Reddit Mods Accuse MSI Of Unleashing Marketing Bots To Spam Gaming Laptops Section

This week on the r/GamingLaptops subreddit, moderators are taking a stand and speaking out against an influx of suspiciously pro-MSI spam comments. Since the goal of the moderation team is to keep r/GamingLaptops "a place for honest, community-driven advice," behavior that seems to stem from a coordinated marketing campaign explicitly goes against that goal, which spurred moderator action. In a detailed post, user u/Melmpje decries the behavior and gives a firm warning to users and explains that certain behaviors are bannable offenses. These behaviors include "brand promotion in recommendation threads," especially comments consistently pushing one model or brand without context, and undisclosed affiliations.

As Melm points out before sharing some screenshots as evidence, "Many accounts post the same comment with different product suffixes" and "Comments reuse the same phrases and tone, making them feel copy-paste-y." Melm posits that these accounts are "a mix of bots and paid posters" thanks to suspicious account activity, and that "Even with AI around, the wording is so generic that a chimpanzee could spot them as fake."


As of the time of this writing, MSI hasn't responded to inquiries. The Reddit moderator is careful to state that "We're not bashing MSI or any other brand," but the general consensus seems clear that MSI or some third party is in fact coordinating these spam comments, and the behavior seems to stem as far back as four months ago. If MSI is directly responsible, and not some third-party marketing firm that has overstepped their bounds, we hope the company brings a stop to this behavior, especially since we've positively reviewed both the MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld and the liquid-cooled MSI RTX 5090 Suprim Liquid OC recently.

The original Reddit thread decries the behavior, and has since been updated with information regarding a comment filter that's been put in place to alleviate the spam bots.