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My censorship story about reddit begins when I somehow or other saw the front page instead of just my usual set of selected subreddits. On that front page was

My censorship story about reddit begins when I somehow or other saw the front page instead of just my usual set of selected subreddits. On that front page was a thumbnail photo of an old piece of medical equipment. It was an Iron Lung. I hadn't seen one of those since the 1960s. So I commented on that front page article stating just that, that I hadn't seen one of those since the 1960s. What's the big deal about that, you might ask. As did I. Except that the following day, I received a notification that I had been permanently banned from some subreddit that I had never heard of ever before. Huh? The reason given was that the article I had commented on was in one of the Trump subreddits. Who Knew? When I commented on this strange state of events, that new comment of mine was 'disappeared' within minutes. I knew then that Reddit had 'jumped the shark' and could only terminally decline after that.

richbell 4y ago
Many subreddits use Mass Tagger[0] or other bots to automatically ban people who post in 'right-wing' or 'reactionary' subreddits. The criteria for being tagged is shakey at best. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/masstagger/ https://www.reddit.com/r/masstagger/
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > Many subreddits use Mass Tagger[0] or other bots to automatically ban people who post in 'right-wing' or 'reactionary' subreddits. The criteria for being tagged is shakey at best. Last time I used reddit (years ago), it was easy and ubiquitous to use many alt accounts and to switch between them using RES. Seems like it would just encourage people to use more alts.
  - richbell 4y ago
    It is — Reddit still doesn't require email verification — but I don't think the average user does. To the average user it's inconvenient and either: - has a chilling effect on what subreddits they participate in - annoys users and dissuades them from participating in the banning subreddits I suspect both are desired outcomes for Mass Tagger, regardless of 'collateral damage'.

richbell 4y ago

Many subreddits use Mass Tagger[0] or other bots to automatically ban people who post in 'right-wing' or 'reactionary' subreddits. The criteria for being tagged is shakey at best. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/masstagger/ https://www.reddit.com/r/masstagger/

tablespoon 4y ago
> Many subreddits use Mass Tagger[0] or other bots to automatically ban people who post in 'right-wing' or 'reactionary' subreddits. The criteria for being tagged is shakey at best. Last time I used reddit (years ago), it was easy and ubiquitous to use many alt accounts and to switch between them using RES. Seems like it would just encourage people to use more alts.
- richbell 4y ago
  It is — Reddit still doesn't require email verification — but I don't think the average user does. To the average user it's inconvenient and either: - has a chilling effect on what subreddits they participate in - annoys users and dissuades them from participating in the banning subreddits I suspect both are desired outcomes for Mass Tagger, regardless of 'collateral damage'.