<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>batmaniam</author><text>Even corporations do this kind of thing, not just state agents. There was an interesting case where Ebay harassed two old couple for running a blog that was critical of Ebay practices. Ebay went so far as to cause long-term psychological damage to the couple by mailing them bloody pig masks, signing them up to naughty magazines and sending them to their neighbors, van stalking them, and all other kinds of crazy stuff you wouldn&amp;#x27;t believe. Everything was directed by senior leadership at Ebay, and &amp;#x27;encouraged&amp;#x27; by the CEO.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;EBay_stalking_scandal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;EBay_stalking_scandal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;ebay-cockroaches-stalking-scandal.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;26&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;ebay-cockroach...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Really interesting read, if you guys wanna learn more. But basically anyone with money and power can initiate this kind of harassment activity.</text><parent_chain><item><author>philovivero</author><text>Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn&amp;#x27;t happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only?&lt;p&gt;Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her.&lt;p&gt;They would do things like wait until she went into a store to buy something, then let the air out of her bicycle tires. Just stupid little harassing things like that, so that if she complained about it to her family they&amp;#x27;d think she was crazy.&lt;p&gt;Next time you hear some nutcase on the street talking about things like this to whoever will listen... ponder things like this.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-individuals-charged-variously-stalking-harassing-and-spying-us-residents-behalf-prc-0</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>noobermin</author><text>That reminds me of COINTELPRO, and how the FBI tried to get MLK to commit suicide by sending him a harassing black mailing letter. It&amp;#x27;s amazing how states particularly when they have apparatuses that can go rouge or are even actually encouraged by the government like the Stasi were go to ridiculous lengths to harass people they find politically inconvenient.</text><parent_chain><item><author>philovivero</author><text>Sometimes I think this sounds conspiratorial, and surely isn&amp;#x27;t happening. Who has the time or money to pay 5 people to just go around harassing and stalking people for political gain only?&lt;p&gt;Then I remember the story of the lady in East Germany who, after it fell, managed to get the Stasi records that finally proved that yes, they had been stalking her, harassing her, and spying on her.&lt;p&gt;They would do things like wait until she went into a store to buy something, then let the air out of her bicycle tires. Just stupid little harassing things like that, so that if she complained about it to her family they&amp;#x27;d think she was crazy.&lt;p&gt;Next time you hear some nutcase on the street talking about things like this to whoever will listen... ponder things like this.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>5 Charged with Stalking, Harassing, Spying on US Residents for PRC Secret Police</title><url>https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-individuals-charged-variously-stalking-harassing-and-spying-us-residents-behalf-prc-0</url></story>