Hello world,

as many of you may already be aware, there is an ongoing spam attack by a person claiming to be Nicole.

It is very likely that these images are part of a larger scale harassment campaign against the person depicted in the images shared as part of this spam.

Although the spammer claims to be the person in the picture, we strongly believe that this is not the case and that they’re only trying to frame them.

Starting immediately, we will remove any images depicting “Nicole” and information that may lead to identifying the real person depicted in those images to prevent any possible harassment.
This includes older posts and comments once identified.

We also expect moderators to take action if such content is reported.

While we do not intend to punish people posting this once, not being aware of the context, we may take additional actions if they continue to post this content, as we consider this to be supporting the harassment campaign.

Discussion that does not include the images themselves or references that may lead to identifying the real person behind the image will continue to be allowed.

If you receive spam PMs please continue reporting them and we’ll continue working on our spam detections to attempt to identify them early before they reach many users.

  • yarr@feddit.nlEnglish
    45·
    6 days ago

    This annoys the fuck out of me and I hope whoever is behind it doesn’t realize their goals, because I don’t want lemmy to degrade into a bunch of spam PMs.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
      9·
      5 days ago

      TBF, it’s bound to happen.

      Guaranteed almost.

      Lemmy has minimal controls for protecting against spam and bot spam. It’s built to handle the internet 5 to 10 years ago, not the internet today.

      I can only hope that this changes because as soon as the platform becomes popular enough (which it is slowly). Then the rate of bot spam and other sorts of spam will just go through the roof, and there’s very little that admins can do to combat it without it becoming a full-time job.

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
        3·
        5 days ago

        We can have an opt in spam filter that makes it harder, the instances can defederate spamming instances (user) unless they do something which yes there is a lot admins can do at signup. Or have I misunderstood something?

    • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
      6·
      5 days ago

      I don’t either want to see story on TV about Internet hacker group “Lenny” destroying womans life by a persistent harassment campaign.

  • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    6 days ago

    I’ve been thinking this since it started and saying it for a bit. I don’t understand at all how there were memes of this on the front page all the time and it took this long to do even this. Has there been any attempt at an effort to notify whoever is in the picture that this is happening? I would like to help if possible.

    • Zomg@lemmy.world
      21·
      6 days ago

      I think “notify her” feeds the harassment they’re referring to, even if contacting her is well intended

      • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        I mean depending how its handled and on context, yes of course, but I’m not suggesting we traumatize this person further than whatever has already happened. Like someone else said letting the university is a decent first step.

  • 18-24-61-B-17-17-4@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    7 days ago

    I can’t believe I managed to never get one of these spam messages. I didn’t even know what a Nicole was until the week or two ago.

  • MisanthropiCynic@lemm.eeEnglish
    21·
    7 days ago

    WTF is a Nicole image

    Edit: After seeing responses…. I got it weeks ago but just ignored it as spam and didn’t even read it. The pic jogs my memory

  • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
    13·
    7 days ago

    Glad to see there’s effort being taken to stop this, as someone who’s been harassed in a similar way on here it really kind of bugs me that people are making light of this or assume that the original person is the one doing this. Impersonation is frighteningly easy on the Fediverse and I really wish they’d add some kind of verification in Lemmy like they do in Mastodon to try and minimize the impact of it.

  • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
    6·
    6 days ago

    So you have all the limitless time and energy to address this stupid spam post but you can’t prevent the rise of authoritarian bots and powermods on lemmy.world?

    • Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de
      10·
      6 days ago

      I guess limitless time and energy would be needed to identify authoritarian bots because it’s much harder compared to identifying a person in an image. Should nothing be done because the larger problem can’t be solved at the current time?

        • Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de
          2·
          5 days ago

          First: you people? Who are “we”, are unable to identify such contents / opinions? Second: I’m not talking about people identifying content and filtering it, I am talking about automated systems. Do you think that they are filtering Nicole’s by looking at each and every picture?

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
            1·
            5 days ago

            ‘You’ are everyone in existence not me who apparently have a hard time distinguishing authoritarian jargon.

            I’m not sure where opinions come into this, are you a bot?

            If I can do it, an automated system can do it. Twitter already had it but they didn’t roll it out because it ‘false flagged’ a bunch of repugnican politicians as fascist back in 2015 GUESS WHAT THEY WERE FUCKING ON THE MONEY!

            I get it, you’re a terminally online shitstirrer that isn’t getting enough attention. Well I can guarantee this is the last post you’ll be getting any of that from me.

            • Foofighter@discuss.tchncs.de
              3·
              5 days ago

              You are absolutely incapable of judging the complexity of the tasks at hand. a) Calculating a hash of every uploaded image, comparing it against a blocklist, and extending the blocklist as needed b) validating each each post to distinguish truth from lie, facts from imagination and on top of that judging whether the presentation opinion fits in a moral/ethical framework of which a computer has no concept of.

              A computer is a machine that calculates stuff. It “emulates a brain” to appear smart. A brain is a biological machine that is good in pattern detection and expression, which emulates a computer to do math to appear smart.

              If you think an automated system can do it because you can do it, please spend your apparent infinit resources and time in implementing it rather than wasting your valuable time online insulting others who actually do something.

            • Grimy@lemmy.world
              3·
              5 days ago

              you’re a terminally online shitstirrer that isn’t getting enough attention

              I’m seriously impressed you are accusing the other person of doing this. Reread your comments and take a hard look at the vibe you are giving off.