r/technology • u/qdatk • Mar 05 '25
Social Media Reddit will warn users who repeatedly upvote banned content
https://www.theverge.com/news/625075/reddit-will-warn-users-who-repeatedly-upvote-banned-content3.0k
u/astrozombie2012 Mar 06 '25
This is one of the fucking stupidest things I’ve heard in a long while…
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Mar 06 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CletusMcWafflebees Mar 06 '25
Move to Lemmy. The only thing it's missing is all of you.
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u/Fun_Run1626 Mar 06 '25
Yep Lemmy is the place to go if you wanna ditch Reddit. Don't forget to download an app https://join-lemmy.org/apps
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u/PuddingFeeling907 Mar 06 '25
Man I love Lemmy. The third-party Voyager app is soo good!
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u/smileyjones82 Mar 06 '25
Which app, for Android? There's 8, 3 of which are closed source.
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u/Fun_Run1626 Mar 06 '25
You'd probably want Voyager. It's a solid app, very popular
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u/AaronfromKY Mar 06 '25
I'm not moving to shit. If this gets to be too much, just like with Facebook I'll just dial it back until I barely use it. Take my fucking life back from these greedy bastards
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u/CletusMcWafflebees Mar 06 '25
Lemmy isn't controlled by any company, Its ad free, and if you like open discussions it just needs more people to make it better than reddit. It lacks content that we could all bring if we just went there instead of here
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u/AaronfromKY Mar 06 '25
I'm just saying I'm about over "social media" as a whole
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u/CletusMcWafflebees Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
I see. Not going to dissuade you from unplugging from that as a whole. It would be much better for us all, I'm sure.
Edit: I mean better for all of us to unplug from social media not just better for us if he did :x
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u/Blind-looker Mar 06 '25
This sounded back handed but I think you meant it the other way it could be taken.
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u/CletusMcWafflebees Mar 06 '25
Yeah, rereading it i see what you mean, but no, that's not what i meant.
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u/Automatic_Llama Mar 06 '25
I'ma go check it out
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u/CletusMcWafflebees Mar 06 '25
Great! It has no ads, and isn't controlled by any company. The most confusing part for me at first was all the different servers and which one to pick. Here is the thing. It doesn't matter. They're all connected to each other so you will see the same content. Just pick any one and make an account. I stopped using Reddit for over a year but I'm back because most of you are still here, but you know, we could all just leave at anytime. No reason not to and plenty of reasons we should.
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u/Empty-Blacksmith-592 Mar 06 '25
I got banned from r/worldnews for commenting “I love you” under a comment that broke Reddit rules. Lmao
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u/Accomplished-Sun9659 Mar 06 '25
Lmao the number of fragile mods on this platform is hilarious.
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Mar 06 '25
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u/SantaRosaJazz Mar 06 '25
They must have a hair trigger over there. I’m lifetime banned in r/politics, too.
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u/epichesgonnapuke Mar 06 '25
I got banned from r/politics for telling an anti-vaxer spreading misinformation that they had smooth brain energy.
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u/TheCrayTrain Mar 06 '25
I’m ashamed I bought $RDDT stock. This app is a failure.
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u/ChibiSailorMercury Mar 06 '25
Because removing the ability to upvote/downvote banned content was unfeasible?
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u/TheMadBug Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
The idea is:
* If I post a video of some guy getting murdered...
* Then people upvote it
* Then the content policy finds it and marks it as banned, the people who upvoted it (and thus got more eyes on it due to the algorithm BEFORE it was officially marked as banned) would get a warning.
At the time it is banned, you wont even see it to upvote it.
This is not to say it wont be used to hide what many might see or morally righteous sentiment, though the revolution won't be teslivised/online media friendly anyway.
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u/risbia Mar 06 '25
"Reddit users to be penalized for upvoting content that is banned later on" sounds like satire
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u/dont_say_Good Mar 06 '25
Especially since admins ban whatever they want without any consistency
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u/yun-harla Mar 06 '25
A lot of Reddit’s content moderation (admin side, not involving mods) is done by AI, through a contractor. It’s awful at understanding context and tone, and you’re right, it’s incredibly inconsistent.
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u/pramjockey Mar 06 '25
But as an added bonus, their appeals system is basically useless
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u/majorplayer1 Mar 06 '25
As an added added bonus, they don't even tell subreddit mods when something is removed, or the specific reason why it was removed, and the way it's removed just leaves a 'removed by reddit' title so you can't see what it was.
The only way to know is mods checking their moderator log which most mods don't even know exist.
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u/APeacefulWarrior Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
It’s awful at understanding context and tone, and you’re right, it’s incredibly inconsistent.
Anecdotal, but: A couple months back on /r/politics I got my first ever warning and 24h ban for encouraging violence... for writing "Keep firing, assholes!"
Because, yes, the thread had devolved into Spaceballs quotes, and I just said the next line in that scene.
Even after protesting the warning, it was reaffirmed. The form letter claimed that it was reviewed by a human, but I absolutely 100% do not believe that. No reasonable human being could have possibly thought I was encouraging violence by quoting Spaceballs within a Spaceballs quote thread.
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u/Meleagros Mar 06 '25
Sounds more like priming a future change where content will be banned based off new political ideology so that a certain demographic of users can be targeted and silenced after the fact.
It is starting with violent content as a scapegoat to cry out that people are exaggerating its future intended purpose.
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u/alpharaptor1 Mar 06 '25
If you happen to interact with unfavorable posts or comments they'll weight your vote accordingly so only the users who behave as desired will have influence.
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u/Sega-Playstation-64 Mar 06 '25
"I loved this reddit user! Hilarious content. I'll give them a follow."
said Reddit user was banned for privately messaging inappropriate material.
you have been banned as well for liking his posts
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u/gotacogo Mar 06 '25
Is that really what they are doing?
I figured it would just be like if someone made a death threat, everyone that up voted it would get a warning.
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u/Im_eating_that Mar 06 '25
Wait till you see what they're doing next year. Banned for life for the 1st offense. Banned from life for the 2nd.
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u/Namahaging Mar 06 '25
Ah yes, Aaron Swartz’s legacy of guerrilla open access and freedom of inquiry…
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u/Honest-Ad1675 Mar 06 '25
It’s retroactive engagement policing. The only way to fully prevent being policed is to not engage with anything out of an abundance of caution. Pretty dumb overall.
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u/So_spoke_the_wizard Mar 06 '25
That's like getting a ticket for speeding before you get to the speed limit sign.
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u/cjmar41 Mar 06 '25
Kind of, but it’s probably more like getting a ticket for watching and cheering along to a street race.
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u/SilasDG Mar 06 '25
It's more like the road had no sign, and was always known as a 45. Then one day they ticket you and after ticketing you put up a sign that says 35.
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u/QueezyF Mar 06 '25
It’s like getting a ticket because you watched a video of a guy speeding.
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u/DDHoward Mar 06 '25
Yes, it's unfeasible. The site has no way of knowing if content is banned until a moderator or admin removes it, short of some AI bullshit.
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Mar 06 '25
oh you and your logic. We dont do that here anymore. This is a place of bots and reactions and shifting public perceptions like about that Luigi fellow.
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u/Stolehtreb Mar 06 '25
Don’t they already do that? I don’t even understand this headline. Is this for posts that are banned, then punished retroactively?
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u/DDHoward Mar 06 '25
It's for content that is banned, not posts that are banned. For example, CSAM, calls for violence, etc. are all banned content. The policy is to punish people who upvoted the banned content before a subreddit mod or a sitewide admin could delete the post or comment.
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u/surroundedbywolves Mar 06 '25
It’s not just calls for violence.
Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual (including oneself) or a group of people
Is saying someone deserved to get hurt in a video of someone getting hurt “glorifying violence”? Hard to say because the admin won’t answer questions about what is and isn’t a rule violation in the post about this.
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u/time-lord Mar 06 '25
This is going to get very fuzzy once people start posting flyers advertizing protests against the GOP.
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u/whutupmydude Mar 06 '25
Great way for some malicious person to post a link to content then after the upvotes modify the link result
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u/smytti12 Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Well I'm glad we have such well-defined content guidelines that everyone knows what will be possibly banned ahead of time.
/s
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u/GumpCorsair Mar 06 '25
My favourite feature from Pinterest is the finger-wagging emails blaming me for saving things that later got deleted by their AI moderator.
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u/Opening_Acadia1843 Mar 06 '25
I’ve gotten emails like that for stuff I saved in high school, like 8 or 9 years ago. To be fair, it was pro-anorexia content (I honestly had no idea that it was pro-ana content at the time; I was a fat teen and thought it was just normal weight loss motivation), but I feel like after some point there’s no reason to send the email.
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u/Flavious27 Mar 06 '25
The Pinterest thing is even dumber. I get those emails because I saved something I saw on Pinterest onto one of my boards. I haven't received one for a link I posted myself.
It is like they don't even know how their site works.
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u/SabziZindagi Mar 06 '25
starting first with violent content
You can't even report violence here?? Reddit recommended me a vid of someone being hit by a car without NSFW tags, only thing I could do was mute the sub.
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u/khearan Mar 06 '25
That's not what they mean. They don't want the plebes celebrating the death of a CEO or a billionaire. That's all this is.
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u/barukatang Mar 06 '25
Given the direction we're headed, they'll have to silence the entire website in a few months
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u/Usuhnam3 Mar 06 '25
That’s exactly why I got my “upvote warning” a few minutes ago.
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u/chrissie_watkins Mar 06 '25
With the USA inching closer to martial law or worse, it seems like a way to keep people from organizing or staying on the right side of things. They already ban people for posts that just acknowledge that violent things happen and may continue to happen. Meanwhile hateful content and misinformation that leads to violence against vulnerable people is allowed to flourish here.
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u/Any_Leg_4773 Mar 06 '25
There are plenty of subs dedicated to videos of people fighting in the street, in schools, at restaurants... So they can't ban the subs but they can ban people who upvote any content on those subs.
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u/UnacceptableUse Mar 06 '25
Why can't they ban the subs? They control the rules?
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u/occorpattorney Mar 06 '25
I reported someone that was going off on a bigoted rant about how the LGBTQ+ community was ruining children in education and they should all die. When I reported them, got an automated message from reddit saying it didn’t violate their policies…
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u/EmbarrassedHelp Mar 06 '25
You have to be careful with the reporting system as well. If you get too many responses saying the content doesn't violate the rules, you can be banned.
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u/occorpattorney Mar 06 '25
That’s a hill I’m willing to die on, especially when dying means just losing fake internet points. Fuck the reddit bigots
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u/timshel42 Mar 05 '25
here we go... i knew they would try to crack down on dissent on this platform eventually...
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u/angrycanuck Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
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u/ValveinPistonCat Mar 06 '25
What's that, the name of Elon's new kid?
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u/kaptainkooleio Mar 06 '25
Elon Musk mentioned in a negative tone, users who upvoted this post will be banned.
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u/Mothringer Mar 06 '25
I have been using this periodically since the API change protests. Last time I used it I logged on to a banner telling me I was permanently banned the next day. It turns out that it just flagged me as suspicious activity and needed a password reset, coupled with reddit being bad at software dev and giving me a very wrong error, but something to be aware of.
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u/RAH7719 Mar 06 '25
...seems they are against free speech. People are allowed to have opinions.
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u/McKoijion Mar 06 '25
Reddit’s CEO is really stepping up the censorship, I see.
https://www.adl.org/tech-advisory-board
https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitism-reddit-addressing-moderator-concerns
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u/banned4being2sexy Mar 06 '25
Yet, when I report clear violations including abuse and hate, the mods will ignore it, they say it's not a violation. It could literally be a rant about how much some nut hates white people, nope that's fine.
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u/VagueSomething Mar 06 '25
My PMs are full of nothing but report feedback for years, a lot of "didn't break rules" despite it being the same as previous comments that got people warnings or outright bans. The result is always at the whim of whoever or whatever checks the report. You then get a lot of "this comment has already been investigated" and it stays up despite being hate speech or calls for violence.
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u/xGray3 Mar 06 '25
If Reddit seriously goes after people for this, then this will likely be the thing that ends my use of Reddit. Policing what I'm allowed to like or agree with is dystopian as hell.
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u/LongConFebrero Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Welcome to the future we all saw coming a mile away.
Edit: 10 hours later, I just got the warning. It’s a wrap everyone.
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Mar 05 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CallSudden3035 Mar 06 '25
How does anyone know it's "banned" when they upvote if it's an active post?
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Mar 06 '25
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u/TimJBenham Mar 06 '25
It's better than that. The warning will not include the banned content or enough information to identify it.
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u/isKoalafied Mar 06 '25
"Also, why the fuck is Reddit tracking how people vote?"
To help create an echo chamber?
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u/Independent_Wrap_321 Mar 06 '25
If it’s banned why am I seeing it in the first place?
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u/DDHoward Mar 06 '25
They are talking about the people who upvote it before a mod or admin sees and deletes the post.
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u/Ok_Bowl_6847 Mar 06 '25
It would have to just be stuff admins ban? Some Reddit mods are unhinged when it comes to banning and removing content. Shit gets banned just if a mod disagrees with it.
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u/SilasDG Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25
Sounds like a good way to curb wrong thought.
Double Plus Good Comrade. /s
Seriously, remove the content, ban the user who posted it if its something illegal.
This only serves to enforce people to socially perform to a set of standards reddit decides, and they're going to decide what is best for the business, not what's best for the people.
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Imagine if this was the 1950's, and you "warned" people who liked "banned content". What might have been banned by companies back then? What's going to be banned today. We would never make social progress.
Business should not be making the call on policing and parenting consumers.
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u/samblano Mar 06 '25
Is there another platform like reddit?
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u/tapdancingtoes Mar 06 '25
I’ve heard of Lenny (watch this comment get removed for discussing Reddit alternatives)
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u/pSyChO_aSyLuM Mar 06 '25
Sounds like a digg revival is in the works
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u/Rocky_Vigoda Mar 06 '25
Same owners. It's not going to be any different. People need to make their own sites.
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u/savingpaul Mar 06 '25
I mean original digg and reddit were actually good sites, everything turns to shit during the sellout phase
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u/VagueSomething Mar 06 '25
How about Reddit tries to remove banned content in a more timely manner? Hate speech that breaks both US and EU Law doesn't get removed when reported as Hate Speech.
Might help to have not banned dozens of great mods and chased away hundreds more while also making it harder to create auto mod bots to tackle rule breaking.
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u/Happy_Ad8828 Mar 06 '25
How long until I start getting warned for downvoting Reddit ads?
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u/blitzbeard Mar 06 '25
Well, my habit of just upvoting every post I pass to get it out of my list once I've read it just got a lot more dangerous.
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u/ChibiSailorMercury Mar 06 '25
Change it to the habit of downvoting every post that you pass to get it out of your list and you should be OK :D
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u/Marcus_Qbertius Mar 06 '25
I almost never touch the downvote button except for spam, scams and blatant racism, because I like to see broad discussions with opposing viewpoints, if we all agreed on everything there would be no point to visiting this site, it would be boring.
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u/Individual_Hearing_3 Mar 06 '25
So... We all shorting reddit to hell in the stock market?
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u/b1ackenthecursedsun Mar 06 '25
Violent content? There's a huge sub called fightporn. There's a 100 subs dedicated to combat sports.
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u/Noah_BK Mar 06 '25
Maybe tighten your algorithms or get a better paid mod team to moderate content more often and more effectively if you all care that much about what is or isn’t posted on Reddit. It’s kind of the whole meat and potatoes of Reddit that we can upvote and downvote as we please. Why should I be warned for liking something that Reddit allowed to be here in the first place? That’s their problem, not mine.
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u/MonsterkillWow Mar 06 '25
It is the luxury of the oppressor to condemn violence, while normalizing violence they impose.
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u/theideanator Mar 06 '25
I love living in a technology panopticon where you can't even agree with someone.
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u/RCesther0 Mar 06 '25
Reddit doesn't only silence you by hiding your messages, now you can't even agree with others.
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u/tastyratz Mar 06 '25
I don't think the majority of commenters here read even the first sentence of the link (shock)
Reddit will now issue warnings to users who “upvote several pieces of content banned for violating our policies” within “a certain timeframe,”
So, if we remove our tinfoil hats for just a second... It's not just if you go upvote something that is later banned, it's after upvoting a lot of shit content in a short period of time - which I honestly expected was already happening to help curb karma farming bots from influencing the algo with spamvotes on trash content in a big gpt circlejerk.
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u/ProlapseProvider Mar 06 '25
This place will be bought and infiltrated to become more of a propaganda machine than it already is.
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u/L_nce20000 Mar 06 '25
Reddit is doing everything it can to drive people the Lemmy. I'm all for it. Lemmy needs more people.
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u/CaptOblivious Mar 06 '25
This place is DIGGing it's own grave day by day.
I just wonder what will replace it, like it replaced DIGG.
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u/MrMindGame Mar 06 '25
Fuck this, Reddit trying to play Thought Police can shove their policy right up the deepest parts of their ass.
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u/dedgecko Mar 06 '25
Sooo what, porn is okay, but murder, cops killing citizens, and war footage isn’t?
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u/Appropriate_Affect81 Mar 06 '25
Yay just going to say Reddits CEO wants to go the shiddy route. Start using alternatives now..
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u/HAHA_goats Mar 06 '25
I feel like that'll slowly escalate into some kind of mechanism to nullify votes from 'bad' users.
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u/NopeYupWhat Mar 06 '25
Ohh no, I’ll have to start a new account. Or better yet get off the rage bait site.
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u/ElektroBento Mar 06 '25
It's time to ditch this hole and go to federated Lemmy etc.
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u/jchexl Mar 06 '25
Are the Reddit admins stupid? If there’s “banned” content on their site they only have themselves to blame, why should a user get punished for simply interacting on a post that’s live on your website just because you guys aren’t doing the job you are paid to do?
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u/scifire Mar 06 '25
Redditors after vehemently supporting a presidential candidate who spoke out against free speech, and then losing their free speech on Reddit: Surprised Pikachu face.
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u/flaystus Mar 06 '25
If I'm responsible for my "moderation" then it's a job. Pay me bitch. Otherwise as the song goes "Fuck you! I won't do what you tell me!"
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u/ObserverPro Mar 06 '25
I got a warning for saying I’m not concerned for the safety of Nazis. If that’s where Reddit wants to fall on the matter I’ll gladly take my attention elsewhere.
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u/BigMikeInAustin Mar 06 '25
Conspiracy theory: This is the start of tanking Reddit to get people to move to the new Digg.
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u/ScurryScout Mar 06 '25
So now we can be suspended/banned for fucking upvotes?