---
title: "The Dark Side of GitHub"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-dark-side-of-github-jjcbgz1ed
source_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHY3JJpHfXs
type: video:youtube
source: "bigboxSWE"
published: 2025-08-31T14:05:30.855Z
updated: 2025-08-31T14:05:58.817Z
tags: ["security", "open-source", "github"]
reading_time: 4
upvotes: 106
comments: 21
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Dark Side of GitHub

**[bigboxSWE](https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe)** · 4 min read · 106 upvotes · 21 comments

## Summary

An investigation into the underground economy of fake GitHub engagement, including services that sell artificial stars, followers, forks, and entire accounts. The content explores different tiers of fake engagement, from cheap anonymous accounts to premium services using legitimate profiles, and examines motivations like impressing investors, recruiters, and establishing credibility for potential security exploits. Detection tools like Astronomer can identify fake engagement, but the practice highlights how even technical platforms remain vulnerable to manipulation and social engineering.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHY3JJpHfXs>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@catalincodes** · 7 upvotes

> We seriously need an algorithm to detect and report to Google the number of fake reviews on Google Maps.
>
> Tons and tons of 5-star reviews on restaurants. You open their profile: no photo, only one or maybe five reviews ever made and the text on the review looks like the most generic version that ChatGPT could generate. I have to go through each review and validate whether it's a real person or a bot.
>
> Article on The Verge: [Google Maps is cracking down on fake reviews](https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24254882/google-maps-removing-fake-business-reviews-warning-message)

**@petecapecod** · 2 upvotes

> Wait I have a GitHub profile, can I get paid for fake engagement?!?
> $5 a fork, and I need that USDC up front bro 🤣
>
> JK but it made a good joke 😜

**@ghost** · 2 upvotes

> Every single form of social media is subject to botting, manipulation, gaming, and so on. Social media itself is heavily manipulated by corporations and even governments with impunity, as shaping consensus online is important for propaganda reasons. Including marketing, which is basically just propaganda for corporations. Botting, astroturfing, consensus cracking, censorship, and so on. It's a whole hidden layer most users are completely unaware of. Every single metric can be hacked, every discussion can be crafted. Social media is the forefront of propaganda in our time.

**@cemipop** · 1 upvotes

> all social media services available, followers,likes,views, accounts etc available

**@id10terr0r** · 1 upvotes

> Thank you for the share!

---

Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-dark-side-of-github-jjcbgz1ed)