It’s not crazy to think that a big company like Microsoft would do anything in its power to halt any sort of negative buzz, even when its chosen tactics seem somewhat ludicrous. Such a thing happened this week when allegations of the company using social media to alter its reputation arose, but those have been quickly denied by social media site Reddit.
Earlier this week, there were claims that Microsoft was attempting damage control after the negative outburst in response to the Xbox One. A user on Reddit claimed to have been led on a tour at Microsoft’s offices and was left alone with the group at one point in a marketing office. While waiting for the guide to return, the Redditor saw a pair of employees on Reddit themselves. The employees had multiple tabs open and were furiously switching between them, adding posts in favor of the Xbox One, arguing against naysayers, and “downvoting” (lowering the exposure of) posts attacking the console. The Reddit community, possessing as always a borderline-alarming attention to detail and efficiency, tracked down a brand new account that had done nothing but post positive comments about the Xbox One and attacked him.
Now, however, Reddit has come out and vehemently denied that this is the case, in a lengthy post that outlines the events of the week and reminds Reddit that it’s important not to make abrupt judgments. A moderator of the Gaming “subreddit” reached out to different firms alleged to have been doing this work for Microsoft and the firms denied any such involvement. The moderator also points out the outstanding failure of such a campaign (if it had existed), citing the universally negative memes against the One on Reddit, as well as the complete lack of any sort of proof from the original poster. As a reminder, this post followed a large investigation by Reddit into the allegations of using the site for reputation management, as such a thing is absolutely against what the site stands for. It looks like for now, we can dismiss Microsoft’s supposed dirty tactics and chalk any sort of reputation management up to lone wolf fanboys.
Do you believe Reddit, or do you think the site is saving face while Microsoft continues to hire people to work behind the scenes? Discuss in our comments, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter!