comment, or an ad bid. Two questions: "is the place where I am about to publish this content/ad or cause this content/ad to be published by a third party my company's own website?" and then "could I reasonably expect this action to result in a net financial or traffic gain for my company?". If the answers are "no" and "yes" respectively, you should be about to incur a fine which is a double digit percentage of gross revenue for the last financial year, with no opportunity to appeal or reduce. 100% if that revenue was under six figures, to immediately exterminate startups who think advertising is OK. This deals with shilling, astroturfing, "disclaimer: I work for X and recommend" comment section crap, YouTube sponsors, advertising, blogspam, Substack, Medium, and all the rest. Cause an advert, namedrop, or traffic driver for your company to appear on any site that isn't your own? You just lost your entire profit for last year and then some. Kick the corps offline, give the internet back to the hobbyists, the enthusiasts, and the academics |