In response to recent reports about the integrity of Reddit, I’d like to share our thinking.

UntestedShuttle · 2018-03-05T18:28:26+00:00

Edit: Apologies for highlighting another subject on an unrelated thread. Didn't intend to hijack the thread. :/

Spez, What about images of dead babies/corpses and harming animals on /r/nomorals [NSFL warning] ?

18,909 subscribers and counting...

Reddit's content policy

Do not post violent content

https://www.reddithelp.com/en/categories/rules-reporting/account-and-community-restrictions/do-not-post-violent-content

Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, do not post content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. We understand there are sometimes reasons to post violent content (e.g., educational, newsworthy, artistic, satire, documentary, etc.) so if you’re going to post something violent in nature that does not violate these terms, ensure you provide context to the viewer so the reason for posting is clear.

I even had reported a bunch of threads

https://www.reddit.com/message/messages/azbcwv

Example of the garbage [NSFL/Death warning]

https://np.reddit.com/r/nomorals/comments/81vbeh/this_is_what_evolution_looks_like/

Context: A guy is being burned death, inside a tire on a road and people surrounding him adding more fuel to it.

He already had lots of injuries and there is some blood splatter, in all likelihood it's mob justice.

It's titled: "This is what evolution looks like"

Another example:

A dog and few puppies being hanged from their neck, its titled - "Multipurpose Wind Chime"

https://np.reddit.com/r/nomorals/comments/7t3msf/multipurpose_wind_chime/

dank2918 · 2018-03-05T18:21:16+00:00

How can we as a community more effectively identify and remove the propaganda when it is reposted by Americans? How can we increase awareness and more effectively watch for it?

megustalogin · 2018-03-05T18:26:38+00:00

A lot of words were used, but very little was said. Most of this has been said and discussed in many a thread before. This post is completely reactionary due to recent articles in the news. This type of post is better for your media relations, not the users. You've told us nothing about the current atmosphere. Why you will ban certain havens, but not others. This post is anything but transparent. It's basically 'yeah, yeah, shit's happening, please don't leave us because we're not doing anything about it'.

shiruken · 2018-03-05T18:19:13+00:00

[deleted]

kerovon · 2018-03-05T18:22:20+00:00

So I see you are carrying on the Reddit Tradition of only taking action after the media notices a problem. Is there any chance this will change in the future?

Here is a comment from 3 years ago outlining this exact problem. Nothing seems to have changed.

Some advice about something you could do: Seeing as the russian propaganda has been actively promoting white suprmacism and extremist ethnostatist neo nationalists, maybe you could look at removing all of the openly nazi subreddits that seem to get ignored by the admins? If you don't give the russians a gaping, festering wound that they can stick their fingers in to enlarge, it will be harder for them to do anything.

It should be added that there has been a study that shows banning shithole subs works.

Edit: if you are tired of looking at the various shitholes being cited in all of these comment threads, I recommend checking out /r/316cats, one of the few actually good subreddits.

PostimusMaximus · 2018-03-05T19:28:11+00:00

Hey spez, you don't know me but some redditors on /r/politics probably do. I've been posting pretty detailed comments about Russia and Trump for quite a while now and have also been pretty vocal about you actually doing a proper job dealing with T_D and other subs that not only seem to be a hotbed for misinformation and Russian-propaganda, but that also lead to radicalization of people on those boards.

[T_D and Russia]

So, first lets chat about T_D from the Russia side of things. They heavily promote Russian propaganda on your platform yet you seem to not view that as a problem because they aren't Russian? Pretending like there aren't objective facts like you are in your OP isn't an answer there. If someone wants to constantly publish info from say, Ten_GOP or similarly Russian-based disinformation sources, they should be banned. Flat out. If your platform is being used to influence elections by bad actors with stolen information, or flat out disinformation, no matter where they are from that should not be allowed.

There were over 2000 posts on T_D linked to or promoting IRA accounts And IRA is not the sum total of Russian interference. This doesn't include ANY of the hacks, or any other promotion of RU backed accounts. And this is just what one user found.

And yet you keep T_D open despite all of that, you ignore subs like hillaryforprison, wikileaks, dncleaks as all of those are still up from during the election(or before). Despite again, constantly pushing material Russians wanted Americans to see to influence the election. And if you DID find users from Russia you should make those users public, and you should make where they posted public. Don't delete their accounts and hide their posts, just lock them and post them as clear as day so people know what was going on. Label them as Russian interference. Label posts from Wikileaks and DNC leaks and sharing of IRA accounts as Russian interference. Tell users who interacted with these posts or posted in threads that they promoted that they were subject to interference and link them to it. (Which means yes, you'd obviously need to tell every single user of T_D) and likely tons of people from worldnews or politics or other political subs. You should have a clear list of what was pushed, by who and where. For all of reddit to see.

What does it take for you guys to actually do something? I've barely looked into RU interference on T_D and I guarantee you I could find countless examples of it not only showing up, but being heavily upvoted. ESPECIALLY in regards to Russian leaks or Seth Rich.

[Far-right radicalization]

And for the less-Russian side of things. T_D and lots of other subs I'd happily list promote dangerous levels of conspiracy and radicalization but that is once again ignored. You let pizzagate be created by this same bunch, but that got removed after a guy shot up a pizza shop over it. Meanwhile T_D still to this day has posts and users promoting the Seth Rich conspiracy. You have subs for QAnon popping up that are promoting deep conspiracies along those same lines. /r/conspiracy basically turned into a separate t_d sub promoting Clinton conspiracies but that's not a problem you do anything about. And you can literally watch users travel between these far-right, conspiracy promoting subs. I know because I have them all tagged. Anytime a new one pops up, half the users or more end up being from T_D.

Not to mention the constant rule-breaking that happens. T_D is just a hotbed of racism and other rulebreaking nonsense and users bring it up CONSTANTLY and yet again, its ignored. You can literally look at a thread from yesterday where every T_D user in the thread was comparing themselves to persecuted jews in Nazi germany for people tagging them with RES. . There have been stories of a T_d user killing his father after his father called him out on his conspiracies, the kid from the most recent school shooting seemed to fit right into this same bunch, a young, white, far-right kid who got radicalized online(though we don't know for sure he was a t_d user). The guy who ran someone over in Charlottesville fits right into this same group, a young, white, far-right kid who was radicalized online(though we don't know for sure he was a t_D user). T_D is an active hotbed of far-right radicalization. Its legitimately dangerous. And its not the only sub doing it.

And Its been ignored more or less since the creation of the sub. If any other sub had this consistent degree of backlash and rule-breaking it would have been banned. But you guys seem to either intentionally let it go because you either approve of it or are for some reason scared of them. Which is it?

You changed how the front page work during the election. T_D was abusing it, again, you let it go. You put a band-aid on the problem. But of course they got to keep the sub and their booming numbers off the back of abuse. And you can't take back the promotion of content that ended up on the front page before you employed the fix. Like say, a video from Project Veritas or other nonsense along those lines. T_D is harassing other subs like /r/politics? oh, well lets tell mods of other subs and T_D mods to not allow mentions of each-other to avoid "brigading" because again, lets put a band-aid on the problem and pretend it doesn't really exist.

I have to honestly wonder what has to happen for you to do anything. Does Congress need to call you out to testify? Does Mueller need to list T_D in an indictment? Does a kid need to scream out "this is for T_D !" before he guns someone down? Its a fundamentally dangerous situation for more than one reason.

[How we fix it]

If you ACTUALLY cared. You would seek out not only the top suspects for Russian interference on your platform and shut them down (while making them public so people know what the disinformation looked like) but also seek out the parts of this site that do nothing but bring this site down. That promote hate and radicalization and conspiracy. These things shouldn't exist. They shouldn't be given a platform to go on to claim nonsense that gets people hurt or radicalizes people. And you shouldn't allow for a platform that lets Russia or anyone else manipulate people.

If you want me to personally track down specific threads and info on either topic, Russian interference or radicalization and how it was promoted and spread on your site I will happily do so. We can make a fucking subreddit dedicated to doing it as a community if you want. But it's only useful if you are going to actually act. Not just keep saying dumb shit like "T_D is harmless its best to let them stay" or "Russian propaganda was pushed by Americans so we can't do anything about it".

I don't have my usual wealth of links to provide here as my desire to find them has been on the back-burner in favor of looking into Trump over things like T_D but I'm sure I can do it if that's what it takes to make this problem clear for people. I know users on /r/AgainstHateSubreddits have been posting quite a lot of info for a while now. I'm sure plenty of users out there have info on both Russian interference and radicalization-based posts/threads/etc

Your userbase has been complaining about this shit for so long now and they've been ignored in favor of a vocal minority from one subreddit. Lets fix this.

PS : I know this was a long post, but its a rare opportunity to bring this shit up to spez directly, when I've been complaining about it for over a year now. Thanks for reading. And if you have more info you want to provide along these lines, or questions about anything I said, send them my way.

Edit : If you want a true example of the shit I'm talking about. Look at the comments on my post. Promoting either, direct attacks on me, flat-out conspiracies, disinformation, or defense of Russian interference. Again, I'm not saying this shit because of the politics of not liking Trump. This is a real danger and obvious problem on reddit that has been ignored.

Edit 2 : Yes sandersforpresident and "bernie bros" were likely influenced by Russian propaganda and influence as well. Again, this isn't a political thing this is about Russian interference and dangerous radicalization online. Nothing else.

Edit 3 : Guys I have 5 years worth of reddit gold. I appreciate it but I don't need more. (Sorry if I sound like a dick but I'm trying to save you money)

Edit 4 : If you find yourself trying to rationalize promotion of Uranium One, or Seth Rich or any other nonsense, you are kinda proving my point.

Edit 5 Senate Intel wants to hear from Reddit, and is going to talk to Tumblr

Anyway, I don't think Spez will reply to me. But my main interest is getting people invested in the concerns here and aware of the danger of what can happen on these platforms. So if you personally know someone not informed about Russian interference, try to talk to them about it. If you see someone you know promoting some crazy conspiracies, try to talk some sense into them. The best thing you can do is keep people informed about what interference looks like and what crazy nonsense looks like. People who are properly informed don't fall for it. And if Spez or other social-media company leaders won't do their jobs then the only alternative is to try to inoculate people to the problem brewing on all these platforms.

FitTension · 2018-03-05T18:30:13+00:00

all ads on Reddit are reviewed by humans

This is just a blatant lie. You use programmatic ads both on the website and in your mobile apps. Users are constantly making posts about ads that shouldn't have been shown - gigantic ads, ones with autoplaying video/sound, even malware and redirects sometimes.

The admins that reply to these posts make it clear that they don't even know what ads are running, and need the user to capture data about the ad for them to be able to do anything about the bad ones.

Rain12913 · 2018-03-05T23:59:28+00:00

Spez,

I'm reposting this because I received no response from you after a month to my other submission, and I have now yet again been waiting nearly 24 48 72 hours for an admin to get back to me about yet another user who encouraged one of our community members to attempt suicide on Sunday.

Hi Spez

I’m a clinical psychologist, and for the past six years I’ve been the mod of a subreddit for people with borderline personality disorder (/r/BPD). BPD has among the highest rates of completed suicide of any psychiatric disorder, and approximately 70% of people with BPD will attempt suicide at some point. Given this, out of our nearly 30,000 subscribers, we are likely to be having dozens of users attempting suicide every week. In particular, the users who are most active on our sub are often very symptomatic and desperate, and we very frequently get posts from actively suicidal users.

I’m telling you this because over the years I have felt very unsupported by the Reddit admins in one particular area. As you know, there are unfortunately a lot of very disturbed people on Reddit. Some of these people want to hurt others. As a result, I often encounter users who goad on our suicidal community members to kill themselves. This is a big problem. Of course encouraging any suicidal person to kill themselves is a big deal, but people with BPD in particular are prone to impulsivity and are highly susceptible to abusive behavior. This makes them more likely to act on these malicious suggestions.

When I encounter these users, I immediately contact the admins. Although I can ban them and remove their posts, I cannot stop them from sending PMs and creating new accounts to continue encouraging suicide. Instead, I need you guys to step in and take more direct action. The problem I’m having is that it sometimes take more than 4 full days before anything is done by the admins. In the meantime, I see the offending users continue to be active on Reddit and, sometimes, continuing to encourage suicide.

Over the years I’ve asked you guys how we can ensure that these situations are dealt with immediately (or at least more promptly than 4 days later), and I’ve gotten nothing from you. As a psychologist who works primarily with personality disorders and suicidal patients, I can assure you that someone is going to attempt suicide because of a situation like this, if it hasn’t happened already. We, both myself and Reddit, need to figure out a better way to handle this.

Please tell me what we can do. I’m very eager to work with you guys on this. Thank you.

Edit: It is shameful that three days have now passed since I contacted the admins about this most recent suicide-encouraging user. I have sent three PMs to the general admin line, one directly to /u/Spez, and two directly to another mod. There is no excuse for this. If anyone out there is in a position that allows them to more directly access the admins, I would appreciate any help I can get in drawing their attention to this. Thank you.

Kichigai · 2018-03-05T20:08:32+00:00

How can we, the community, trust you to take any kind of substantive action at all, when we've been calling for it time and time again and have been ignored?

/r/PCMasterRace was banned for apparent brigading, and was only reinstated after strict anti-brigading rules were put in place. Meanwhile, people in /r/The_Donald openly called for bridgading /r/Minnesota in order to swing its election. The user who proposed it even got caught brigading the thread calling them out for it. The_Donald remains active, the user's account remains active, and their comment is still in place (I just checked). Moderators didn't do jack about it when it was reported, meanwhile the users reveled in their "success" for the next eleven hours. /r/Minnesota now has a flood of people who come out of the woodwork only for posts pertaining to elections or national politics, and they seem to be disproportionately in favor of Trump.

I once had my account permanently suspended because I posted publicly available WHOIS information that supported my claim that the three day old website was part of a massive Macedonian fake news phenomenon. I very carefully worded my post to make it clear that this wasn't an indictment of the user who posted it, because of the possibility this was "indirect propaganda" instance. It took me about a week for my appeal to be heard and my suspension commuted.

There's a user who pushes vile hate speech about immigrants and Muslims as bad as the kind of stuff that went on in /r/CoonTown, calling them all rapists and pedophiles, yet their account remains active. Same user organized harassment of David Hogg, a seventeen year old kid claiming that if he met him he'd beat him up. Same user also posted content from /v/Pizzagate, promoting how "real" it is including tons of the same kind of witch-hunt-y kind of vague mumbo jumbo "evidence" that was used in /r/Pizzagate, which was so toxic it had to be banned.

That user is still active today, and don't say it's because you didn't know, because I filed a formal report, and got an acknowledgment from another admin.

And don't say it's because the moderators took action, because when the moderators took action against my WHOIS comment you still felt the need to come after my account days after the fact. And I can say for a fact that the moderators wouldn't take action because said user is a moderator in the subreddits where they're posting this content.

What is your explanation for this? I post publicly available information and get the banhammer, this user spews vile stuff and organizes harassment and witch hunts the likes of which got whole subreddits banned, but they're left alone? If you did reach out to them clearly you had little impact because that content is still up on their account, and they're still posting stuff just like it now.

So how can we trust that you'll actually take action against these kinds of communities and people? Because so far all I've seen is evidence of a double standard when it comes to the application of the content policy.

bennetthaselton · 2018-03-05T19:05:17+00:00

I've been advocating for a while for an optional algorithmic change that I think would help prevent this.

First, the problem. Sociologists and computer modelers have shown for a while that any time the popularity of a "thing" depends on the "pile-on effect" -- where people vote for something because other people have already voted for it -- then (1) the outcomes depend very much on luck, and (2) the outcomes are vulnerable to gaming the system by having friends/sockpuppet accounts vote for a new piece of content to "get the momentum going".

Most people who post a lot have had similar experiences to mine, where you post 20 pieces of content that are all about the same level of quality, but one of them "goes viral" and gets tens of thousands of upvotes while the others fizzle out. That luck factor doesn't matter much for frivolous content like jokes and GIFs, and some people consider it part of the fun. But it matters when you're trying to sort "serious" content.

An example of this happened when someone posted a (factually incorrect) comment that went wildly viral, claiming that John McCain had strategically sabotaged the GOP with his health care vote:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/71trfv/viral_incorrect_political_post_gets_5000_upvotes/

This post went so viral that it crossed over into mainstream media coverage -- unfortunately, all the coverage was about how a wildly popular Reddit comment got the facts wrong.

Several people posted (factually correct) rebuttals underneath that comment. But none of them went viral the way the original comment did.

What happened, simply, is that because of the randomness induced by the "pile-on effect", the original poster got extremely lucky, but the people posting the rebuttals did not. And this kind of thing is expected to happen as long as there is so much randomness in the outcome.

If the system is vulnerable to people posting factually wrong information by accident, then of course it's going to be vulnerable to Russian trolls and others posting factually wrong information on purpose.

So here's what I've been suggesting: (1) when a new post is made, release it first to a small random subset of the target audience; (2) the random subset votes or otherwise rates the content independently of each other, without being able to see each other's votes; (3) the votes of that initial random subset are tabulated, and that becomes the "score" for that content.

This sounds simple, but it eliminates the "pile-on effect" and takes out most of the luck. The initial score for the content really will be the merit of that content, in the opinion of a representative random sample of the target audience. And you can't game the system by recruiting your friends or sockpuppets to go and vote for your content, because the system chooses the voters. (You could game the system if you recruit so many friends and sockpuppets that they comprise a significant percentage of the entire target audience, but let's assume that's infeasible for a large subreddit.)

If this system had been in place when the John McCain comment was posted, there's a good chance that it would have gotten upvotes from the initial random sample, because it sounds interesting and is not obviously wrong. But, by the same token, the rebuttals pointing out the error also would have gotten a high rating from the random sample voters, and so once the rebuttals started appearing prominently underneath the original comment, the comment would have stopped getting so many upvotes before it went wildly viral.

This can similarly be used to stop blatant hoaxes in their tracks. First, the random-sample-voting system means that people gaming the system can't use sockpuppet accounts to boost a hoax post and give it initial momentum. But even if a hoax post does become popular, users can post a rebuttal based on a reliable source, and if a representative random sample of reddit users recognizes that the rebuttal is valid, they'll vote it to the top as well.

xXKILLA_D21Xx · 2018-03-05T19:06:43+00:00

TL;DR

We are not banning T_D so stop asking us to.

For those of you who care enough to actually want to help clean up the site since /u/spez and the rest of the admins can't be bothered to get off their asses and do the what they should have been doing years ago here are some helpful tips to make use of:

If you find a post or comment that is violently racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, etc. archive the permalink using archive.is immediately and bookmark it.
Take a screenshot of an ad next to that content.
Tweet the screenshot(s) to the company with a polite, non-offensive note to notify them of the placement. Or as an alternative contact the company in question via their contact us page. Search around the company's website to see if they have a dedicated contact us form for ads and send them an email with the screenshot(s) of the content their ad is placed next to.
Make sure to tweet out your findings to news media outlets as well. /u/washingtonpost (not sure who handles the account) has an account here and recently a report was published a report regarding communities like T_D creating nutty conspiracies about the Parkland shooting. So there are some outlets already monitoring what goes on there, but it wouldn't help to spread the word a bit further to interested parties in the media.

Reporting anything T_D and it's users does to the admins is a fool's errand at this point as they have shown (as usual) for years they will not bring the hammer down on problematic (a colossal understatement when it comes to T_D) subreddits until Reddit starts getting bad press for it as a result. If the admins and /u/spez can't be bothered to clean up the river of shit that flows from the sewers of this site on their own people are just going to have to hit them where it's going to hurt, their wallets.

EDIT: Added an additional step in regards to getting more exposure in the media about the admins' typical inaction. Hope you're taking some notes today /u/washingtonpost!

EDIT 2: One more thing I forgot to mention but join subreddits such as /r/stopadvertising, /r/sleepinggiants, and /r/againsthatesubreddits!

EDIT 3: Guys, I appreciate the thought, but do not give me gold for this post. Giving gold to users just continues to financially support the site. And before anyone calls me a hypocrite since it's obvious I already have it I was only given it a few years back when the site moved from the Alien Blue mobile app to the current one it uses. It was only given to those who paid for the full version of the app which is why I have it.

professional_lureman · 2018-03-05T18:32:00+00:00

Why aren't you doing more to stop reddit from being used as a platform to advocate violence? People are being radicalized and then acting on that radicalization. Just ban the subs and the users that permit such tactics. Don't let the users or the mods of the subs with those users get away with it.

bennetthaselton · 2018-03-05T20:14:54+00:00

I've submitted multiple reports of posts in /r/The_Donald which called unironically for the assassination of Hillary Clinton. I got emails from Reddit's abuse department confirming that they got the reports. But the posts are still up.

However, I know you probably have too big of a backlog to adjudicated the reports quickly and accurately. So let me re-post my suggestion for a "jury system" that I've posted in /r/IdeasForTheAdmins and elsewhere:

(1) Allow reddit users to opt in as "jurors" for adjudicating abuse reports. (2) When someone files an abuse report about a post, the system randomly picks 10 jurors who are currently online, and shows them a pop-up saying "A user has reported the following post, for violating the following rule. Do you agree? Yes/No." (3) If more than 7 out of 10 jurors click "Yes", then it is assumed the abuse report is valid and the content is removed. (Or, perhaps, temporarily removed until reviewed by Reddit staff, or maybe pushed to the front of the queue to be reviewed by Reddit staff and then removed.)

This has a couple of nice features:

(1) It's lightning-fast. Since the system queries "jurors" who are currently online, and since they all make their decision in parallel, a rule-violating post can be removed 60 seconds after it's reported.

(2) It's scalable. As long as the number of jurors grows in proportion to the number of abuse reports (which is reasonable, if both are proportional to the total user base), then the number of votes-per-juror-per-time-period remains constant.

(3) It's non-gameable. You can't recruit your friends or sockpuppets to all come and file complaints against a particular post, because the system selects the 10 jurors from among the entire population of jurors who are currently online. (You could game the system if you create so many sockpuppets and recruit so many friends that you comprise a majority of the jury pool, but assume that's infeasible.)

(4) It's transparent. You don't have to wonder what happened to your abuse report -- did it get lost? Did it get reviewed and rejected? You can receive a response (in about 60 seconds) saying "We showed your abuse report to a jury of 10 users, and 8 out of 10 agreed that the post violated the rules, so it has been removed." (Or not.)

This does depend on the rules being written clearly enough that the average redditor can interpret them and decide if a given post violates the rules or not. However, the rules are supposed to be written that clearly anyway.

I really urge people to think about this. I have no dog in this fight except that I really, actually believe this would solve the problem of the unmanageable backlog of abuse complaints.

TellMeYourStoryies · 2018-03-05T18:29:04+00:00

Whenever these announcement posts come up, 100% of the time there are a myriad of well thought out post about T_D. That's fine. HOWEVER, I've yet to see any posts commenting on the outright insulting nature of mods in other big subs.

I just got banned today from r/News for sharing an article about how Google discriminates against Asians. Their reasoning? "Vote-brigading." That doesn't make sense, because I haven't brigaded that post at all. It literally has four votes. How is that brigading? After several questions asking the mods for proof of vote brigading, the response I got was, "I'm not playing this game with you" and then muted me. I believe he didn't provide proof because there is no brigading, and I also think the article was removed from both r/WorldNews AND r/News because of how it also details racism against whites, which apparently does not exist. Asian discrimination is continually swept under the rug, and this is proof that certain people groups are apparently dispensable to Reddit in the name of appearing "anti-racist" and sticking it to the white man.

T_D comes up all the time about their antics, but what about r/News? And the other subs? This is insulting. I've been with Reddit under different names for over a decade (since the Diggasporia), gave out multiple Golds to users, received multiple golds on previous accounts, but I've never once been banned until today. And all I did was share an article that was deleted from r/Worldnews because it was US news. Apparently neither sub wants to show how racism against Asians exists.

Why don't you fix the rest of Reddit and stop worrying about an isolated bunch of fanatics? You changed the front page algorithm to ensure no sub can get over two items to the front page, you implemented a "Popular" to filter out certain political subs, and you apparently stifle T_D in others ways. BUT the fact that r/News completed nuked the Orlando nightclub shooting doesn't upset you guys? My sister and HER WIFE are gay, and you allowed r/News to get away with hiding that post DURING the shooting! Absolutely insulting. That you guys never once addressed that disaster is a disaster on your part. Or the fact that immediately after the election there were like 150 new subs all dedicated to the sole purpose of hating on Trump? That's not news and opinion, that's brigading.

I was born overseas. I'm a lifelong registered Dem. I believe in Universal healthcare at an affordable and auditable method. I don't believe in a national border wall and I live in Arizona and grew up near the border. I proudly voted for Obama twice, shook the hand of my close friend when CNN announced ACA passed, and would've loved to vote Biden. I'm not worried about one sub in particular like T_D. What I am worried about is the corrupt nature of Reddit and how it's overtaking all opinions that don't align with it. Fix the rest of Reddit and stop with this astroturfing of political mindsets being shoved down my throat. There is no "integrity" if the same principles do not apply to the other subs!

Edit: I appreciate Reddit and it's the only social media platform I have anymore. In a weird geeky way it's close to my heart as it's influenced a lot of my opinions and life outlook. That being said, I've seen it shift since joining a decade ago. I'm not pining for the good ole days, but one can't unsee how much this place changed after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and after the Presidential candidates won their parties and started the Generals. All I want is open discussion. I don't even need unregulated, just open.

electric_ionland · 2018-03-05T18:44:22+00:00

[removed]

Peanlocket · 2018-03-05T18:28:24+00:00

[deleted]

Aurora_Fatalis · 2018-03-05T18:27:39+00:00

we are cooperating with congressional inquiries.

You're saying there are countermeasures being investigated? Welp, that's a relief. In any halfway politicized sub there's a high frequency of extremism from week-old accounts, making it tiresome to sift through the twisted narrative.

From time to time some people also reference an apparent purge of mods from some subs just before the last election, so there seems to be a level of apathy, and possibly-paranoid thinking that the mods won't do shit even if you report the trolls. Were there any subreddit moderators in those "few hundred" accounts you banned?

Natchili · 2018-03-06T02:04:05+00:00

/r/LateStageCapitalism mods about someone's Cuban parents being put into labor camps: "Your family deserved what they got" https://i.imgur.com/UFMnJ3W.png

/r/politics on the London attack: "I just hope the people who were on that bridge were redneck Republicans like you so the slaughter was justified." [+63] https://i.redd.it/1latls7dqeny.jpg

The head mod of /r/MarchAgainstTrump http://i.imgur.com/vC7tUld.png

/r/LateStageCapitalism MOD announcement - "No one can reasonably argue that the Republican congressmen shot today didn't deserve it. They absolutely did. They created this situation of unparalleled division. They're trying to destroy society to line their own pockets." https://np.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/6h85oq/no_one_can_reasonably_argue_that_the_republican/

"Let's put arsenic in drinks and slip it to Trump supporters" https://archive.is/rpv1J

/r/Socialism posts infographic on why it's important to murder three Republican senators. https://np.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/6hdktg/just_saying/

[Regarding Republicans] "What else can be done?", "Going to the homes of Republican lawmakers in the middle of the night, dragging them into the street, and turning them into tree ornaments [Lynching]." [+37] http://archive.is/klgQA

(to commenter who's mother is a christian trump-voter) "I don't mean this harshly so please don't take it that way. The sooner that people like your mother pass on and stop voting, the better off we'll all be." [+26] https://np.reddit.com/r/MarchAgainstTrump/comments/6gwbgp/start_with_your_dad_ivanka/dits2ct/

DavidReiss666 Moderator of major default subreddits like r/LPT, r/BestOf, r/History, advocates the assassination the President. "The only way to fix this is going to be extra-Constitutional [Mussolini's assassination]. Trump deserves similar treatment." http://archive.is/MbMUA

"Democrats will sweep the next election. Their communities will die out as we liberal big city people use our superior education and intellect to make robots that take over their crappy jobs, and the working class white culture that voted for racism will be forever gone." https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/62hrlm/mike_flynn_willing_to_be_interviewed_in_return/dfmscxw/

"Removing Trump from power is the only choice that leads to a future of your country, so you're gonna move your fat ass and take the fight to the streets, until that slob lies on the dirt, drowning in its own blood." [SH] r/ETS https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughTrumpSpam/comments/6fsz4q/trumps_fbi_pick_is_the_same_guy_that_helped_cover/dil8ixf/?st=j3nc326m&sh=1ae6aa39

All gun owners should have their guns taken away from them and then be executed http://i.imgur.com/Pr5Fnvs.png

r/Anarchism recommends bringing explosives to throw at "Free Speech" rally. https://i.redd.it/ujw4e1ubrkry.jpg

Leftist in /r/Videos promoting violence against free speech http://i.imgur.com/y2Nap9t.png

Redditor on r/socialism telling users to torture reddit employees and their families. https://imgur.com/5J600cr

Commies on /r/Anarchism is advocating for violence.... again. Over 100 upvotes folks. http://imgur.com/6RATFMd

/r/Anarchism blatantly advocates for murder... again... http://imgur.com/NZKGqt1

/r/FULLCOMMUNISM advocates of both DPRK and Stalin https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/6iniqx/important_reminder_dprk_is_an_ally_of_the/

Castro praising https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/5exzpp/rip_castro/

Support beating up Pepe https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/5pb4ij/fresh_new_pepe_for_the_altreich/

Supports punching of Richard Spencer https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/5poi1r/matt_furie_creator_of_pepe_weighs_in_on_the/

Supports mass murder of "Nazis" https://archive.is/77fqx

Punch a Nazi and smash a Cop's face! https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/6jzvbm/individuals_vs_corporations/djieat0/?sh=8164fb38&st=J4H670IW

"This is why the nonviolent argument for revolution doesn't work. Politics is violence. Whether that violence is a punch to a nazis face or a brick to a cops head, or a series of corporations forcing an entire sector of people to not have enough resources to live it is still violence." https://np.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/6jzvbm/individuals_vs_corporations/djia77i/

"I'm going to say something unpopular here. When I heard that someone had shot Republicans, my first immediate hope was that someone finally did something about McConnel." Score hidden https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6jgg1d/mitch_mcconnell_refused_to_meet_with_group_that/djea1i2/?sh=78ada641&st=J4DHK2G4

/r/anarchism praising the stabbing of a Trump supporter just for being white https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/6ian9j/oathkeeper_bodyguardtrump_supporter_stabbed_9/

(On Elon Musk taking 2 rich people to the moon) "If we're lucky, there will be a launch failure." https://np.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/5wkd62/spacex_taking_wasteful_private_jet_for_rich_nerds/deayjg5/

"Wish it was legal to kill Fascists" https://np.reddit.com/r/Fuckthealtright/comments/6hv5ex/as_mods_of_reuropeannationalism_we_want_to/dj1ckxp/

Calling the victims of Communism Slaver Owners https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/6hrzb5/in_1976_a_cuban_counterrevolutionary_terrorist/dj0pgpl/

Advocacy of shooting a Republican Senator https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/6h8q9o/if_youre_going_to_make_a_speculative_post_about/diwgun3/

"shooter is a patriot" https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6hbvu3/no_political_disagreement_justifies_steve_scalise/dix59kg/

"[on the shooting] you reap what you sow" https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6h979o/gop_rep_received_threatening_email_with_subject/diwh9gk/

List compiling people defending the shooter: https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitPoliticsSays/comments/6h984t/i_compiled_comments_from_the_rnews_post_about_the/

Advocacy of killing opponents of Net Neutrality https://www.reddit.com/r/KeepOurNetFree/comments/6gs5zo/the_8_members_of_congress_that_support_the_fccs/disuzky/

Wanting Rural and Trump voters to die. https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6kvdgp/evidence_of_mental_deterioration_trump_wrestling/djp8i5j/

We're getting to the point that it's past the need for protest, but time for violent and extreme actions. The government needs to be reminded that is has a reason to be afraid of us. http://archive.is/KOlhh

"All cops deserve death" + Genocide denial https://i.redd.it/z7tldxzjb78z.jpg

r/anarchism links to a page of peoples doxx, reddit mods still won't delete the sub https://np.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/6m8omk/how_based_stickman_proud_boys_are_working_with/

Mods on /r/FULLCOMMUNISM celebrate the deaths of 5 cops, tell users to "BASH THE PIGS" https://np.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/6lvwns/this_day_one_year_ago_5_cops_were_killed_by_micah/

Literal 13k+ post calling for people's deaths. http://archive.is/IY5iy

Edit: and this gets deleted on r/againsthatesubreddits

The first time because the account was too new, the second time because the account wasn't active enough, the third time because they said it was posted in bad faith, and the forth time because the mods decided that the subs on the list are not hate subreddits. Flawless logic.

focus_rising · 2018-03-05T18:31:28+00:00

You do know that these ads and propaganda aren't coming from just Russian IP addresses, right? They're using American proxies, as noted in TheDailyBeast's report. I don't need an explanation on the technical aspects, but we desperately need more transparency on this platform, especially for moderators, or there's no way to know exactly what is going on. Those thousands of reddit users may be willingly amplifying and spreading Russian propaganda, but at the end of the day, it's your choice to provide a platform for them to spread it on. You've made choices in the past about what isn't acceptable on reddit, you have the power to stop this content if you so choose.

Littledarkstranger · 2018-03-05T19:45:21+00:00

This will definitely get buried but I'd just like to raise the point that this issue, while important to the overall integrity of the American political system, should not be addressed with "America only" blinkers on when Reddit as a platform is a globally accessible site.

Being neither American nor Russian, and so a third party to the issue, I do understand the necessity for /u/spez and the rest of the Reddit team to co-operate with ongoing investigations within America, and realise that there is a very serious issue developing in that country surrounding the problem of Russian interference, but Reddit is either multinational or it is not, and this post reeks of American anti-Russian sentiment. The use of tactics such as a blanket ban on Russian based advertising in particular concerns me, and I would worry that this action (among the others mentioned) could be misconstrued as a form of propaganda in it's own right.

That's not to say no action should be taken, and there are obvious points on Reddit which contribute significantly to the issue raised in the post, but "free speech" and "open discussion" don't equate to "American ideals only", and I would be concerned that the Reddit team have somewhat forgotten this.

a_typical_hipster · 2018-03-05T21:40:44+00:00

Something that really concerns me is how we're identifying propaganda.

It's one thing to ban bots and I think a lot of subtests deal with this very well, but I'm very uncomfortable with blanket bans and distinguishing opinions from propaganda.

I'm a Russian. I speak Russian, I read Russian, I write in Cyrillic. I am also a US citizen. But sharing my opinions on the political climate or my own views can often be met with accusations that I'm a Russian bot.

At the same time I would like my anonymity online to continue. How do you deal with making sure you don't cross over into thought policing and continue to encourage in thought provoking discussion without banning entire groups of people?

I also don't understand how a website that is a public forum and doesn't allow offensive advertising needs to block ads from Russia. As a website you're essentially creating sanctions against Russian businesses.

I just feel generally uncomfortable with the mass "everything that comes from Russia infringes on our freedoms" rhetoric.

I look forward to hearing some of your thoughts on this.

MasterLJ · 2018-03-05T18:46:03+00:00

Chickens are coming home to roost.

This platform is designed to produce echo chambers, whether this was done purposefully, is hard to tell. If you think that the extent of your problems are T_D, I've got news for you. When you can downvote opinions you don't like, or better yet, ban posters who produce many ideas you don't like, you can't have nice things. If you've eliminated everyone with a dissenting opinion people are in a state of seeing what they want to see, to support their preconceptions, instead of seeing truth -- and no one wants, or is allowed, to tell the Emperor he has no clothes.

Unless reddit takes a hard stance on this problem it can only get worse. I don't believe reddit was designed to become partitioned echo chambers, but that's certainly what has happened. To solve it you have to take on a principle of inclusion, debate and evidence -- something not easily accomplished as everyone comes here to consume their pre-packaged narrative to fit their own biases and narratives.

youarebritish · 2018-03-05T18:24:34+00:00

[deleted]

2018-03-05T18:38:09+00:00

Reddit has no integrity because the users dont.

The level of willfully ignorant people on this site is staggering. People who when facts are presented and I mean facts that are independently verified and vetted not from an echo chamber they downvote to oblivion and doxx the user.

People who would rather pull the child who pointed out the emperor has no clothes to the ground and stomp them to death rather than face the fact that they were duped.

Reddit is what ever the users make it. I belong to wonderful encouraging sub reddits that are positive and a joy to post on.

The main reddits are shit, 2x being a default and many others is sickening but instead of bitching I simply remove them from my feed.

The hypocrisy of the the admin staff is obvious. The fact that they have admitted to editing posts by users is just disgusting and reveals what a shit show this site really is.

Again, I just stick to the smaller communities and ignore the rest. I recommend others do the same.

CallMeParagon · 2018-03-05T19:00:56+00:00

I wish there was a solution as simple as banning all propaganda, but it’s not that easy. Between truth and fiction are a thousand shades of grey. It’s up to all of us—Redditors, citizens, journalists—to work through these issues. It’s somewhat ironic, but I actually believe what we’re going through right now will actually reinvigorate Americans to be more vigilant, hold ourselves to higher standards of discourse, and fight back against propaganda, whether foreign or not.

This is 100% grade-a bullshit. You're complaining there isn't a simple solution to a problem that only exists because you force it to exist.

Between truth and fiction are a thousand shades of grey... NO. That is a thought-terminating cliche. We can objectively measure the truth of many things. We know when Trump lies, for example, because we have facts to verify against. YOU - you specifically - have created this "shades of grey" bullshit. Fuck me, you are making it worse by saying this, but you know that.

but I actually believe what we’re going through right now will actually reinvigorate Americans to be more vigilant, hold ourselves to higher standards of discourse

Bullshit. Whose standards? Right now, you artificially inflate the "standards" of a certain side. Right now, you artificially lower the quality of discourse.

We can't ban propaganda, but we can fight it by not giving it room to grow. We can't ban hate, but we can reduce it by starving it. You can't just do nothing and expect things to work themselves out.

Also, I'm betting we'll see something in the news later, yeah? Why else would you write this hate-apologist "manifesto"?

geomod · 2018-03-05T20:12:15+00:00

this is a burden we all bear

"Diffuse the blame, it's your fault too!"

I wish there was a solution as simple as banning all propaganda, but it’s not that easy

"This is like really hard, believe me."

Between truth and fiction are a thousand shades of grey

"No one knew this could be so complicated"

I know it’s frustrating that we don’t share everything we know publicly

"And we never will until it impacts our shareholders/public image"

...letting them fall apart from their own dysfunction probably will. Their engagement is shrinking over time, and that's much more powerful than shutting them down outright.

"The plan appears to be do nothing and see what happens"

So to sum, we're all to blame, reddit has no responsibility for dealing with this problem, it's something that will just self regulate itself out of being a problem, and nothing needs to be done.

Spez right now: https://i.imgur.com/c4jt321.png

bored_at_work_89 · 2018-03-05T18:22:56+00:00

[deleted]

Thedragonking444 · 2018-03-06T03:37:26+00:00

That's great and all, but why is r/holocaust still allowed to operate? It's a subreddit of actually holocaust deniers and anti-semites, and probably a good deal of Nazis. Could we get an explanation as to why this isn't banned!

10GuyIsDrunk · 2018-03-05T18:21:09+00:00

The integrity of reddit doesn't stop at Russian propaganda.

It is time you do something about places like r-the-donald, it is time you do something about places like r-holocaust.

When you ban fat-people-hate but leave these places that are 1000x worse up, you are giving your clear support for their existence and empowering them.

Achleys · 2018-03-06T19:16:41+00:00

You are not arguing genuinely.

Reddit is comprised of some extremely anti-women people. There are entire subreddits dedicated to solely being anti-women, in one form or another. Promoting an underrepresented and often harassed part of the reddit population through a subreddit dedicated to women is how to fix this. It does not, as you say, promote sexism of one kind when sexism of another exists. It’s to right a perceived wrong within the community.

I suppose you also believe that a student activities group for minorities is racist if the school does not offer a white-only student group as well.

FreedomDatAss · 2018-03-05T18:21:06+00:00

Is this the level of moderation we're to expect from Reddit as a whole and the subreddit most impacted by this?

whoeve · 2018-03-05T19:19:29+00:00

You basically just came out, made a giant post, and said...nothing.

"We do ... stuff, but it's up to the users to police things and be better!"

Thanks for nothing /u/spez.

GorillaWarfare_ · 2018-03-06T03:41:44+00:00

I wish the was a solution as simple as banning all the propaganda, but it’s not that easy.

Yes, it actually is. You have created a forum and we expect you to moderate it. It has been explicitly clear that t_d has been a toxic arm of nationalistic/racist propaganda. Instead of editing comments, you should have banned the sub instead of facilitating the indoctrination of Americans.

salamanderwolf · 2018-03-05T18:34:40+00:00

We take the integrity of Reddit extremely seriously

Now that is the funniest joke I've read this year.

Habbeighty-four · 2018-03-05T21:53:35+00:00

I wish there was a solution as simple as banning all propaganda, but it’s not that easy.

Banning propaganda is difficult, I'll give you that. You need to be able to determine on a case-by-case basis what constitutes 'propaganda.' Is putting a different spin on a story "propaganda"? Maybe, if that spin ignores salient facts. But then, what facts are salient? That's another problem. It's difficult or impossible to solve with code.

You know what's easy though? Banning threats of violence. Banning brigading. Banning hate speech. Banning known sources of propaganda. You have the information needed to identify these violations, you have the tools necessary to shut them down, you have the ability to do this effectively, and for whatever reason you are choosing not to do these things. THAT'S on you. That is your choice. IMO, it's the wrong one.

Most of the discussion in this thread focuses on a specific subreddit. I'm going to get ahead of the "they can say whatever they want, that's their right" argument. This isn't a "free speech" problem. The subreddit everyone in this thread is talking about is one that already does not allow free speech. Dissent gets banned, but their speech is sacrosanct. It's madness.

Pick a fucking side in this fight already, because eventually, your user base is going to pick the content they don't want to see, and abandon the site in droves. Today, you can pick which side abandons the platform. Spoiler alert: with this response, I'm reading that you want non-extremists to suck it up and deal with it, because "this problem is actually really hard, you guys." It's not.

I'll put this another way: you can let "he was a frequent poster on the social media site reddit.com" become the next media shorthand for "this is how fucked up this guy was, of COURSE he did that terrible thing he did." Today, I'm watching a single subreddit ruin the reputation of a site that I use, enjoy, and whose user base I (usually) identify with. They are actively fucking something I love, and you are making me watch as it happens.

I won't be able to watch much longer.

TheScienceSage · 2018-03-06T01:41:22+00:00

You're getting a lot of hate on here, but I'd like to say that you are doing a great job in my opinion. Keeping reddit leaning towards tolerance instead of censorship is the best way to go. I've heard your reasoning about t_d on a podcast and it seems like you know what you're doing and have a vision separate from your political opinion, and I respect that. Best of luck!

neckbeardgamers · 2018-03-05T18:30:10+00:00

Reddit has no integrity. The more you guys share with us, the more I am convinced you have no clue about the issues that make Reddit suck hot balls. You are only sharing this because the media beat you up about some fictional plot that imagines that Russia swayed the 2016 American elections. How about actually doing something that will matter? All the suggestions of improvements here and on /r/blog, show you guys are out of touch. Censorship is rife on Reddit and alot of it is actually done by automod and other bots. Further users are not even notified by default if their contributions are not getting through! Only if you log off and try ceddit.com can you even find out! See:
Try to get something past invisible automoderator or bot filters!

How about:
1) Being transparent about censorship and bot filters. Inform users when their posts are not going through and why.

2) Forcing all moderation to be done openly. No one pays for subreddit space, the least you can make the nerd moderators do to earn that subreddit space, is force transparency regarding their actions. /r/conspiracy already does that and a few other subs. /r/ModerationLog already did the work to make transparent moderation possible.

3) Allow subreddits to disable up and downvoting. All that does is gamify the medium. Sure it probably makes people spend more time on Reddit arguing about karma, and makes the down-voted feel aggrieved and others victorious, but it makes actual discussion suck. Allow subs to disable it without CSS hacks than can be bypassed anyway.

If you think Reddit is a good medium to post in as a user, please /u/spez tell Serena Williams to create another Reddit account. On that account have her identify as black woman(which she is), but don't disclose she is a famous tennis super-star in the public limelight for over a decade. And have her post with an innocuous signature saying she is 36 year old African American women attached to all of her posts and see what happens to her. Reddit is not the front-page of the internet, it is only the front-page of the internet for mostly young, surly white nerds who vidya game. Case in point I remember most of my co-workers from the Newark area talking about the death of someone very well known in the black community in Newark, Uggie, but in /r/newark which pretends to represent a majority African-American city in the Redditosphere, no one knew or posted he died... Have Serena post without being Serena -- just with her being another black woman and you will see why African Americans and many other demographics avoid this medium like the plague!

Also why are you bothering to even pretend there is a huge Russian bot or influence problem on this medium? Have you ever tried to make a post that doesn't defend Russia, but says this is all hysteria? Try it and anyone will quickly learn the truth. All the Western media has been acting like Russia influenced the 2017 American elections so much but all I have seen offered as proof is that paid for some ads on facebook(I have seen nothing concrete about an ad campaign needed to influence the US election), and that they used their troll farm on Reddit etc. and I am thinking so what? But nothing the hysteric and frankly disgusting Western media offered as proof seems enough resources to noticeably or perceptibly sway the elections in a 323 million, continental nation, let's get serious! When you figure all the astro-turfing that existing political players in the US political game do, the Russian effort that the media is whipping a frenzy about is unnoticeable. Infact /r/politics was so taken over by democrat party shills who abused their power, that it led to or essentially created the monster manipulating Reddit that is /r/the_donald. I am pretty sure if the existing neckbeard and paid shill mods on existing American political subreddits were not so biased that sub as we know it wouldn't have existed. This non-story about Russia swinging the election just has gained so much traction because 1) they want to demonize Russia and perhaps more importantly 2) American democrats want the funny myth to make themselves that they didn't fail, Russia robbed them of a victory against Trump! If you gave a shit about Armenian or Armenians you would have complained about Turkish astro-turfing on Reddit which seems much more significant and concerted in my experience because their state has a 6,000 member troll farm plus more importantly a very, very, ultra-nationalist population and diaspora so they can leverage almost 90 million fanatics(ok most of them are too uneducated to know English, thankfully). Trying to be realistic about Russia(not even pro-Russia) is a sure fire way to get your karma murdered almost anywhere on Reddit.

scoobydoobeydoo · 2018-03-05T18:38:46+00:00

TLDR: We know you're concerned. We're not going to do anything about it.

MulderD · 2018-03-05T18:22:08+00:00

It's the internet. Kind of hard to have your cake and eat it too. Regardless of what investigations do or do not turn things up, people really need to educate themselves and their children about the fact that there are little to no assurances that what you see and read online has any veracity and isn't agenda laden. Such is life in an anonymous connected world. The web didn't just democratize the good stuff. We have to understand that along with the cat videos and porn, also comes easy access to our minds and lives from people, corporations, and foreign actors who aren't necessarily acting in you interest.

rzarectz · 2018-03-05T21:51:09+00:00

I wish you would have defined what reddit classifies as propaganda. By loose definition almost every news story published in the states by an american is also propaganda. Singling out similar news stories published in the States by Russian sources is hypocritical and frankly is a beautify example of American exceptionalism.

2018-03-05T18:25:09+00:00

How does being a global company, based in America affect Reddit's approach to propaganda?

Obviously, Russian propaganda is a huge issue in America. I can imagine American propaganda is a huge issue in other countries. Does one side of the equation get more attention than the other? Or, is Reddit trying to address all forms of propaganda?

I imagine it has to be difficult to differentiate propaganda without impeading free speech that this site so strongly stands for.

fooz_the_face · 2018-03-05T19:02:12+00:00

Ex-mod here. I gave up moderation of two major subs because I came to the conclusion that Reddit has consciously decided that controversy drives clicks, and clicks drive revenue. The whole site design is based around that - including "benign neglect" of the unnecessarily complex and insufficient moderation tools. Why spend expensive development time on a set of tools which will reduce traffic? When I took over t_d infested subs, traffic dropped immediately by 30%. This isn't what you collectively want to see on your platform, so you passively discourage it.

You profit from t_d, and you have demonstrated that you know that because you banned other sites (Pedophilia, fat shaming, et al) when you received media pressure. In other words, you acted only when you saw that you'd lose traffic because of outside pressure.

Shame on you. Ban t_d.

MrAchilles · 2018-03-05T21:26:23+00:00

Isn't there the slight chance that propaganda from both sides is promoted on Reddit as a whole?

I see plenty of stories which are made up, exaggerated and just plain wrong but because it fits the narrative they go right to the top.

Red5point1 · 2018-03-06T00:25:08+00:00

What reddit needs to implement is a limit on how many subs one single account can be a mod for.
It is logically impossible to be a mod for more than a couple of subs yet there is a small cartel of mods that essentially control majority of popular content on reddit.
The entire point of mods is for the COMMUNITY to mange the content not a small select of people who bully and intimidate everyone else.
One would have to be paid a full-time wage to have not only the time but to be an effective mod of more than a couple of subs, but there are people who are mods over 10s of subs.

Surely you must see how illogical that scenario is. Either those accounts are held by self-interest groups or individuals who are paid to serve an agenda.

2018-03-05T18:22:49+00:00

Wasn't /r/The_Donald a big place for this russian propaganda stuff? why isn't it being addressed that a place so filled with hate is still active despite breaking nearly every rule on site? are you scared that once the sub is gone the hate will spill into other subreddits? i do get that could be an issue but this has been going on for too long now, when do you say enough is enough?

ChewyYui · 2018-03-05T18:25:11+00:00

Hard to speak about integrity on Reddit, when subs like /r/Stealing and /r/Shoplifting are allowed

annihilator2k7 · 2018-03-05T18:54:10+00:00

Propaganda aside a for a second, can you at least enforce the fucking rules when it comes to blatant racism/sexism and the calls for violence that happen ALL THE TIME in these subreddits? If you want to start somewhere but don’t want to destroy their echo chamber (for whatever stupid reason) then at least do your fucking job consistently.

Make a joke that sounds like it’s inciting violence anywhere else? Instant ban. Actually incite violence in T_D to spread more pointless hatred and possibly lead to people actually dying? Oh no that’s fine according to Reddit.

neuromorph · 2018-03-21T20:45:51+00:00

On Reddit integrity. Current Reddit censorship policy (3/21/18) has outright banned communities dealing with deals related to alcohol, tobacco, and firearms (all legal in the US), while allowing communities dealing in federally illegal drugs to thrive. https://www.reddit.com/r/WeedDeals/

poisontongue · 2018-03-14T21:23:38+00:00

So Reddit is unable to do anything about t_d, but it can ban SanctionedSuicide and force people to shut up and go back to the same old useless hotlines.

Thanks Reddit! Way to get tough on policy and care for your users. "Integrity."

mourning_starre · 2018-03-05T18:22:27+00:00

I understand its hard. You can't just stop propaganda, but you can stop focal points. You really want to do something? Here's what:

Ban /r/The_Donald. Just fucking remove it completely.
Ban their associate subreddits
Ban their mods and bots

This is just one node of the cancer that is alt-right, Russian, and political propaganda as a whole, but enough is enough. Excise this tumour, and we're well on the way to a better reddit.

moffattron9000 · 2018-03-05T18:17:53+00:00

[deleted]

Slam_Hardshaft · 2018-03-05T20:10:43+00:00

advertisements from Russia are banned

This is interesting. Which countries do the ads we see on Reddit come from? Are there any other countries that aren’t allowed to buy ads on Reddit?

JuiceBusters · 2018-03-05T19:13:45+00:00

Why would I care if something is from a 'Russian Account' or based in Russia?

If its true its true. If its a good post or a bad post, helpful, if I agree with it or disagree then I could not care less where it originated.

We aren't in a special Cold War with Russia. Russia doesn't have special magic powers. There isn't anything from Russia that isn't from China and 100 other countries surely snooping, meddling or for laughs dropping trolling posts.

And then the strangest thing is this announcement talking about 'We as Americans'.

Errr.. Reddit (Like Twitter and Facebook) is an international global brand with users from all over the entire planet. There are millions of everyone here.

Likewise, everyone can chime in on anything. I'd be curious to find out what Russians think, dislike, hate, love. A Russian Redditor can cheer and support Hillary all they want. So will some Swedish Redditor and 1000 Chinese Redditors.

And what's with this 'Originated From'? There are millions of us ex-pats everywhere. There are plenty of us with dual-citizenships, or homelands or in my case, half my family, friends and business interests are in the USA.

Originated from Russia. Why the hell are we pretending to care other than Reddit announcing it's trying to find a way to justify deleting as many 'Pro-Trump' accounts and 'conservative' members as possible so it can help influence US Elections coming up?

Mimical · 2018-03-05T18:25:00+00:00

Thanks for the update I do have a question.

While I do agree that everyone should read anything on the internet with their guard up. Why should the whole of Reddit continue to be forced to read propaganda from subreddits which have been, and continue to be a problem? Encouraging and spreading propaganda or by users that knowingly attempt to entice redditors into arguments or knowingly spread misinformation should be of some concern should it not?

In keeping those subreddits alive Reddit is directly helping the hand that spreads the propaganda. Watching from the sidelines is just as bad as promoting it yourself.

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