I lurked Reddit for a long time before creating an account which is now over 6 years old. I was a ‘Top Contributor’ and in the rewards program. 89k karma, never promoted violence or targeted any group, but I got a 7-day ban which was followed up hours later with a permanent ban. This is because of a comment criticizing Senator Radcliffe, trump, and Musk. The comment included profanity, (I called them hypocrites and cunts), but it wasn’t directed at any user or marginalized group. Just harsh political commentary.
Reddit initially issued a 7-day ban, which I appealed. That appeal was approved, the comment was restored, and they admitted it didn’t violate the rules. But the permanent ban still stands, and my follow-up appeals on that have been ignored. No explanation. No transparency. Just gone.
It’s made me realize how fragile “free speech” is on platforms like Reddit. You can insult regular users and get away with it, say horrendously racist, misogynistic, and homophobic things, but speak too plainly about powerful people and suddenly you’re promoting “hate.”
I combed through the Reddit rules, and nothing I have ever commented or posted violates them.
That’s the reason I’m here on Lemmy now. I’m trying to read more, scroll less, and engage with platforms that aren’t actively censoring political dissent. Who else is in the same boat? Is there anything that can be done to hold Reddit accountable or make people aware of they way they are censoring speech? This is my first Lemmy post. I marked it NSFW because of the profanity.
I call BS. Reddit didn’t issue a permanent ban for Trump criticism. This is probably a mod action and you are confused.
Here are the messages I received from u/reddit:
Reddit is a vast network of communities that are created, run, and populated by people like you. In order to keep communities welcoming, safe, and great places to be, everyone who uses the platform operates by a shared set of rules.
First message: Banned 7-days for hate
We flagged the following as a potential policy violation:
Content shared from KarlHungus311 on 03/25/2025 UTC After reviewing, we found that you broke Rule 1 because you promoted identity-based hate or attacks. Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. We don’t tolerate promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability, and any communities or people that encourage or incite violence or hate towards marginalized or vulnerable groups will be banned.
As a result, we’re issuing a temporary 7-day ban on your KarlHungus311 account, removing the violating content, and asking you not to break this rule again.
Reddit and its communities are only what we make of them together, and we want you to continue enjoying Reddit while helping your fellow redditors and communities stay safe. We suggest reading and getting acquainted with the Reddit Rules. A better understanding of these rules will help you avoid further actions from our admin team. If you do continue to break Reddit’s rules through this or any other Reddit account, you may face additional actions such as a permanent ban from the platform.
If you feel like you didn’t break the rules, you can file an appeal any time within the next six months and we’ll take a second look.
If you live in the European Union, you can also contact a settlement body to dispute the decision. You may also have the right to have this decision reviewed by a competent court under the applicable laws of your country.
– Reddit Admin Team
Note: This content was flagged by Reddit’s automated systems. This decision was made without the assistance of automation.
Second Message (a few hours later): Your account has been permanently banned for breaking the rules.
This account has been permanently banned due to multiple, repeated violations of Reddit’s Content Policy on your other account(s). For more information about what rules you broke and how to appeal, check your account inboxes.
None of this shows what you were actually posting to earn this. You didn’t get a ban for calling Trump a cunt.
You were either ban evading and got caught after being flagged or you made a threat.
You are wrong. I did none of that. I submitted the appeal, I deleted the app from my phone, and did nothing on reddit. It was followed hours later by the permanent ban.
Nah, something is missing. I shit talk on Reddit all the time about Elon and Trump. It’s all over the place, it’s plain to see.
What’s missing, seems to be your understanding as to how much reddit has changed over the past year or so. Are you not seeing the other comments with similar experiences to mine? I highly encourage you to continue shit talking those two twats, but don’t be surprised when this happens to you as well. All it really takes is drawing the attention one pro-trump mod. Among other things, I made this alternate time cover and posted that in various places. Perhaps it was my overall post history that did me in. There was no explanation beyond what I already posted regarding the permanent ban.
I was perma-banned because I made a joke about chucking a rock through the windshield of a literal, out-and-proud-capital-N Nazi.
Didn’t make any appeals because it was time to leave. I spent waaaay too much time on that stupid site and now I’m starting to finally feel free of the outrage/affirmation addiction.
Same on that last sentiment, dude. The difference in my own temperament has been surprisingly noteworthy since leaving. It took being banned for me to realize how emotionally dependant I had bec9me on their algorithm.
I’m still pissed about why I was banned, but I am ultimately glad to have left. The bump in my productivity has also been noteworthy. My home hasn’t been this clean in a long while lol
Things have gotten pretty weird in the last few months. I got a warning and a deleted comment several months ago because there was a debate in some random Colorado sub on what to do about a person living downtown who kept putting a swastika in their apartment window. They lived above a popular local business and it was causing issues. I said something about using a slingshot to solve the problem. I hear you on the time spent on there. After deleting the app from my phone, it really hit home just how much I was compulsively checking it throughout the day.
Permabanned for saying evil shit about Russians, a few times. Funny thing is how fast they would be on negative comments about Russia.
And BTW, Russians can die in a fucking fire. Lived under threat of nuclear annihilation for my entire childhood, and now the filthy gangsters are fucking with, and have ruined, American politics.
been banned since 2015 when I told a white supremacist Nazi to drink bleach and fuck themselves.
All I can do is extend my sympathies, and tell you that you’re better off in the long run. Most people here don’t like corporate social media because of situations like yours.
Don’t worry about profanity. People swear all the time and don’t mark their posts.
I find it kind of psychologically interesting how many reddifugees self censor, either directly or through obscuring names and events. That site’s moderation is seriously screwing people up.
It’s so relaxing when you know that you don’t have the sword of Damocles hanging over you
i had to self-cesor race before and after covid. apparently calling someone black, or Demographic was justification for a ban, they think calling african americans a different name what it suppose to be is racist. its so sensitive now, other sites are doing this(forums)
I have said all kinds of nasty things there about GropenFührer…I mean inmate #P01135809 and other than a few downvotes, nothing. Maybe it’s a “no warning” kind of thing?
I was already iffy about Reddit since the r/place #fuckspez whitewashing. I was never suspended - but when I learned Luigi was suddenly an “unperson” topic there, I realized that commercialized social media is inherently compromised.
I’m not swearing off FB/Insta entirely just yet, but every time I visit them I’m more and more vividly aware how tedious Meta channels are.
Closed account myself because got tired asking to remove shadow ban for two months. I have no clue why I got shadow banned, only realized when I stopped getting replies that something is not right. Oh well, I guess it’s more useful to bookmark useful reddit links in any browser instead of being able to post and comment on a platform where nobody can even see your efforts because of shitty AI and incompetent admins. I was with them for over six years.
I told Nazis to go kill themselves. Then made multiple Krasnov accounts. All banned and now perm banned unless I use VPN. It was time to go, fuck that place. Welcome home.
Reddit bans for all kind of political commentary across the spectrum. Fuck spez. Fuck reddit.
This is the beginning of the downfall of reddit.
Sad to see the decline
Imo that was API-gate. But yeah this one seems to accelerate the death of it. Good thing to be gone now. It’s all about stocks now and shareholder concerns and they don’t want any critical thinking or free speech.
I was banned for saying I should have a legal right to punch Nazis, which I don’t think was “permanent ban” territory.
This to me says that Reddit is Pro Nazi
Yep. That was my first ban. My last pan was saying T n E should face the gallows. I said fuck it and came here.
I was issued a permanent ban that I successfully appealed when all I said was always punch Nazis
I appealed but it was pretty much instantly declined, and you know, fuck em
Funny. I commented on a picture of Indiana jones punching a Nazi which said “there’s never a wrong time to punch a Nazi” and boom! Encouraging violence/ban. 😂
That place is a fucking gong show.
One of my favorite aspects of the new Indiana Jones game is just running around one-punching nazis. It really never gets old.
I came here after they banned third party apps. No way I’m browsing with ads on their shitty app. RES still works fortunately but I’ve grown to really like it here. Haven’t touched reddit in a year or so.
i suggest browsing on a browser, like FF or a fork, with adblock on, not giving them any ad money. ironfox and fennex is a good fork.
thats what RES does-reddit enhancement suite on firefox. I combine that with adblock, ublock too. I go out of my way to make sure I mever see any ads anywhere I go, usually reddit/youtube.
Red Reader is adless & open source.
Also no account needed (for read only, obvs).
Is there anything that can be done to hold Reddit accountable or make people aware of they way they are censoring speech?
The best thing you can do to hold reddit to account would be to become an active lemmy user. You could make a reddit sucks sublemmy and moderate that if you are angry enough to take action.
I love this idea. I think I’m going to do that.
I got banned in 2019 for hate speech against cops.
They’re most vulnerable and marginalized community. How dare you refuse to kiss their boots.
