Yesterday, Reddit banned over 90 subreddits but later reinstated them, attributing the issue to a glitch. However, many moderators are concerned about the implications of this incident for the future.
The subreddits that were banned focused primarily on NSFW content, which, while often associated with adult themes, also includes a variety of communities such as r/cubancigars and r/transgender_surgeries.
All of the affected subreddits had moderators but were categorized as unmoderated. Engadget reported counting more than 90 subreddits newly visible in r/BannedSubs.
Reddit stated the bans were unintentional, resulting from aggressive automated processes aimed at shutting down unmoderated NSFW subreddits.
We appreciate everyone who raised concerns about the subreddits flagged as ‘unmoderated.’ Our tools experienced a bug that resulted in incorrect bans for certain communities. We are diligently working on a resolution, and many of these communities have already been restored.
Despite this explanation, many are questioning its validity and contemplating what it indicates about Reddit’s future stance toward NSFW subreddits.
So the bans were reversed? Understood.
1: Will there be an RCE or incident report available for the public?
2: What functionality was being implemented that resulted in this bug?
3: It seems only NSFW flagged subs were affected. Is this accurate, or were there additional broader impacts?
4: For a significant change like this, why wasn’t there any prior announcement?
5: Was the implemented functionality aimed at limiting or restricting NSFW subs? If so, why?
Others pointed out that this is not the first occurrence of such an incident, discussing the need for contingency strategies.
“The explanation from r/modsupport feels inadequate to me, and I was quite upset and disappointed by the lack of communication,” a moderator from r/rule34 told Engadget. “Currently, we don’t have a contingency plan in place for a repeat of this incident, but we are working on establishing one with the assistance of other moderators both within and outside our subreddit.”
Conversely, some Reddit users acknowledged that despite the confusion, it is reasonable for the platform to auto-ban unmoderated or abandoned subreddits, as these are often exploited by spammers, scammers, or those distributing illicit content.
Image: Screenshot by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
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