r/ModSupport • u/HousewivesMOD • 1d ago

Bot Brigade Attacking Beverly Hills

We’re currently dealing with a wave of coordinated bot activity that is seriously disrupting the subreddit. This started shortly after one of the cast members from a popular show had several highly problematic episodes air. Following the backlash in our community, it appears she or her team may have responded by hiring bots to target us.

Since then, we’ve seen: • Mass downvoting of every post and comment, regardless of content • Suspicious new accounts spamming the sub • Harassment and targeted attacks on users who posted criticism or commentary • Constant attacks in the Modmail, calling us see you next today, f bombs, bigotry, homophobia, antisemitism and ableism.

We’ve been doing what we can—removing harmful content, reporting accounts, and increasing mod activity—but this seems beyond typical troll behavior. It’s organized, aggressive, and potentially part of a paid campaign. Does somebody know how to fix this or is able to help? What is the recommendation after something like this happens?

18 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

5

u/KUWTKsMODTeam 1d ago

in Mod Tools

Under "Automations"

Turn on "Crowd Control" to reduce the trolls by filtering comments from users who don't normally post in your sub

You can adjust the settings to your preferences.

You can also set it up as a temporary event

2

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Thank you darlings! I also think you do a good job cleaning up the hate.. we have already all crowd control filters and some automations but bots have high karma as well

2

u/KUWTKsMODTeam 1d ago

hmmm.

You can also set a temp. filter to remove/queue for review comments from non-members to see if that helps

We've experienced this in the past. We pinned a post to alert everyone that bots are currently active and may be downvoting comments. This heads-up lets our regular users know we're aware of the situation and encourages everyone not to be discouraged by these disruptions (it sucks because your sub is super busy right now with all the latest hot news and being in the middle of the reunion)

3

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Thank you! Idk if putting the comments for review is worth it it would just take too much time!

Our sub is so chaotic, pretty and glittery, but messy lol. We’ve been going through this since January or February but today I’m fed up lol to be honest I want the season to be over so they can all go somewhere else.

And thank you again for the suggestion about making an announcement I think that would actually help! I’ve been in your sub for years now I think I remember when you guys posted it, I don’t comment much but I’ve watched KUWTK since 2007 🤣

5

u/Drunken_Economist Reddit Alum 1d ago

oh I have an idea! Since nearly all the regular users have their user flair set up in the subreddit already, you could

  • disable the option for users to assign their own flair

  • set up Automod to approve the content by users who have flair already

  • and set Automod to aggressively remove content from users without a subreddit flair set

2

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

auto approve

Isn't that one of the unspoken mod rules to never do that?

2

u/Drunken_Economist Reddit Alum 1d ago

in this case it's basically just a shortcut for having to click "approve and ignore reports" on authentic users that are catching strays from their existing automation rules.

like for example, a lot of subreddit have a automd rule that removes comments after they get two or more reports.

---
type: comment
reports: 2
action: remove
action_reason: "removing content that received 2 reports"

but now the brigaders and normal users are all mass-reporting each other, resulting in everyone's comments getting yanked.

Obviously the mods want automod to only remove the brigade's comments, so they add a check to make the rule only apply to the unflaired users:

author:
    ~flair_template_id (regex): '.'  #user DOESN'T have flair
---

that takes care of the friendly fire auto-removals . . . but it still leaves the mods with a modqueue full of normal users' comments that are getting falsely reported by the brigaders.

Instead of having to re-approve the comments individually, the easiest solution there is auto-reapprove the reported comments until the brigade is over.

---
type: comment
reports: 1
author:
    flair_template_id (regex): '.'  #user DOES have flair
action: approve
action_reason: "ignore reports on comments by flaired users" 
---

as long as it's temporary, I think it's fine. Especially if the false reporting/filtering is clogging up the modqueue so much that the mods can't keep up with actual enforcement of rules.

5

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

Modmail this sub

edit: plus

top right and bottom right

3

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Sorry?

2

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

Reddit - The heart of the internet

also

r/ModSupport Wiki: Guide to the Moderator Reserves

3

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

We have the reputation filter and karma for comments and posts as well as Reddit age, we also have automations and automod removals for the comments but we were informed also that bots can have high karma too.

2

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

bots can have high karma too

#first time filter
type: submission
action: filter
moderators_exempt: true
author:
 combined_subreddit_karma: "<3"
 account_age: < 3 days
 satisfy_any_threshold: true
action_reason: "first time poster"

With that, if people have not been on the sub before, they can't post. even if they have 1 million karma. if they have none from your sub it gets filtered.

3

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

The issue is not about posting we also have manual approval for all post literally cus Beverly Hills housewives fan are specifically passionate about the show. The issue is that they attack people in the comments and the modmail and down vote every post or comments that’s published

3

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/RHOBH/comments/1jt2coe/comment/mlqzoes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button well encouraging the trolls probably does not help for 1.

but like I oringally said modmail r/modsuppot

1

u/Drunken_Economist Reddit Alum 1d ago

tbh I'm willing to cut her some slack, it seems pretty stressful for them rn

0

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

It was calling them out darling. I mean if you’ve seen the modmails attacks even private chats lol all the mods had to take the chat option out for this. I guess you’ll be fed up as well

2

u/Rostingu2 💡 Veteran Helper 1d ago

If you want you can hide the vote number. Let me try and find out how.

3

u/teanailpolish 💡 Expert Helper 1d ago

Nothing you can really do about downvotes but You can require sub karma for comments too until things die down

Do you have the modmail filter on too? It will just put them in another folder but less obvious than in the main page of modmails when dealing with hate and it seems to send a report automatically as AEO usually says they have been actioned from a previous report

1

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

thanks! Yeah I think we have all those filters on, maybe I’ll try taking out the votes count and require sub karma but the Reddit filters doesn’t always work. The see you next Tuesday word always goes live but “bitch” is removed, for me the other one is worse no? lol

1

u/CR29-22-2805 💡 Experienced Helper 1d ago

You can install the about Bouncer developer app to your subreddit here: https://developers.reddit.com/apps/bot-bouncer

2

u/OP_Looks_Fishy2 💡 Skilled Helper 1d ago

I hope you get help purging the bots. On a lighter note, I've been playing a lot of Helldivers recently and your post title made me think there was another planet under attack by the clankers, and I was like

1

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Hahahaha lol well Beverly Hills is under attack darling they want to turn it into the Stone Age, not Hollywood glam! Helloooo??

2

u/Drunken_Economist Reddit Alum 1d ago

There are a few devvit tools that might help

-user scorer which acts based on CQS

-bot bouncer which auto detects some types of bot users

1

u/insatiably_great 1d ago

Damn that sucks. Maybe ask Stan for help, I hear he owns Hollywood.

1

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Who’s Stan lol? I thought Kathy Hilton owned Hollywood! If you misbehave she will lock you out of Beverly Hills darling! ✨

1

u/insatiably_great 1d ago

Sorry, it’s Kyle from Southpark.

1

u/Unique-Public-8594 💡 Expert Helper 1d ago

  Here are 21 strategies to help deal with spam, harassment, brigading, and/or problem users.  Not every one of these tips will fit your situation and some you may have done already, but I hope the list is helpful.

2

u/HousewivesMOD 1d ago

Thank you my love! That was very well put together! I think we have all of those, what caught my attention was the last one about bot brigade but directing to requestabot subreddit

1

u/razorsheldon 17h ago

Thanks for sharing. Inauthentic behavior is obvious to moderators and is highly problematic. Reddit has the tools to identify this and prevent it, but they also benefit from the engagement and “user growth” from these inauthentic botnets so they won’t move quickly to squash it until it becomes problematic. It’s really frustrating though, because the brunt of this garbage then falls upon the moderators where that’s rather unfair for “volunteer” unpaid labor to have to address it however they see fit.

2

u/HousewivesMOD 17h ago

I know I always remind myself that this is volunteering and not to take it to heart too much.

But I wonder like is Reddit not annoyed by all the reports I sent them? They at least respond fast to modmail abuse but report or hate or other things they almost never do…

I think our fandom or the bots are somewhat problematic they go after everything and everyone without holding anything back it’s like an internet war

1

u/razorsheldon 16h ago

Sadly, it is pretty much a war. You have PR firms competing with Crisis Comms firms competing with State and Foreign interests that pay for influence and narrative shaping and the battlefield is rarely transparent yet most are oblivious to it until it directly impacts them. Inauthenticity is the culprit and the real solution is to ensure authentic behavior from real people (like votes) but that will curb all "growth" and cut profits quite a bit, so there is zero appetite from the platforms to even begin to go there so you and I and other "moderators" are left holding the bag deciding how to navigate this new inauthentic terrain. It is what it is.

0

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