The attacker seems to be the admin of those two instances. Both instances have their registrations closed.

cross-posted from: https://hackertalks.com/post/8713785

The instances being used are

  • lemmy.doesnotexist.club
  • chinese.lol

Here is an example of the coordinated downvoting https://hackertalks.com/post/8692093

Of course its a controversial user who got someone angry enough to automated downvoting @DonaldJMusk@lemmy.today

But you can see every post they make gets 53ish downvotes from these two instances, plus some organic ones after a few hours.

Current downvoting Accounts

bot-list

LightIsland@chinese.lol MagnificentRow@chinese.lol FondKnowledge@chinese.lol SillyTowel95@chinese.lol HelplessDear@chinese.lol SomberBrain@chinese.lol InexperiencedCloset@chinese.lol NecessaryPerson11@chinese.lol ClosedEmployment@chinese.lol CoarseHair420@chinese.lol BurlyChampionship49@chinese.lol ZigzagNatural@chinese.lol QuestionableDirt@chinese.lol ProudDeparture@lemmy.doesnotexist.club JoyousDouble@chinese.lol UnitedPatience@chinese.lol MajesticArea@lemmy.doesnotexist.club SinfulConference@chinese.lol MoralDivide96@chinese.lol LeadingCarry65@chinese.lol FrillyOpinion38@lemmy.doesnotexist.club LimitedDiscount49@lemmy.doesnotexist.club ForkedScreen@chinese.lol MediumChemistry13@chinese.lol xXxLawfulGrassxXx@lemmy.doesnotexist.club VisibleSentence@chinese.lol AcidicLawyer90@lemmy.doesnotexist.club PriceySink14@lemmy.doesnotexist.club ExcellentBeach@chinese.lol VivaciousNews@lemmy.doesnotexist.club LankyIndependent32@lemmy.doesnotexist.club SpeedyFault@chinese.lol ConcreteHall89@lemmy.doesnotexist.club WorthyPoint12@lemmy.doesnotexist.club SurprisedAdult99@chinese.lol FlashyCrack@lemmy.doesnotexist.club MasculineBeing@chinese.lol RichWeird@lemmy.doesnotexist.club DryCash97@lemmy.doesnotexist.club AuthorizedChair@chinese.lol SlimKiss@lemmy.doesnotexist.club AromaticRoof78@lemmy.doesnotexist.club BewitchedInterview@lemmy.doesnotexist.club ImaginaryDraw@lemmy.doesnotexist.club PertinentGround@chinese.lol SinfulAssumption@lemmy.doesnotexist.club AwkwardAnybody30@lemmy.doesnotexist.club UnwillingRestaurant@lemmy.doesnotexist.club InsubstantialOven@lemmy.doesnotexist.club

A individual user airing their personal biases and manipulating lemmy isn’t good for the community, regardless of how you feel about their target. This is a really bad thing ™

  • FrostyTrichs@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Being able to disable downvoting is one of the best features Lemmy has and I wish more instances would do it.

    Voting here doesn’t influence your feed and largely serves to spread negativity. Turning it off has a negligible impact on usability and an undeniable advantage when people decide their feelings matter more than someone else’s, like whatever this is.

    We’ve de-federated from both the instances being used for manipulative voting.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      I fully disagree, in your scenario people wouldn’t realize how fucktastically bad your idea is

      Look at what removing downvotes did to youtube, you seriously want that here?

    • asudox@lemmy.asudox.devOPEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Voting here doesn’t influence your feed

      It does when you use sorting algorithms that depend on it.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      I want to see it per-community. We use voting for actually decision making in my instance, so we can’t disable it instance-wide.

    • vurr@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      I disagree. Downvoting is essential for Lemmy. I often disagree with something and it’s right to have a democratic vote on topics.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        You shouldn’t downvote just because you disagree. You should vote based on whether it’s productive content.

      • FrostyTrichs@crazypeople.onlineEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        That’s fine, but removing downvoting doesn’t prevent the discussion. It curbs drive-by negativity which is a good thing IMO.

        Obviously everyone is free to disagree with things. It should be more than absentmindedly hitting a down arrow though. Others obviously feel differently. Thankfully both exist on Lemmy.

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.caEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        Also helps identify trolls and bad actors at a glance if you don’t already have them tagged as such.

        • Donald Musk@lemmy.todayEnglish
          0·
          11 days ago

          Also helps identify trolls and bad actors at a glance if you don’t already have them tagged as such.

          Unless there’s been a bunch of downvote manipulation going on, as in the case of OP’s example (and which I’m the target of).

            • Donald Musk@lemmy.todayEnglish
              0·
              11 days ago

              Not playing the victim. I’m merely stating that vote manipulation is bad, regardless who is on the receiving end. (I didn’t start this thread, I just happen to be an example used in it.)

              Organic downvoting me is fine–I get plenty of those. Setting up bots/instances to manipulate downvotes aimed at me isn’t fine though, because it hurts Lemmy as a whole.

              They won’t just stop at me, they can start using it against other users as well; even you. Not cool.

              Which is the topic of the thread.