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 was banned from a sub for explaining why “globalist” is an antisemetic dogwhistle. They said my comment was hate speech but left up the one I responded to, dogwhistle and all.
When I asked the sub’s mods about the ruling, I was given a 3-day sitewide ban. I brought it to admins, and instead of any explanation, they responded by making that ban permanent.
I dont think there is any way they don’t know what they’re doing. Reddit is complicit.
See I don’t understand why reddit allows this, responding to questions about a ban by permanently banning them! The mod (and admin?) abuse seems to be getting worse. I was banned from a sub for saying it to turned to garbage in a different sub.
The cross-sub silencing is crazy too. I got banned from a bunch of tesla subs for participating in r/cyberstuck. On that one, I did message the mods and told them to go fuck themselves for stifling free speech. Someone actually replied back and said, “Freedom of speech, doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.”, which is an infuriating misuse of that expression in this context. Then I got a 3 day ban.
im not surprised, i was temp ban for reporting someone like your commentor, and i was banned for it. basically the guy was making incorrect, misinformed comments, insta ban, because “we saw you reporting too much, so report abuse” temp ban, later i found out people were getting perma ban after a temp ban, so i just deleted my account. now i tried to appeal on 2 different ones banned at the same time, all denied.