It has become apparent that @[email protected] has been manipulating votes by voting with multiple accounts on other instances.
At the very least, on this post they have upvoted it using multiple accounts with the same username on different instances, as well as multiple votes in the comments of that post. It's very likely they are doing the same on all their posts.
They are also harassing other users by digging up comments/posts then lying about them in order to slander the other person.
The comment chain on this thread shows this behavior:
https://lemmy.world/post/32414918/18033196
(Note that there is an unmarked NSFW image from that user in the comments. This was used as an attempt to harass another user.)
-- Edit --
@[email protected] is now here with some pathetic spin and conspiracy bullshit. They are trying to act like a victim like the whole issue has to do with AI when it's entirely about them harassing users and a painfully obvious use of alts for manipulation. They even went so far as to post a porn image, in an attempt to harass another user, in a comm that has a clear rule against posting porn. The problems with this user has nothing to do with their sad use of AI.
@[email protected] is clearly another alt of their's. Not only did they never post anything until now and show up here at nearly the same time and use the same phrasing and ridiculous arguments, notice how they have the same exact text in their user bio.
Here is [email protected]:
And [email protected]:
This is just sad.
I am the user in reference. Did I use another instance to down-vote, yes in this case. Why? because I felt I was backed into a corner. In hindsight, I should have contacted the mod admin or whomever, but this was not the first time they have done this to me, it happened also on memes @ lemmy world. I am sure others have come across their behavior on meme sites.
The complete story, which go $fsk yourself conveniently leaves out, is that he is part of a gang/group of users that go around meme sites, and other art related sites, and harass people who use AI. Here is their base of operation. They even use it to not only go after users, but communities. Firstly, some AI memes are hard to detect if AI is even involved. I can hardly tell at times, nor do I really care, but this anti-AI fascist group of users seem to police most memes and point a finger and cry "YOU ARE USING AI!!", as if they alone can determine for us. Didn't the Nazi's do this sort of behavior when they banned/burned "questionable" books?
The real issue is they are using an outside tool, as noted below, to harass users. How do you know this? Well, look at the OP's link to the post in question. Is go $fsk yourself or any of the other anti-AI posters there commenting on the meme's content? No, they are there with their agenda...to harass and bully people who us AI. He is trying to cover it up and play the victim, as they have done before.
I apologize to the community for using the alts, it won't happen again, but there is a much serious issue here. The fact that a user is using an outside tool on your community and others, and even so bold as to teach others, as noted below, how to use it to go after other users. Here is the tool he is using.. The community (Lemmy Shitpost) has already decided to ban this tool going forward. The admin DM'd me. This should be banned by Lemmy World as a whole.
Here is another example of go $fsk yourself going after someone else.
And here he is and his tag-team gang going after lemmy.dbzer0.com.
Source
How can a community mod ban that tool? It uses federation information, so only an admin defederating the instance used by the tool would prevent the tool from working.
I assume that tool is using a collection of existing accounts to cast the votes? If so, can you just identify which accounts those are and report them to whatever server they are hosted on? I didn’t read the whole thread so maybe I’m missing some context.
It's basically using the tool owner instance to show upvotes and downvotes (admins always see them as their instance needs that information to count votes accurately)
I have no idea how the admin tools work, so asking the wrong person. He told me they 'plan to' ban it, didn't say how...or when. I have already escalated the issue, now that go$fskyourself and his bullying gang have shown themselves over this incident, to the actually lemmy programmers. They were already aware of this outside tool, and it didn't sound like they were happy about it, but left the issue dangling. I have re-opened it showing the abuse from go$fsckyourself and how it can harm others, so we will see what can be done.
I assume one can create a community and gain admin tools? If that is true, can you then use that tool to also see up/down votes by users outside your own community? If so, that would be another easy exploit for a user wanting this tool.
Edit to add: The programmer of Lemmy replied;
So, apparently instances/admins can ban this tool.
So that's what I meant, this tool cannot be blocked at the community level, which was what you were saying above.
Votes on Lemmy are public by nature, they are just hidden to the general user but it's very easy to show them.
Gotcha, well that is unfortunate, as it is obviously being used by some, go$fsckyourself, for exploit.
I am not following this whole thing very closely to be honest.
People in general should just be aware that votes are almost public, and behave accordingly.
Yeah, you need to read the whole story to see how they are abusing those votes, gang behavior, swarming, by someone down-voting them, using this outside tool. I think there are other exploits as well.
I am well aware of the tool, I sometimes use it myself when it looks like people are manipulating votes.
At the end of the day, it is just that: a tool. What people want to do with it is a different story.
It's most likely that it's just another lie. That's the most likely answer considering this user's history.
I mean, just look at how absolutely stupid this person is being. They try to use this comment as proof I am part of some big conspiracy against AI:
Yet the community it was posted in explicitly forbids AI content:
The entire idea of a conspiracy of thousands of users all working in concert as an "anti AI fascist group" is literally insane. This user is unhinged.