Ask HN: Is Hacker News Being Manipulated? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Hacker News Being Manipulated?

59 pointsddxv41 comments

I'm all for keeping the discourse on HackerNews tight, but lately I see dozens of posts a day about serious issues for all of us being flagged.

The one that sent me over the edge was this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806

A US Bill proposed that could represent jail time for anyone importing AI software/models from China OR exporting AI software/models TO China.

This seemed huge to me, and I genuinely wanted to read the discussion. But when I went back to the post, it had been flagged.

It seems to me there is a concerted effort to stop speech related to certain topics on HackerNews lately.

Has anyone else noticed this?

View on HN

> The one that sent me over the edge was this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806

It's a longstanding principle on HN that proposed bills aren't really on topic unless there's something to prove otherwise. The reason is simple: most proposed bills never amount to anything. (And oftentimes are political stunts.)

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

If attempts to ban DeepSeek in the US actually get anywhere, you can be sure there will be plenty of discussion on HN.

It's been that way for about half a year now. There's a growing list of topics that will never make the front page anymore.

For the first time in over a decade, I've turned on show dead, skip the front page and go directly to the new feed for my tech news.

> The one that sent me over the edge was this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806 [GOP bill proposes 20 years in jail for anyone who downloads a Chinese AI models]

The same story was discussed in "Proposed bill to make it a crime to download DeepSeek in the US" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838 12 hours earlier. Some users flag when they see a comment "previously <link>" because it's not easy to mark duplicates. I'm not saying it's a good model.

That's a good potential reason.

@dang do we miss a "mark dupe" button ?

Definitely. One of the biggest moments of our lifetimes, directly affecting almost every person on this message board, involving high profile “tech” people, curiously absent from any discussion on the main page.

I don’t buy the “ we don’t talk politics here ” argument. This directly intersects the tech world on multiple levels

Most of what I've seen are uninformed knee jerk reactions. Glad they're getting flagged

What is the biggest moment of our lifetimes &c that isn't getting any discussion on HN's frontpage? That can't be right.

The OP only refers to a story about a proposed bill which (like most of those) probably isn't going anywhere, so I assume you must have something else in mind.

I think it is combination of two factors.

1. A subset of HN readers are uninterested in items outside a narrow range of topics and wish to keep HN focused instead of becoming like other forums that grew to cater to broader audiences.

2. Forum moderators may have a financial incentive to ensure that certain topics are discussed more often and other topics are discussed less often.

I personally think there’s far more sites for news and politics. I’d prefer HN stick to being tech focused.

I do tend to agree with this sentiment however, if a policy change has a direct impact on the tech industry or science in general it probably is worth discussion here. I don’t believe that this needs to turn into an unintelligent discussion about which side is right here.

Edit: one thing to add, I also really appreciate that I can come here to HN and just see headlines without a political spin on everything. It’s one of the _very_ few places for that. I don’t know how to achieve both goals. The reality is probably that we need to see the things that have an impact on the industry and it’s fair to keep everything else off of HN.

It doesn't need to, but it reliably does. The whole internet, and pretty much all English-speaking media, is talking about ONE THING. Trump. American politics. Elon Musk. There's a lot noise and very little else. People often don't discuss what's happening, they discuss what someone said, or as in the case of OP a bill that has no chance of being passed. They freak out about tariffs that are unlikely to ever be imposed for so many reasons, not the least of which is the tenable legality of claiming a natsec imperative to enforce them.

But people still focus on the words, the threats, the show, and they act like it's somehow a failure as a person or a citizen to not tear out your hair along with them. When the question of, "Ok, what can be done" comes up, there's a lot of vague or high-minded responses, and then it's back to to the races.

And the whole social media and media world is doing it. Why does HN have to? Will one more forum lowering its standards help in some way?

Personally, I want to see these topics on HN BECAUSE of the high standards for discussion here. What is stopping people from flagging individual comments that don't measure up to HN guidelines? Instead these entire submissions are being flagged in anticipation of an imagined future argument, which further derails anything there is to be said about it because the conversation turns to the subject of the flagging itself. THAT is what kills discussion.

I would totally agree, but at the same time, this is possibly "collapse of Soviet Union reported over IRC" class and mode of event.

Well, our tech moguls aren’t staying out of politics, so you can blame them.

The one that "sent you over the edge" is a dupe. Of which there is an ongoing thread, that's not even flagged.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838

Yes there been a lot of flagged Musk/Trump-related posts lately, partly due to an aversion of heavily political current events stories, but also there's been a number of discussions with lots of eyeballs, hundreds of upvotes and comments before getting flagged. And that's amidst ten different submissions of the same story about the treasury, USAID, CDC, tariffs, whatever. So it's not nothing. There is some engagement, the discussion maybe then devolved and that's it. Stuff moves fast round here, and there's been a particularly heavy influx of headlines lately, but amidst any influx of attempt to flag things to hell, all is not lost, there's still engagement and sharing.

I think a substantial % just don't want to see any posts about politics or even politics adjacent stuff and flag them. I don't blame the impulse, political discussion is death to forums.

Earlier today dang answered more or less the same question you're asking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923649

100%, seems like a clear effort to bury anything critical or even just concerned about the actions of Musk, Altman, and the other tech billionaires in their relationship with the new administration. I saw this article also got flagged and there is nothing objectionable about it: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engin...

That article was on the frontpage, has over a 1000 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910

It was flagged this morning and I haven’t seen it on the front page until just now. https://web.archive.org/web/20250203054131/https://news.ycom...

That article was flagged like the rest until dang rescued it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42922117

How can you determine if it is being manipulated?

There would need to be a way to list all flagged stories. I don't know if there is.

Here’s a method (and results): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923154

However, that only shows flagged posts, it doesn’t show posts that weren’t flagged but were taken off the front page (which today seems like it’s pretty much all posts about Musk or Trump)

https://github.com/vitoplantamura/HackerNewsRemovals

This is missing a lot of stories

Specifically, almost every story about what’s happening with the current govt have been taken down from the FP in the last 24-48hrs

They could be getting automatically removed from the FP, however they are still getting removed, and the data makes it look like almost nothing is

Consider opening an issue to reconcile from other signal HN exposes (/active and such).

What /isn't/ being manipulated? Even 4chan has moderation.

(post the astronaut with a gun "always has been" meme here)

easy solution, don't knowingly & willingly trade in/interact with Chinese companies, agents, or products. they're highly verboten