e.g The dozens upon dozens of Flutter articles
I have also seen lots of slandering of Google's competitors and praise of Google (Even if they weren't directly referenced previously) in comments. Also created by accounts fresh accounts.
Do you think they could be doing PR on HN? Or am I just noticing it because I think they might be doing it?
We occasionally see accounts that appear to be doing corporate propaganda, and we ban those. Unfortunately, it's much more common for users to perceive other users as astroturfers or shills when they're simply expressing an opposing viewpoint. These are two different problems that need to be dealt with separately. That's why the site guidelines ask users not to accuse each other of astroturfing in the threads: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
If you're interested in the underlying bias that causes people to assume that someone else couldn't possibly be holding an opposing view in good faith and therefore must be a shill, I think it's related to the Hostile Media Effect. That is the finding that people with strong views tend to experience the platform as being biased against their side: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22hostile%20media%22&sort=byD...
With that said, there are people who try to game HN for whatever reason. Maybe FAANG is doing it? Why just Google?
This question reminds me of a game of Maffia or Werewolf, the following is a bit of a stretch but: if you play that game a lot you might have some intuition about it. At least it might be a new fun game you could try!
Disclaimer: I work at Google but do not post on behalf of my company.
Edit: Removed facetious comment about potentially enjoying being on HN as part of my job.
There is a difference between an advertisement that is labeled as one and a disingenuous post on a site like this one where that type of activity is nonexistent.
While you might derive some short-term pleasure from the challenge of infiltrating people’s trust boundaries, it can’t be something to be proud of.
I greatly enjoy and value the discussion here. Being a part of the community in an open and clear role would be compelling, and I absolutely agree that subterfuge hurts the community.