That's true for anything where difficulty is measured by a continuous function -- that is, everything is easiest for a state sponsored anything, good or bad, unless it can't be done at all. You're really just saying states have more resources than individuals... which is true almost by definition (they aggregate individuals within their realm)
But the underlying point of the comment still stands. Just making account creation more costly doesn‘t stop spam... it just makes it more expensive. Same for all other legal activities which are then also more expensive. Thus, it‘s not a perfect solution (if at all).
> making account creation more costly doesn‘t stop spam... it just makes it more expensive
But that's the only thing that has ever been effective against spam. Spam exists because the marginal cost of spamming is 0. This puts a floor on the marginal cost of spamming; if it costs at least this much to spam, then only spammers that make back that much will exist, which eliminates most spammers.
not true. in a truly organic network, where you actually know the graph back to you, it is very difficult for a state actor.
ironically, facebook is in a position that is perfect for this, and they go out of their way to not see it. ...I guess because being able to block content based on dislikes by your immediate friends would make it too hard to expose you to all the sponsored posts.
In that case.. it's difficult for anyone. It's still not any better for a state actor versus anyone else -- you've just upped the difficulty so high that it even includes state actors.
That is, (I believe) it is not possible to construct a nefarious deed that is harder for a state actor than an individual to execute. It is only possible to construct scenarios that are hard enough that both state actors and individuals cannot execute it.
A state can do anything a group can do, and a group can do anything an individual can do. They're supersets of one-another, in terms of capability and resource.
There is no "sounds perfect for a state-sponsored" anything -- everything is perfect for a state-sponsored entity, unless it cannot be done at all (because who has greater capability than a state? Other than a coalition of states, or even further, galactic nation-states)
>not true. in a truly organic network, where you actually know the graph back to you, it is very difficult for a state actor.
An entity with sufficient resources & time can probably defeat this -- the main thing is to generate more "accounts" or whatever;
need proof of id? Sufficiently good counterfeits.
need DNA proof? rob of a morgue.
users police themselves? make sufficiently "attractive"/fake accounts and add randomly until you get added by enough people, and then their friends, and then spam until you get blocked and do it again);
and hide them sufficiently well, faster than the governing entity(ies) can identify and remove them.
