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Mia Sato, a technology journalist at The Verge, started noticing something off in the skincare subreddits she read regularly to decide what products to buy. A thread about a hypochlorous acid acne spray would get dozens of responses from users recommending different brands. But one comment stood out: a random account said they hadn't tried the specific product in question but recommended Honeydew Labs instead, noting its 0.02% concentration and that it was "accepted by the National Eczema Association." The moderator of that subreddit had been tracking this account—it had been pushing the same product across multiple skincare subreddits for days or months, using identical controlled language. "What normal person is going to go across different subreddits and keep pushing this product for no reason?" Sato recalls the moderator asking.

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