I have noticed some very odd behavior in !comicstrips@lemmy.world. I saw by chance that a user no longer existed shortly after making a handful of posts on !comicstrips@lemmy.world. I made a comment about it and a user responded very rudely and accusatory, which raised a red flag. I clicked on that user’s profile and, once again, that user seems to no longer exist. This struck me as very odd.
So I started paying attention to the users of posts on !comicstrips@lemmy.world, and I now see that this is a very frequently recurring pattern: A new user is created and posts about 3-8 comics in a span of about 3-24hrs and then the user’s account disappears. Every day this happens, sometimes with multiple accounts.
Since you can’t view the user’s profiles you can’t see what other kind of posts or comments these users are making and it seems very suspicious. It seems like a single person or group of people are taking advantage of some sort of system that creates short-term accounts? Is there some service or bot that does this sort of thing that I am unaware of?
Though the behavior I’ve found here is only making some posts on the comicstrips community, besides the one rude comment, it still is a giant red flag. Is this happening in other communities? What other behavior is being hidden by using burner accounts? What benefits could there possibly be for this? Are communities being manipulated somehow? Surely it makes no sense that someone would anyone go out of their way to constantly create new accounts just to post comics?
I also wonder how other people feel about this. Am I alone in thinking this is weird and a big red flag?
This is an issue for us normal users, though. There is no way of knowing if these people are connected to any bad behavior because they are deleted so quickly. We don’t know if they are posting elsewhere or committing vote manipulation. At best, the seemingly few people who happen to be aware of these burner accounts would have to then also happen to stumble upon a bad comment made by a brand new account that is then deleted.
Basically, if this is the only option, then that guarantees that they will continue to get away with any hidden behaviors. Whoever this is has already proven that they are willing to create an account to write rude and accusatory responses to someone who merely points out the burner accounts. Considering how low of a bar that is for such a negative reaction, that establishes their character. I likely would not have looked into this at all if it wasn’t for this weird toxic reaction.
Additionally, the sole mod of !comicstrips@lemmy.world seems to be unreliable. When I was looking into why people from lemmy.blajaj.zone could not see the community, I saw a handful of people bring up how slow they are to take any action, if they take any at all. Not to mention they were banned from lemmy.blahaj.zone for refusing to take down a comic that is known for racist, sexist, and transphobic comics as well as straight-up nazi references. An example of their lack of action, the rude comment from this person/group has not been removed. The upvotes on that comment are also suspicious in that it could be them employing vote manipulation.
Moreso, the main concern is not even really that particular community. The concern is what this person/group may be hiding elsewhere behind this behavior. So relying on the moderator of this one community for an issue that could be more widespread.
I’m just asking to look into this a bit more than just waiting for something to pop up, because it’s highly unlikely to be noticed entirely because of this weird burner account behavior.
👀