How To Go Viral By Using Fake Reddit Likes
The entire stunt appeals to people&#x27;s sense of moral outrage over businesses buying influence in the form of political donations.  The reason people find it morally outrageous is because it corrupts the political process: politicians are supposed to represent their constituents, not the whims of the highest corporate bidder.  Politicians who engage in this kind of quid pro quo behavior put selfish gain ahead of the good of the community.<p>Which is why I found it particularly galling that the PR firm relied on people&#x27;s moral outrage about paying for influence to peddle their message (&quot;tell them you like our initiative and are TIRED of politicians taking legal bribes&quot;) -- while doing exactly the same thing: paying for influence, in the form of purchased Reddit upvotes, which corrupts the upvote process and puts selfish gain ahead of the good of the Reddit community.<p>Normally, when PR firms use &quot;hacking&quot; to describe their techniques, they&#x27;re talking about novel approaches to getting coverage, sort of like how &quot;life hacks&quot; are novel solutions to life&#x27;s problems.  But in this case, the firm is using &quot;hacking&quot; very literally -- infiltrating and taking control of a system by illicit means.  They are black hats, and we should view them not only as morally bankrupt but also very dangerous.<p>I&#x27;m expecting that any day now they&#x27;ll run a follow-up post, &quot;How we hacked the U.S. media to help an anonymous powerful Russian client sway the presidential election.&quot;