In early May, we noticed some changes to our sub. Overnight, weekly visits to our sub went from 8M to 2M. The ability to award posts and comments was disabled. Our visibility in community topics and categories like ‘Celebrities’ and ‘News’ vanished. We have been a community on Reddit for years with no issues so we figured it was a glitch and the issue would clear up on its own. It didn’t.
On May 13th, a member of our mod team reached out to Reddit admin to inquire how we fix the issue. They responded on May 15th saying, “It looks like in this case your community’s content might be considered sensitive, thus the topic tab may not be visible.”
We continued to follow up.
On May 23rd, we finally received a response saying, “Subreddit rankings, awards, and achievements are tied to the types of content featured in a community. If the posts and comments in a community are considered sensitive, these features may be disabled. In this case these cannot be enabled.”
Again, we followed up to ask what exactly it was that made them consider our content to be ‘sensitive content’. Our posts are no different than other celebrity or even news subs. It quickly became clear to us we were being given the runaround. Admin wouldn’t even tell us for sure our community’s content was “sensitive”, just that it might be, nor would admin inform us why our sub’s content was potentially being considered sensitive. We asked if it was due to our celebrity, pro-Palestine, and/or anti-Trump content. We didn’t receive a response even after multiple follow ups.
On May 27th, a different mod reached out to admin asking for clarity on why it appeared our sub’s content was labeled “sensitive” and how we fix the issue.
An automated bot responded to us informing us that, “A subreddit may be designated as ‘sensitive content’ and face reduced visibility or loss of features if it is found to be in violation of Reddit’s sitewide rules. This can include repeated violations or the presence of content that is not suitable for a general audience. In such cases, Reddit may apply restrictions such as adding NSFW tags, quarantining the community, or other enforcement actions to limit exposure and protect users. When enforcement action is taken against a subreddit, moderators are notified of the reason for the action. This notification includes instructions on how to appeal the decision. Moderators can submit an appeal within six months of receiving the notification. Appeals are reviewed in a timely and non-discriminatory manner, and if it is determined that the initial assessment was incorrect, the enforcement action may be reversed. To resolve the designation, moderators should carefully review the notification, follow the provided appeal instructions, and ensure that the community complies with Reddit’s rules moving forward. This process is designed to be transparent and to encourage positive contributions to the platform.”
This confused our team as we were never notified of any enforcement action against our subreddit nor were we given any opportunity to appeal. So again we followed-up. Multiple times. We continued to get the runaround. When we asked about it admin would send us vague responses and questions back like they had no clue what we could possibly be referring to.
The last communication with admin we had was on June 3rd. We were told, “We have already shared all the information we can provide at this time. There is no notice of enforcement because no enforcement action has been taken. Your subreddit content may be considered sensitive, which can result in the subreddit topic not being visible and could affect how easily people come across the community. However, users can still find the community, join it, and interact with its content. This is part of the platform’s normal ecosystem behavior. If there is a significant change in the nature of the posts or comments within the community in the future, you are welcome to reach out to us. We can then review the subreddit again and assess whether the current topic classification remains accurate. For now, this is all the information we can share. We hope this helps!”
This confused our team even more and again we followed up. How are we supposed to know if there is a change in the nature of our posts if we are not being told by Reddit why they “might” be sensitive in the first place? We received no response after multiple follow-ups.
After weeks of questions with vague responses we still have not been told by Reddit why our content MAY be considered sensitive nor have we been informed why our content is considered so sensitive it has to be quarantined. Just that it’s how Reddit’s “normal ecosystem behavior” works. A platform where racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia and sexism run rampant. Our mod team has faced harassment including slurs, death threats, rape threats and threats of doxxing for allowing pro-Palestine posts, anti-Trump posts, pro-Amber Heard posts as well as posts calling out racism, transphobia and other forms bigotry. But it seems that’s just part of Reddit’s normal ecosystem.
The truth is we know why our content “might” have been designated “sensitive”. Our mod team is made up exclusively of BIPOC and/or members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Marginalized people having a voice or any sort of platform is the issue. Speaking out against fascism and up for those in marginalized communities is the issue. Calling out Trump and Israel is the issue.
We do not plan on making any changes to the kind of content we allow and we will continue to try to create a safe space for our members. In the meantime, finding our content might be more difficult, but now you know why.
Reddit can do whatever they want in terms of censoring and removing content and they don’t have any obligation to explain themselves at all. We’ve known that for years.
Fauxmoi is an absolutely braindead subreddit though, good thing they didn’t consider coming here. They were originally a community of people obsessed with celebrities and addicted to consuming tabloid journalism and gossiping about famous people. And they still are. Yet they have somehow come to view themselves as some kind of embattled group of social activists fighting on behalf of marginalized groups now? You really can’t make this shit up.
It’s definitely not for me either but my potentially hot take is that normie communities like that are exactly what the fediverse needs to take off. As long as they can move everyone to the fediverse and not just their most toxic users.
People have diversity of interests. Wanting to participate in gossip isn’t mutually exclusive with caring about marginalized groups or politics.
Actively participating in celebrity gossip is indicative of multiple character flaws. Many people are tempted, but at least try to limit it to a guilty pleasure. When you’re actively spreading it and seeking it out… it’s not great.
And of course it’s not mutually exclusive, it just indicates that they probably lack the intelligence and emotional regulation to form reasonable opinions about complex topics such as politics and remedies for societal ills. I’m not saying that they don’t care, I’m saying they have no idea what they’re talking about. But they’re in good company on that front, so it’s not really a huge deal. It’s just one of those things where people will look back someday and be absolutely baffled by the discrepancy in how such groups perceived themselves versus how they actually were. We can rarely see how stupid we look until long after the fact, that’s just how it is to be human.
Lol. “Character flaws.”
So is participating on Lemmy, but here we are ;)
You’re not wrong. At least there was a kernel of a good idea at the heart of this. The idea that we needed to get off corporate social media and build our own online space by the people for the people. That idea is still not wrong.
And then that doing so would somehow enable us to interact in a more positive and productive manner. That’s the part that I’ve really begun to question. But perhaps we just haven’t found the right recipe yet. Given that the only alternative is reddit, it makes sense to keep trying, because reddit is straight garbage anyway.
See, I think we differ in opinion a little bit. I think that some parts of Reddit are good, particularly the smaller niche subreddits that are mostly hobby focused. I think the people that use Reddit, some of them not all of them, are interesting and offer different world views and opinions and problem solving that Lemmy should be embracing.
It’s the real human users that make a space interesting and worthy of participating.
Yeah, I guess I agree. I just hate what the reddit admins have done so it’s hard for me to speak positively about it. But yes, they profit off the free labor and expertise of all of their millions of users, who supply everything that makes the platform worthwhile.
But it’s not actually that anything about reddit is good, it’s just that human beings are good and a great number of them happen to use reddit.