Post #4075319
2026-07-24 22:22 UTC
@shac@ioc.exchange One problem with the social graph (or Web of Trust, as it was called by PGP/GPG advocates) is that The Bad Guys can stand up billions of fake identities that all vouch for each other (q.v. "link farm"). If you bias simply for link quantity, The Bad Guys win.
Yes, the graph will be isolated. So bribe (or threaten) a few real people in desperate straits to vouch for some fake identities (or pwn their Windows machines to do it). Poof! The fake island now has "legit" links.
Replies (1)
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@shac@ioc.exchange 2026-07-24 23:34
@ewhac@mastodon.social The protection is not absolute, it is a score. But more importantly, it’s not a graph where once you’re in, you are trusted. People would be scored (for you) relative to how many links get from you to them, and how strong those links are. If all your first hop friends know Alice, she will score high. If a set of people distant from you who have low scores are friends with Eve, she’s not going to have a very high score. And when you tag her as a bot, you’ll drag down the scores of all those who linked to her and their other links. At least in theory. I can’t say I put much thought into this and I’m sure it won’t be that simple.