I'd really like to bring attention to the fact that big subreddits have an automatic filter on comments containing certain topics

29  2017-01-22 by [deleted]

Like a post mentioned here a few days ago, Reddit still employs a filter/shadow ban system on undesirable comments.

For instance, while in an argument over on /r/politics I mentioned as part of my comment Seth Rich more than likely being WikiLeaks' source rather than Russia and linked to the video of Assange talking about him. Well, for a few hours I got no response and no votes so I figured he gave up but only until I logged out on the permalink did I find that my comment wasn't even there!

Not only that, but I tested to see if they had a ban on that specific video so I removed it from the comment, saved, and refreshed but my comment was still invisible. I think they have a ban on comments containing key phrases such as Seth Rich being WikiLeaks' source and whatnot. I imagine they probably ban a lot of other things too.

Really crazy stuff. It's literal censorship but nobody gives a damn and if you point it out they call you a crazy conspiracy theorist. I'm pretty sure many subs still have a ban on comments mentioning CTR as well, even though the election is over and Clinton lost.

8 comments

n/a  wile_e_chicken 2017-01-22

And certain websites that tend to contradict the prescribed narrative, such as RT, Breitbart, etc.

n/a  Nootromind 2017-01-22

Yes, there is a concerted effort to discredit alternative media and guide people to the gatekeeper MSM sources instead.

n/a  Kabalisk 2017-01-22

Politics is a useless sub. Now that you realize certain phrases and words trigger removal (and also automatic, inorganic downvotes) you can see that the mods have a very particular narrative that they wish to maintain and they are willing to ban mere words and even website sources that threaten to damage it.

n/a  plato_thyself 2017-01-22

Reddit is basically dead.

n/a  tamrix 2017-01-22

It's just a place for memes now.

n/a  plato_thyself 2017-01-22

It's a safe space for propaganda and pr shills.

n/a  Axana 2017-01-22

Additionally, some subreddits autoban you for having comment history in certain subreddits. For example, I was autobanned from /r/LateStageCapitalism because, to quote a moderator over there, I had "too much karma in /r/conspiracy."

n/a  humanefly 2017-01-22

I was just banned from /r/Toronto for seven days for the following post in a discussion on this protest. Reason for ban: Rule 3 be excellent to one another

Reddit is progressive? oh you mean /r/Toronto is infested with SJW politically correct children who parrot an invented but mostly meaningless narrative, which they alone call "Progressive" and they all clap each other on the back and agree with each other. THAT progressive. The rest of reddit has never, ever been progressive, not even in your most deluded fantasies. Welcome to the fucking internet you noob

/r/Toronto is populated with a very high ratio of SJW who have gone off the deep end. They regularly allow similar comments as long as it echoes the point of view, narrative or philosophy that is comforable for their worldview. So I unsubscribed.

The only way I know to combat this behaviour is to remove eyeballs. To be completely frank, I should have abandoned Reddit for Voat or somewhere else long ago.

The other thing that comes to mind would be a community or open source project dedicated to building bots that do one thing and one thing only: identify bot comments, and reply to them with proof of bot origin, so that other observers can see.