3d ago

Reddit censorship in action: two screenshots of the top of r/all on my phone, taken just minutes apart (12:34 and 12:40 PST) -- spot the difference!

Screenshots of reddit.com/r/all on mobile as it appeared immediately after loading (did not scroll), taken at 12:34 and 12:40 PST; look what suddenly disappeared from the #1 post spot! That's a rather specific "server error"...

I happened to take the first screenshot (12:34) because I thought it was suspicious enough that they were suddenly dealing with an unspecified "error" right as bad news about the site hit the top of r/all. Then a few minutes later (~12:38) the site didn't load at all. A few minutes after that, the bad press post is gone from r/all. If you go to the post now (https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1jl6smd/elon_musk_pressured_reddits_ceo_on_content/), it says "Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/politics" (marked as "off-topic").

57 comments

how in the fuck is a post about that "off-topic"? Fucking sell outs.
- sell outs
  Well, yes. That’s entirely the point. It started years ago with the quarantining of fringe subs like WPD or Spacedicks, followed by allowing extremist subs like T_D to continue unfettered. Those were red flags many recognized, and Spez made it plainly obvious he was planning on commercializing Reddit and wanted a platform for advertisers. He didn’t lie about that, it was openly stated. Those events were followed up by cramming the Reddit app down our throats, the closing of the API, removing mods and communities protesting Reddit actions, the cleanup of anti-Spez art on /place, forcing ads into the feed, etc., etc. Now we have tacit support of censorship in support of an oligarch.
  IOW complaining that Reddit “sold out” is a bit late. It happened a while ago. Now they’re licking the boot

Elon is a pseudo cabinet member, laughable to consider this off topic.

Literally standard server errors man

At this point, being banned from reddit is a badge of honour.
- I'm honoured to be near you.
- I still have 3 unbanned, high karma accounts that I don't use anymore. One day I might need them to do a thing.
  
  I had been planning on deleting my... I think 15 year old account? that I haven't touched since baconreader stopped working but hadn't pulled the trigger yet because I put so much work into those years of posts. But, you make a good point. I may need it for a thing someday.
- Dang, I removed my account before the bans started flying.
  I did have to re-delete a lot of comments very often, and then the bulk deletion app was suddenly enshittified

Is this why I just got permabanned there for explaining that "globalist" is an antisemetic dogwhistle? They said I was using hatespeech and when I contested it, my sub ban (r/dandadan of all places) became a permanent site-wide ban.
- Lol, do I wanna know why you were banned from Dandadan?
  
  Genuinely nothing bad. Someone used the term "space globalists" to describe a faction in the manga, so I explained why globalist was an antisemetic term by explaining the context it gets used in irl as well as by providing specific examples of Alex Jones using the term and examples of him explaining why he uses it (he has, on rare occassion, said that you call them globalists instead of jews because the latter is a bad look, essentially). I did use some vulgar language and imagery, but only in quoting/paraphrasing what these types have actually said about their own beliefs.
  The part of the ruling that said it was off topic was, imo, fair as I did break that rule, but specifically using it to disallow people pointing out hate speech, while also deeming it hate speech, and while leaving the dogwhistle I responded to up all makes it feel very sus ngl.
  I asked their mods how what I said was qualified as hate speech and instead of getting any explanation, their response was a 2-day sitewide ban. After bringing it to admins, they, again instead of giving any reasoning to the ruling, just banned me from the site fullstop.

Write a review of Reddit on the App Store saying about people being silenced. Reddit can’t remove it unless you write something offensive

I had already deleted my reddit apps on my phone and such before switching over to Lemmy. But now that I see Muskrat directly going after reddit similarly to how he did with Twitter, I went ahead and deleted all my accounts. Fuck that place.

Eventually the comic will be removed too

I got mysteriously site wide banned without any warning. Only been warned once on the platform and never been suspended. I believed I was following the reddit TOS and guidelines but was banned for "violating "multiple rules."
I have never been alerted about it by reddit ever what content of mine violated their site wide rules. I hope the admins here are more fair and actually respond to requests than using AI and algorithm and ignoring requests about wrongful suspension.
Did reddit team just start to hand out banhammers to accounts randomly? My alt was banned and then my main one was banned hours later. It was just a generic message not really telling me what content of mine violated their site wide rules.
- Well it says the ban was due to content on your other account, so maybe check the message in there? It's not that big of a mystery
  
  I have that same message in both accounts. i even reached out to reddit support for more information when my appeal was denied for both accounts. Still awaiting to hear back.

I still get on reddit, but I just read I don't vote or contribute in any way. I noticed today that anything critical of trump or his administration was having a difficult time loading, but yet non-trump related content loaded just fine.
Totally not suspicious.

ive seen that happen before, on the anniversary of 9/11 a few years back, some guy posted a video of the retaliatory bombings, and it was removed pretty quick just like this. no trace.

I made a post on antiwork yesterday about all the additional comments underneath the top comments that just don't exist when you go to expand them. Made a screen grab video of it. In one case it said there were 48 comments but you open them and nothing then you scroll to the end it said 458 comments and there were like maybe 40-50 it’s ridiculous what a corporate bootlicking shithole reddit now obviously is. At least it was better hidden before.

Reddit hides posts you’ve already viewed
- That, along with hide on up or downvote, is a account setting, and iirc isn't on by default.
  
  I believe the algorithm skips already seen posts so that you don't see them again, whether this is on or off

Picture of reddit, server error. Obviously.

Server errors are nothing new for reddit

I scoured every pixel on every panel of that comic for several minutes OP.

It has gotten more & more tame & lame over there as the bots take over.

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1jl7jtp/elon_musk_pressured_reddits_ceo_on_content/
I saw this in the 4th spot on r/all.
- I couldn't find it going over all's history, but I did find this fucking funny one. Musk is desperate and over-leveraged. The double finger "gun" is hilarious.
  https://old.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1jlhf0k/elon_musk_asserts_the_administration_is_going_to/

That error means you're shadowbanned. Try opening your profile in incognito it might be suspended
- It's not showing the error now so shrug. Also the account I'm logged in as has engaged in zero activity (no comments, no voting, just lurking) in almost a year, so I don't know what I'd have suddenly been shadowbanned for.
  
  Are you using Firefox?
  
  Are you on VPN? If not, they have your IP address. They probably have a device signature as well.
- No it doesn't. It happens a lot if you do not use the mobile app. I have a mod account there and my interactions are heard regardless of this error. It might be a FF thing.
- No it doesn’t. I got this error earlier on a random web search in private mode, not logged in.

It happen to me as well.

Im having trouble even getting to reddit. I also left when I noticed they were censoring real news.
- Define "real news".
  (Conspiracy theories don't count).
  
  Uh, the post about Elon influencing reddit was enough for me. Thats news. That was censored. So I left.

Edit: I mistakenly thought the post was about the comics in the screenshot, my bad.
Your post got removed probably because it presumably violated Rule 14 of the subreddit on their disallowed submission types.
"Disallowed submission types
/r/Politics is a serious political discussion forum. To facilitate that type of discussion, all submissions must be articles, videos or sound clips. The following are also disallowed:

Satire or humor pieces. These submissions are better suited to /r/PoliticalHumor. Political cartoons can be posted in the Saturday Morning Political Cartoon Thread. Links that solicit users (Active petitions, signature campaigns, requests for money, surveys or polls). Submissions that are user-generated content without editorial oversight (ex: C-SPAN clips, selfposts/textposts, reddit polls, any submissions with user created text) Political advertisements as submissions. Advertisers should buy ad space on reddit.com if they wish to advertise on Reddit. Submissions which are entirely a copy-paste of the original reporting, or that add one paragraph or less, with a "read more at" link to the original content. Articles or videos that add another take on a subject, or include different verbiage or context are otherwise allowed. Live blogs/live threads/live articles"
That server error also happens occasionally on their app for basically no reason. It's not due to any post, I sometimes become unable to see my profile for like a minute before it goes back to normal.
I get and don't disagree that Reddit is pretty fucking shitty, but not everything has to be or is attributed to some sort of conspiracy on how everything is getting censored because of blah blah whatever. Oh, and breaking a subreddit's rules and getting your post removed or banned for it isn't censorship (waaaaaaaay too many people do this istg).
- Defend that shitpile all you'd like, I'm never going back.
  
  I'm not telling anyone to go back, buddy. I'm explaining the reasons why this and that happened. That it's not all due to some conspiracy b.s about censorship whatever.
- I thought the post talking about the comics.
- Are you saying that the Verge is not a news website? Because I’m pretty sure that the removed post was a link to a perfectly good article.

57 comments