Kind of genius, as it doesn't matter what the user is, and becomes impossible to track or prevent messages being relayed to some botnet somewhere.
These could be encrypted messages like that... Or it could just be a glitch in a spam bot...
[1] https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/tool-controls-botnet-wi...
C&C through a third party.
The issue as I recall is that the IRC moderation tools didn't allow shutting down the various channels quickly enough or quickly banning connected clients without also affecting legitimate users' expectation of how IRC worked.
Might have been EFNet.
I immediately wondered if hackers were using this approach for command and control.
Effective, because you can post it as HTTP/HTTPS traffic that generally flies under the radar of a lot of IDS/IPS systems. Even if they inspect the packet it's just a buncha random reddit gibberish and you could use memes as commands, e.g. "I also choose this guy's wife" == launch attack
It's a good way to avoid tracking of your meta data too for legitimate encrypted messages.