When Satire Becomes a Threat
Figure: Media companies monetize attention. Journalism companies serve the truth.
Fraud Frog Manifesto – Part 2: When Satire Becomes a Threat
By Killian Yates
I was working to organize community-driven fraud reporting through Scam Watch Medford, a fraud hotline initiative on Nextdoor. It was simple: connect the dots between real victims, local scams, and unresponsive platforms. But while I was trying to protect my neighbors, I made the mistake of joking about a billionaire.
I posted a satirical piece titled "The Cybertruck Conspiracy" on my Liberty Gazette blog and shared it through my LinkedIn. The article poked fun at Elon Musk and the mythos surrounding the Tesla Cybertruck. My joke? That there weren’t any Cybertrucks to give away—and that people were probably getting paid just to drive them around for show. It was clearly satire. But not everyone took it that way.
Apparently, some people didn’t appreciate the joke—and they had the reach, money, and motive to make sure I’d regret publishing it.
What Happened Next
Within days, I noticed the floodgates open. My LinkedIn feed was overrun with Musk-friendly accounts and reposts of pro-Tesla talking points—some quoting my blog out of context, others outright mocking my post. Then it started happening on Nextdoor. The same platform where I was helping people track scams was suddenly flooded with posts featuring screenshots from X.com (formerly Twitter), turning the neighborhood watch into a targeted ridicule campaign. Same content. Same pattern. Same objective: discredit, drown out, derail.
This wasn’t just some internet squabble—it was a coordinated response by media-savvy loyalists and automated amplification designed to punish me for crossing the wrong PR line. The platforms didn’t just look the other way—they benefited from it. The content that attacked me got boosted. My posts got buried. And my LinkedIn account? Ultimately disabled.
This Is the New Information Warfare
When satire triggers coordinated suppression, we’re not talking about free speech anymore—we’re talking about platform-level gaslighting. This is how corporate influence rewrites the rules of engagement: by turning every platform into a reputation stock market where influence is currency and dissent is short-sold into silence.
I wasn't just censored. I was digitally shadowboxed—attacked without being named, buried without being banned, erased without anyone having to admit it happened.
The Danger of Platform Journalism
This is why Part 1 matters. The difference between media and journalism? Accountability. A real newsroom wouldn’t punish a citizen journalist for satire. A real platform wouldn’t allow coordinated abuse campaigns under the guise of user engagement. But our media infrastructure is now so entangled with personal loyalty, celebrity worship, and algorithmic bias that public watchdogs are treated like intruders.
We need decentralized platforms, open broadcast spaces, and protections for civic satire. Because if you can’t joke about the world’s richest man without risking deletion, then we’re not living in a democracy—we’re living under a digital monarchy.
Want to see what Tesla has to say for themselves? You can visit the official Tesla Cybertruck page here.
