Reddit is testing verification labels for brands

Spark@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 222 points –
Reddit is testing verification labels for brands | Engadget
engadget.com
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Spez really is going full Elon!

I wonder how it'll work on sites like Reddit. Imagine paying for verification only to get downvoted and "silence brand"ed by people

The next step will be preventing downvotes on branded accounts

They made ad accounts unable to be blocked a year or so ago so downvote preventing doesn’t seem too wild. It’s why you couldn’t block that Christian account that always posted “He gets you” stuff.

[Promoted Comment]

He get ඞ SUS ඞ.

It’s actually so cringe how he looks up to Elon and blatantly copies him as if he’s a role model businessman. Just pathetic.

At this rate, he’ll also copy musk’s advertiser turnaround and changes in company valuation

Reddit doesn’t seem to understand what their platform is for. If people are adding “reddit” to the end of google searches, it shows that they want brands to talk less, and real people to talk more.

no no no, they don't want you to use google. They want you to use Reddit search instead, because it's so awesome!

They put the same amount of time, effort, research, and engineering into Reddit search that they put into the official Reddit app!

Since when do brands want to be known on Reddit? Isn't the entire point to make a bunch of fake accounts and post positive comments about said brand, to make them look good?

HEY REDDIT, WHAT'S A BRAND YOU'LL BUY FOR LIFE!?

Queue the thousands of totally not brand accounts posting why said product is so perfect and you'll never buy any other brand again!

But now the verified account can be like: ooo wow, we are totally humbled by the love for our product thank you so much you guys!!

Then that will get screenshotted and posted on r/wholesome r/wholesomememes and r/mademesmile then make the rounds there forever.

For guerrilla marketing techniques sure

But for official advertisements I imagine they would want to do them on a verified account.

Like that disgusting "Samsung AMA" which was just a campaign for their S20-something. They deleted any question that wasn't basically, "what's so cool about [this feature] on the S20-something that I'm planning to get?"

Have on official account to post announcements then bots to upvote it.

They would of course keep their astroturfing accounts unmarked, of course. But they might want a corporate mountpiece account. Like they have on twitter.

ive seen in the nreal, now xreal, sub where having people from the company to talk to about issues helps. im not trying to market anything but just use an example. i doubt thats what they are going for but it can be a positive side effect.

Further proof that Reddit is committed to copying every stupid decision that the Muskrat makes.

Spez loves Musk after all, can't take his head out of his ass.

Come on, that's just mean. He obviously doesn't have his head up Musks ass. His teeth would never be able to fit in there.

Every fucking social media company wants to be the same thing. It's boring as shit.

I guess there will just be a bunch of verified accounts running around doing "organic" marketing for their latest projects now.

Boy, I am sure glad nobody has ever done that on Lemmy before.

Weren't they already doing that? I swear, you read some posts and it's like a PR team is trying to get a story buried. Like after a Leo DiCaprios dating history got air time you started seeing him in more memes the next days, and TILs about how he was a good actor

They were/are. They’re just making it official now.

Just saw a post by Bloomberg and u/Bloomberg has a little green checkmark by their name.

I mean he's quite memable and he's a great actor so not sure why both things can't happen...

They can. It's just that it happens suspiciously often after there's a surge in his negative images

2 more...
2 more...

TILs about how he was a good actor

Academy Award sigh winning character actor.

2 more...
2 more...

It really feels like they presented a road map at the beginning of the year and are sticking to it no matter what, neither looking at their own user base nor what is happening in the world of big social media right now.

It's almost impressive.

I wish I had their resolution and obliviousness.. I just have inertia and anxiety..

'we have verified that no brands want to be here, and thus haven't labeled anything'

This will just make them be down voted to oblivion by default... See EA

Coming soon to reddit patch notes.

  • Downvote button removed for recognised brand accounts.

That’s cool, I think a lot of us here would label Reddit as verifiably stupid.

Gods I'm glad I left that shithole.

Who needs reddit? Now I go to Imgur for memes, and Lemmy for news.

The only thing reddit is still better at is finding an answer to a very specific question (adding site:reddit.com to your Google searches works wonders), but that'll improve with time as more and more people get tired of Spez's bullshit and migrate here. Can't wait to see the death of reddit. Was a member since the beginning and it's sad to see it go the way of Digg.

The only way I can believe Reddit is this stupid is if investors are holding a gun to their head and demand profitability.

If they weren't before, they would be after an IPO.

What are they raising capital for?

Why IPO without an expansion into new markets that requires funding?

There is no growth on the horizon for reddit that justifys overpaying for ownership at IPO prices.

I don't see anything immediately wrong with verification. There are cases where people reach out to companies for support, and having them be verified helps. Tech enthusiasts like us might be less susceptible to phishing/scams, but regular folks aren't.

However, after everything Reddit has done recently, there's no stopping them from turning this into a status symbol thing like "the website formerly known as Twitter". They could tweak their algorithm to boost comments of "verified" accounts, degrading the quality of conversation there.