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The story
The Tokyo Shimbun has reported — based on an interview with an agent involved in the scheme — on a business called “smartphone farms,” in which posts and videos that appear to be “going viral” on social media are actually being artificially manufactured using large numbers of smartphones and multiple accounts. The core of the article is that this technique of inflating view counts and likes could also be used to shape political public opinion. On 5ch, opinions split between skeptics who argued there’s no way subscriber counts could be padded that quickly, and posters who cited specific sightings of large numbers of identically worded posts on X — leaving the thread divided over how much of this is actually true.
“Smartphone farms” manufacture viral buzz… An agent explains the mechanism: “It’s the viewers who are being deceived” — Tokyo Shimbun
September 20, 2026, 5:00 AM — Paid subscribers only
Posts and videos that “go viral,” capturing users’ attention on social networking sites. Amid warnings that these can spread misinformation and even influence politics, there exists a business known as “smartphone farms,” which artificially manufactures “viral” status by inflating view counts and “likes.” Our “Kochira Tokuhoubu” investigative team spoke with a “person involved” in one such farm to uncover the reality behind it. (By Kyota Matsushima)
Source: tokyo-np.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Even if you build it with a "smartphone farm," it just doesn't spread on its own.
How are they supposed to fake subscriber counts anyway? Tens of thousands of phones is impossible.
These idiot trolls probably think their own tricks are the whole world.
No matter how much you manipulate it, something that isn't going to catch on just won't.
If that were true, "Bayside Shakedown" (a hit Japanese cop drama/film franchise) would've been an even bigger hit, dummy.
The parties who'd be doing the regulating are the ones running the online manipulation, so that's never happening.
Though honestly, the worst offenders are the idiot citizens who fall for online manipulation so easily.
Hoshino Romi put out a video calling that fake news, go watch it.
Even that TBS report was just made by taking the other side's word for it without actually verifying anything — they just assumed it was real.
If you could really make that much money doing this, everyone would be doing it lol.
You're all just a bunch of gullible idiots lol
Then how do you explain the huge number of accounts posting the exact same wording, word for word, on X?
This is about tricking the media into thinking it's real so they can use the media's reach to run the scam lolw
Which means the media ended up as an accomplice to the fraud lol
Though I guess the people who fall for it are idiots too lol
Sounds like the kind of guy who thinks the old F5-refresh attacks (a crude hit-count-boosting method) were staged too.
Just look at the malatang or tapioca-drink booms, it's obvious.
As long as the thing itself isn't terrible, you can pull this off.
"100 Days Until He Dies" (the viral crocodile webcomic) had that whole controversy at the end, but up until then it was being run as a hype campaign.
You're an idiot, lolw
You actually believed some chuunibyo kid's delusions ("chuunibyo" = adolescent main-character fantasies)? If it were that easy to make money, everyone would be doing it lol
They're actually doing it, the manipulation.
Right, exactly.
You can't tell unless someone compiles it like this, but once it's compiled it's obvious at a glance.
There were some on 5ch too. There's a certain tell, but I won't write it here.
Foreign operatives stoking division and conflict are already flooding in, in huge numbers.
North Korea's "Spread Department" propaganda unit and China's "50-cent army" have been mobilized since 2020.
You'd think that kind of thing would be easy to detect — what is the platform even doing?
Probably these guys testing it out.
If this teenager actually exists, there's no way he's really making 4.5 billion yen a year.
What's really happening is they're tricking the media so they can use "the media said it, so it must be true" to hook the idiots who fall for that logic.
Wonder what the media will do once someone actually presses them on this lol
"It was cold this morning" was trending, and when you looked inside, every single post had the exact same wording.
That was probably a farm test run.
Pot calling the kettle black lolw
Whoever would be hurt by continued reporting on smartphone farms is the one attacking the media that reported on it.
That's the answer.
Why would being reported on be a problem for anyone? This is exactly the kind of information that should be shared.
For example, sharing info on what these garbage clickbait videos look like — phrases like "filming this urgently right now," "bring on the deletion," "just happened!" — or, for political ones, over-the-top titles like "XX left speechless by YY's remark" lolw
Sharing the knowledge that most of these are garbage videos so people can avoid getting hooked would actually be useful.
Nobody can check everything themselves, so it's a better use of time to just learn to dodge the clickbait videos.
Background and key points of this discussion
“Smartphone farms” refers to a technique that uses large numbers of smartphones and multiple accounts to artificially inflate view counts, likes, and subscriber numbers, manufacturing the appearance of something “trending” on social media. What sets the Tokyo Shimbun’s reporting apart is that it’s based on a direct interview with an “agent” involved in running this system — making it a piece that cuts into a field said to have applications ranging from political opinion manipulation to corporate promotion. The thread was sharply divided. One camp offered technical skepticism, arguing there’s no way subscriber counts could be faked that easily; the other pointed to concrete examples — such as multiple posts on X with identical, word-for-word wording — as evidence that this is already happening in practice. One point worth noting: finding several posts with identical wording isn’t, by itself, proof of organized manipulation, since it could also result from copy-pasted template text or simple coincidence. At the same time, the point that news outlets could end up inadvertently promoting the farms themselves if they report on this mechanism without verifying the facts highlights that readers, too, need to exercise their own judgment.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread ““Smartphone farms” manufacture viral buzz… An agent explains the mechanism: “It’s the viewers who are being deceived” — Tokyo Shimbun.”
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