this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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My understanding is that mods can silently remove content from their subreddits, but it will still show up in your comment-history. However, admins can silently remove content and it will NOT be in your comment history. Well, when I'm logged out, I noticed some of my comments were "removed" but when I'm logged in they show up. Looking at the comments more closely, I don't believe they broke any rules...at least not site-wide rules. I received no notification that they were removed either.

Further, these comments ALL related to the Trump/Zelensky interview. I get the need to moderate online communities, but there's something particularly dystopian about quietly censoring someone for expressing political-speech you don't like, and doing it in such a way that they (theoretically) don't even realize they've been censored (if they're not weird paranoid fucks like me). You've just secretly put a bubble around them, all for the crime of political speech you don't like.

Here are some screenshots to verify what I'm saying:

https://i.imgur.com/kff8INQ.png

...

And so the same thing happened when I posted this exact post (above the "...") in another sub on Reddit...one I participate in regularly. And here's how that looks:

https://i.imgur.com/NzRI5T6.png

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[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 52 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yup that's shadowbanning for ya.

[–] dick_fineman@discuss.online 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think it's only on certain subreddits though?

So /r/law was in the link above as [removed] and I just tried posting something VERY innocuous there, and here's what happened within SECONDS:

And it doesn't happen always on /r/marchagainstnazis, after the BS:

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think a shadowban used to be all or nothing, but now it's possible on a sub by sub basis and possibly even temporarily.

If a person who is shadowbanned tries to post a comment, a moderator can approve that comment so it shows up.

[–] dick_fineman@discuss.online 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So I had the [removed] thing happen before on every sub but /r/conservative. IDGAF about the conservative one. /r/marchagainstnazis, I did say something that could be construed as advocating violence. I said something about Nazis staying visible so we know who to put against a brick wall after this is over. Vague...but yeah, I get it. Though I comment there regularly, without issue, until I call this out?

/r/law, they [remove]d me when I said " I would vote for her for POTUS in a heartbeat. But flyover country would never let a black woman be President; it'd undermine their dumbshit egos too much. Imagine Obama's presidency, but ALSO a woman...we'd have someone new and worse that Trump building an alt-alt-alt-right incel circlejerkoff cult, and rising to power by spouting memes and literally showing up to debates and such in unwashed sleepwear.

...and they'd win, because grandpa thinks they look like "good wholesome" (read as "white") boys (read as "males")."

Which was also [removed].

And I don't know what I said in /r/worldnews.

But okay. So you're saying it's a subreddit based shadowban? Who initiates that? And more importantly, why is it removed from my profile? Sure, remove it from your sub...but I should be able to reference my own words outside of a sub.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I honestly don't know, I haven't had a Reddit account for nigh on 2 years. I only lurk there now and honestly I shouldn't even do that. I've completely given up on all social media outside of the fediverse.

[–] dick_fineman@discuss.online 5 points 1 day ago

I've been there since 07. Since like 2022/3, they started getting weird and have permabanned me a few times (never happened before).

I created this account here after the last permaban, which I appealed along with the others...and somehow magically they gave me a sheepish apology and unbanned my account?! I'm kind of over it. But I'm still there. And there are certain communities there which aren't easily replicated here, like /r/phillywiki. But...I'm over Reddit for the most part. It's the people I'm not over...

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 day ago

dude, your comments are full of insults and cuss words… i don’t disagree with anything you said, but saying “you’re all fucking idiots and trailer trash” and that sort of thing will totally get you banned there….
banned on most lemmy communities too….
anyways what they did is called shadow banning… a lot of times if you tell a troll they’re banned, they immediately log in with a different account to continue trolling… if you shadow ban someone they’ll think nobody commented and give up… it’s evil though, to use it on people who are actually trying to express an idea, even if it’s crass….
but to save you some trouble:
ALL of the big subreddits are trash, run by shills, and full of bots and astroturfing… the smaller ones are still a good resource, but i mean… posting on conservative leading with “i’m not a conservative” is asking for a fight….
it’s not wrong to do… but it’s wrong to expect them to reasonably engage you.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 1 points 21 hours ago

What would be the motive?

[–] bonegolem@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

All against Plebbit, their admins are evil, a lot of power mods are human garbage, and one shouldn't contribute to that cesspool.

But I saw about a billion of anti-trump comments. /r/NonCredibleDiplomacy, /r/Ukraine, /r/UkrainianWarVideoReport. If yours were removed as you say, it's mods, sure as fuck not admins. Mods, rather often, just remove anything they fancy, especially anything that vaguely resembles controversy or a potential headache. No clue if you were wildly out of context or stuff either.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 10 points 1 day ago

People only learn what censorship really is when they starting to speak unsanctioned opinions.

And just like that, free speech is really speech that is approved by the owner class. They can't mod bots and bad faith actors but they sure as hell on it when "wrong think" is shared.

I am talking out of my ass, i don't have access to data... but there is a reason why so many here has similar experiences that led them to fedi.

[–] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Reddit is dead to me. 15 years of use and it's now a nazi, right wing shithole. Eventually, all left wing users will be banned.

[–] CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago

I left it cold turkey when I made my account and it really seems like it has just gotten noticeably worse since then.

[–] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 10 points 1 day ago

I'm so glad I left the reddit shithole.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

All social media is shaped to not upset powerful people and the noisier aspects of the right wing.

[–] parmesan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Yup. Was permabanned for "advocating for violence" by saying a certain green hatted man was justified in his actions. And before that, a week long ban for directly quoting Rump's unhinged rambling during the debate to make fun of what he said.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago

All mainstream social media is owned by the rich who support the fascist coup and work to protect it.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago

I haven't kept up to date with Reddit, but it is also my understanding that removed comments by mods are not removed from your comment history, so this looks like something site wide.

Also user-targeted automod actions (the mod-level version of shadowbanning) were a pain to set up, so it's more likely to be at the admin-level if it's happening in multiple subs.

You can message the mods of one of those subs to ask why. Many will probably assume you're being removed for a good reason and ignore you, but someone will probably be willing to say "it's not us". Humanize your message as much as possible. Mention your account age (if it's not young) and that you see comments staying up in other subreddits.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

With time, you will see Reddit gradually shift right. Pro Israel comments are going to be prevelant everywhere and censorship is going to take a drastic turn for the worst.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Wait you mean like Facebook and every other thing that starts off as smart people being in the know and ends with the unwashed (metaphor for education and using historic language, not jabbing those without) masses taking the red pill and making the intelligence just noise that gets drowned out as the agenda matches on??

Idk it's weird it's almost like that's 100% of human history!

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My understanding is that mods can silently remove content from their subreddits, but it will still show up in your comment-history.

That's actually very unethical, no matter where it's done.

You should either let someone's effort be seen, or prevent them from making the effort in the first place.

But having them waste their time by doing the effort, and then having it not be seen, in essence fooling them, is very unethical, and intellectually dishonest.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[–] CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm a huge fan of Lemmy's public mod logs. They are crucial for keeping miderator action above board and if someone is power tripping the evidence is there.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I'm a huge fan of Lemmy’s public mod logs.

I am as well, truly. Sometimes it's even just entertaining to go read those logs for a bit, to see how people are, and what gets them or their comments banned.

If anything my problem with Lemmy is an under/lack of moderation, but that's neither here or there for this discussion.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The point of shadow banning is to waste the time of bots.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And not to censor human beings? At all?

The point of shadow banning is to waste the time of bots.

That makes no sense. Detecting shadow banning can be automated.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It was originally for bots. Yes.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well would you expect someone who wanted to censor others to come out and explicitly say the real reason is because they want to censor others?

No, they'll say things like because it's the help combat bots. We've all seen how well that works.

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[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, now. But it was made to circumvent bots. To increase the amount of trouble it is to spam. Don't know what you're trying to argue here.

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

I got 2 nicole posts in one day here

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

Have you tried checking on another computer without having logged in the Reddit first, to see if the comments are actually there or not?

Also, have you tried checking via one of the third party websites that check for shadow banning?

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