This comment breaks the site guidelines. Please review them and note the one against insinuating astroturfing/shillage/brigading etc. without evidence.
The "agenda", and "who is behind these", are overwhelmingly just internet users pontificating as internet users always pontificate. There's no need to sacrifice Occam for cloak-and-dagger sinistry, and bringing it into the threads nearly always has an extremely degrading effect.
if china were astroturfing rhetoric on here it would probably be close to the exact opposite of the sentiment expressed by op. the current arrangement is quite favorable for them.
I'm a US citizen working at a tech company. I have a normal HN account with reputation above 2000. These are my own thoughts and opinions. I'm just honestly afraid of being targeted by Chinese hackers for posting sentiments like the above.
It is like to post something negative about LGBT and claim that you fear being attacked by their active members. China and Chinese don't give a XYZT about you. HN is full of anti-Chinese comments and this will only continue as the war with Eastasia is in progress.
. . . or as long as Chinese leadership continues to engage in human rights abuses, or as long as Chinese companies continue with rampant theft of intellectual property, manufacturing of unsafe/unethical products, etc.
Not all criticism is a sign of national- or racially-targeted abuse. No one is above criticism.
I beg to differ. The worst that those who post anti-LGBT sentiments have to fear is getting flagged, lambasted in the comments, and perhaps an account suspension.
But government-funded hackers (Chinese or otherwise) are capable of causing all sorts of havoc to my life. I try not to underestimate the operational threat they pose.
>> The worst that those who post anti-LGBT sentiments have to fear is getting flagged, lambasted in the comments, and perhaps an account suspension.
No, it can be reported via social media that you from the company X spread some aggression against LGBT (this is a hypothetical example). People get fired for much less when twitter is in action.
Chinese are known to pay folks to post on foreign forums. I'm not sure who is behind these...fascinating stuff