Targeted Flagging of Posts and Comments from Accounts @heather2000 & @thinkingtime
I have noticed a trend over the last 24-48 hours, that I have received multiple downvotes on my comments in multiple posts, from the same account(s). None of these comments were malicious or hateful in any way towards any individual. This screenshot from steemstats, shows the downvotes from these accounts.
Upon further investigation, this is not an isolated incident and neither is it a coincidence. It is in my opinion, directly related to a targeted flagging effort from two accounts that I believe are directly related to each other (very possibly owned and operated by the same person).
The two accounts that are involved in this campaign are @heather2000 & @thinkingtime. Both accounts went on a mass downvoting spree within the same hour of each other which I believe proves that they are either operated by the same person, or are in a co-ordinated effort and collaborating with each other in an effort to silence dissenting political opinion and commentary on steemit.
Here are some screenshots and direct links to show the pattern of their downvoting activities.
https://steemd.com/@heather2000
https://steemd.com/@thinkingtime
The downvoting patterns of these two accounts are not a coincidence. They are targeting particular authors/posts & the comments sections, that seem to be any type of independent and/or left leaning political opinions that are not conforming to either their own views, or mainstream narratives. Up until this point in time they have targeted these particular authors.
@eleanorgoldfield @elizbethleavos @caitlinjohnstone @leecamp @an0nkn0wledge @markhodge @suzi3d
I am in no way either endorsing or affiliated with any of these authors/accounts, apart from commenting in some of their posts (and at times even disagreeing). Personally, I couldn’t care less what political opinions people want to express on this platform. I myself, have no specific preference for either the left or right wing of party politics. I enjoy reading political opinions from all types of media and ideologies. As such, I believe everyone has a right to free expression of their own ideas and philosophies without being targeted by this type of deliberate flagging that is based on nothing more than political ideology. There is no valid reason for this type of behaviour, especially when minor and innocuous comments are hurting and can have a huge effect on smaller accounts, by downgrading their rating and reputation on the platform. It is completely unacceptable and uncalled for and may lead to the small fish giving up on the platform early on. It will also lead to self- censorship, dis-incentivising debate and commentary, which in turn stifles opinion and constructive debate from users that is in no way malicious or hateful towards anyone.
Both of these accounts are involved in flagging the same posts and comments. Here are the direct links to posts and comments sections that show the consistent, cowardly and targeted flagging campaign.
https://steemit.com/poetry/@eleanorgoldfield/patriarchy-i-learned
https://steemit.com/poetry/@eleanorgoldfield/the-apocalypse-looks-to-us-for-inspiration
https://steemit.com/julianassange/@markhodge/julian-assange-is-our-canary-in-the-coal-mine
https://steemit.com/conspiracy/@leecamp/both-parties-sell-out-to-big-banks-again-video
https://steemit.com/life/@suzi3d/announcement-kim-dotcom-to-join-live-q-a-for-being-julian-assange
https://steemit.com/wikileaks/@suzi3d/an-insider-s-guide-to-being-julian-assange-part-1-introduction
https://steemit.com/life/@eleanorgoldfield/a-deep-state-darling
https://steemit.com/life/@suzi3d/eye-candy-and-being-julian-assange
I understand that people will say that they aren’t whales and have no real influence on steemit. Whilst this may be true (depending on your interpretation of influential), if this type of behaviour is emulated on mass without consequence, it has the potential to destroy the very principle the platform was built for. I’m not saying that people should never flag any posts or comments, but it is very unsavoury when it is targeted and co-ordinated in this way and can lead to gangs of flag wars which doesn’t help anyone in the long run. I myself will refrain from making my own shitty opinions known, if it constantly leads to flagging.
However, not only are they running this flagging campaign, but they have in the past engaged in scamming the rewards pool. They have a history of mass spamming their own posts and comments sections along with a network of other accounts, to mass upvote themselves and affiliated accounts, to receive upvotes and rewards. There is evidence of this behaviour in their entire post and comments history.
https://steemit.com/@heather2000/comments
https://steemit.com/@thinkingtime/comments
If you find this information useful, please upvote and resteem this post to your followers to spread awareness of what is happening. After all, you could be the next target!
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Thanks for sharing; your information is useful. I upvoted and resteemed. I also commented on @v4vapid and @ura-soul posts regarding this issue, and some of the same members that you mentioned. I feel much the same as you in this regard. Personally, I think that downvotes should only be downvotes and have no (or at least very minimal) financial, reputation or visibility effect. I'd suggest reserving flagging for pointing out illegal activity only.
It's going to be an interesting issue for the witnesses to sort out. The biggest problem comes with how everyone defines certain things like 'hate speech' and 'truth'. If you ask 100 people what their definitions are, you will probably get at least 20 different answers and definitions.
Yeah, killer important issues I'd say. To me, forget trying to determine whether or not something is 'hate speech' and 'truth'. Shouldn't even be an issue unless it's illegal. That's why we have laws - this stuff has already been sorted out there. No need to figure it out again. And it's certainly not a good idea to follow FB, Twitter or YouTube - ends up in obvious censorship. If it's not illegal, it should be protected as free speech. Otherwise you're faced with never-ending contentious issues to solve. Legal or illegal. 1 or 0. Clean and simple and protects free speech as is possible.
Although I mostly agree, I'm not so certain or convinced that it's simple. There are differences within laws depending on where you live. Which 'laws' would be applied? What would be considered 'legal' or 'illegal'. That becomes another can of worms?
If steemit becomes big, you will also have users trickle over from all of the other social media platforms where flagging and gangs are a lot more rampant. I could be wrong or ill-informed (I have never had a twitter or facebook account)......just my thoutghts
I agree with your message there. It is indeed a can of worms, but at least it is a known can of worms that can be reasonably, and objectively determined. The problem with hate speech is that beliefs of what 'hate speech' actually is varies widely from person to person, group to group. Same issue with 'truth'.
If Steemit becomes big like Facebook, it seems to me that it would be destroyed by scammers and everyone looking to make a buck. Not to mention this flagging/$power issue. I've seen comments by people saying that Steemit can't program it's way out of a wet paper bag. These sorts of fundamentals with such large flaws make me wonder what the heck they're doing. But as you said, just my thoughts.
Yes, stay tuned!
I'm starting to cop this crap now too. Same sock puppets working together.
@heather2000, @banjokid, @thinkingtime, @roccofalcone, @somenick, and likely a few others (like @ninjapiraterobot)
They seem to lead back to the @galactic123 account, and his @echowizard service.
Looks like @personz challenged him months ago about the behavior in this post here
We really should maintain a list of these accounts somewhere.
I know @v4vapid has also covered this, although this looks to be separate group.
It really sucks that they are continuing with this. It probably has a silencing effect on most users, and makes you think twice about leaving a comment in a post you know will be flagged.
From what I can see they are all a network related to/working with each other. @v4vapid is well aware of them.
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STOPcurtains open
silly sock-puppets pop-up
yadda yadda... yaddayaddayadda
Thanks for the 'heads-up' on the bullshit entertainers!
@bifilarcoil
@palikari123 I am going to take your post and I will do a translation to Spanish. Your information is very important for people like me that we are arriving to Steemit. I recived a negative upvote too from @heather2000 and my post only talks about the felicity connotation that each someone has.
Go for it. Let your followers be aware. They are still going around and doing this to comments that are not even offensive to anyone.
Jeeesh, I just went through this one too @palikari123 , good details, thanks. Ending up following the breadcrumbs onto @v4vapid 's post about the circle jerk puppets. This is some serious bullshit...glad I have a greater awareness now and will do my best to draw attention to this problem/report to steemcleaners when i see it.
Ugh, and the rewards pool raping too...I hope the steemit devs are keeping their heads up, planning some counters. This sort of rot could literally destroy the platform before it gets out of beta.
I'm sure the devs are working on it. The best and only solution for the moment, is to report the obvious abusers and scammers to steemcleaners. Some of the whale flag wars that are going on are completely insane!
Have a look at @heather2000's spam history
Oh yeah it's huge, and so is @thinkingtime. You just need to look a little closer into all their posts. Even all the upvoters are scammers I think.
Thank you so much for noticing this...really appreciate it and it will help the community as whole!
V4 Look into the users who have downvoted your comment @brunass @flavioss.
@bruniass & @flavioss have spam everywhere & multiple one line comments in their history, with double figure rewards, where the post is basically worth nothing. There is a lot of collusion going on here with other accounts also.
https://steemit.com/@brunass/comments & https://steemit.com/@flavioss/comments
They know you are onto them, as they have started attacking your comments verbally as well as downvoting you systematically.
https://steemd.com/@brunass & https://steemd.com/@flavioss
More suspicious accounts:
https://steemit.com/@sandrino/comments
https://steemit.com/@claudialoureiro/comments
https://steemit.com/@sergioss/comments
https://steemit.com/@maristeem/comments
Oh sorry, just realised you already wrote a post about this...disregard
https://steemit.com/abuse/@v4vapid/sandrino-s-6th-day-sock-puppet-circle-jerk