A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term “false flag” originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misrepresentation of someone’s allegiance.
Honestly I wouldn’t put anything past Steve or his Reddit admins these days. Its not like their recent actions have proven them to be bastions of high intelligence. Or even low intelligence for that matter.
What’s the point of alienating the users who provided and moderated their content for free? What’s the point of making the site unusable for blind users?
Look at what the qanon crazies were doing just a couple years ago. It’s no different. They don’t care if they’re right, or if the whole place burns to the ground, as long as you’re wrong. They can and have gone to ridiculous lengths towards that end.
A press release to create a false narrative costs literally nothing, and spez has been trying to do that from day one. The interview he lied about for example. Also, people were meant to believe it was the uppity “landed gentry” behind the alleged hacking. Surely you can see that much.
Usually when you do a false flag, you’re pointing blame at a specific group. They never named the group, and it’s not like they are doing the plot of Hackers and blaming every hacker in existence.
It’s more reasonable to believe this hacker group made it up to try and get publicity or money.
What’s the point of alienating the users who provided and moderated their content for free?
To get rid of what Reddit Inc. perceives as a hostile faction, preventing it from taking full control over the platform, so it can show its investors “WE DID IT REDDIT! WE DEFEATED THEM! The platform is now under our full corporate control, IPO here I come~”.
I also think that Reddit Inc.'s upper caste didn’t expect things to blow so much out of control.
What’s the point of making the site unusable for blind users?
None. Reddit simply doesn’t care about them.
A press release to create a false narrative costs literally nothing, and spez has been trying to do that from day one. The interview he lied about for example. Also, people were meant to believe it was the uppity “landed gentry” behind the alleged hacking. Surely you can see that much.
While I don’t think that false-flagging would be “too immoral” for Reddit Inc., it sounds pointless - like, does its upper caste really care if people believe that the landed gentry was trying to hack the site? I don’t think so.
Let’s use Ockham’s Razor here: it’s simply more probable that the “hacker group” was not Reddit Inc., but someone else bluffing.
That wasn’t uncivil. The user behaved in a confused manner much like one would when inebriated. If that were the case then you handle a drunk person differently than a sober one.
BlackCat claimed responsibility for the hack. They also didn’t expect Reddit to pay the ransom. Selling the data on the dark web is the most likely outcome. They want a payout after all.
I understand what you mean, but I believe Reddit themselves confirmed the breach. If Reddit didn’t pay up, then the data has been/is being auctioned off on the dark web.
If they didn’t get paid by Reddit they likely sold it on the dark web.
Or it was a false flag.
That’s not what false flag means.
That’s exactly what it means.
So you’re suggesting that Reddit itself made up the story to blame an unnamed hacker group? What would be the point of that?
Honestly I wouldn’t put anything past Steve or his Reddit admins these days. Its not like their recent actions have proven them to be bastions of high intelligence. Or even low intelligence for that matter.
What’s the point of alienating the users who provided and moderated their content for free? What’s the point of making the site unusable for blind users?
Look at what the qanon crazies were doing just a couple years ago. It’s no different. They don’t care if they’re right, or if the whole place burns to the ground, as long as you’re wrong. They can and have gone to ridiculous lengths towards that end.
A press release to create a false narrative costs literally nothing, and spez has been trying to do that from day one. The interview he lied about for example. Also, people were meant to believe it was the uppity “landed gentry” behind the alleged hacking. Surely you can see that much.
Usually when you do a false flag, you’re pointing blame at a specific group. They never named the group, and it’s not like they are doing the plot of Hackers and blaming every hacker in existence.
It’s more reasonable to believe this hacker group made it up to try and get publicity or money.
To get rid of what Reddit Inc. perceives as a hostile faction, preventing it from taking full control over the platform, so it can show its investors “WE DID IT REDDIT! WE DEFEATED THEM! The platform is now under our full corporate control, IPO here I come~”.
I also think that Reddit Inc.'s upper caste didn’t expect things to blow so much out of control.
None. Reddit simply doesn’t care about them.
While I don’t think that false-flagging would be “too immoral” for Reddit Inc., it sounds pointless - like, does its upper caste really care if people believe that the landed gentry was trying to hack the site? I don’t think so.
Let’s use Ockham’s Razor here: it’s simply more probable that the “hacker group” was not Reddit Inc., but someone else bluffing.
Yeah, all of these other explanations seem WAY more complicated than needed.
Surely you can see that your theory is extremely unlikely to be true.
Yup, false flag means a completely different thing as you have just written here
Are you drunk?
Hi!
I want to remind you all to keep the discussions civilized! If this repeats we are forced to remove uncivilized comments.
Thanks!
That wasn’t uncivil. The user behaved in a confused manner much like one would when inebriated. If that were the case then you handle a drunk person differently than a sober one.
I don’t think they’d expected you to mean reddit made it all up. I didn’t either, but with what’s been happening I wouldn’t be as surprised anymore…
Reddit confirmed they were hacked back in February. TechCrunch and a few other publications covered it. So, I doubt Reddit is lying.
BlackCat claimed responsibility for the hack. They also didn’t expect Reddit to pay the ransom. Selling the data on the dark web is the most likely outcome. They want a payout after all.
I understand what you mean, but I believe Reddit themselves confirmed the breach. If Reddit didn’t pay up, then the data has been/is being auctioned off on the dark web.
More likely.