> If you think either state cares enough about hn commenters to go through some process of surveillance or whatever, don't you think they'd just hire a real person to do the psyop?
I think it's fair to assume that they care and and that they have people on payroll for this purpose. HN would most likely be just another entry in their list of targeted boards/discussion sites. The effort to develop and operate a tool for this purpose is minimal. One person assisted with such automated tool would be able to monitor and interact with thousands, if not millions, of online discussions to spread their governement's views/propaganda/missinformation.
I think it's fair to assume that they care and and that they have people on payroll for this purpose. HN would most likely be just another entry in their list of targeted boards/discussion sites. The effort to develop and operate a tool for this purpose is minimal. One person assisted with such automated tool would be able to monitor and interact with thousands, if not millions, of online discussions to spread their governement's views/propaganda/missinformation.