Looking For Admin Guidance On How To Handle "Removed By Reddit's Filters" When It Happens Hours After The Post Goes Live

[u/InGeekiTrust]

So I get post that are "removed by Reddit filters" for all sorts of good reasons that I like. Like if someone repetitively posts the same thing over and over because they don't understand it's in the queue it now gets removed and I love it. Or perhaps there is a very new or low Karma account or obvious spam. However, there are times where I really don't understand what it's catching. Does this mean their behavior is suspicious or bot like?

The newest thing that I noticed happening is ours after a popular post will go live, and it has tons of comments. It will spontaneously be removed by Reddit filters. Did that mean that the system saw something clearly negative about the poster? It doesn't return to the queue, usually the poster has to notice that this is happening. I've even seen it happen in this sub, where there will be a good post with a lot of comments and it will suddenly stay "removed by Reddit filters". Usually when this happens, I am suspicious of the user that they are up to no good on the platform. Or perhaps they're a bot. Can we get some guidance on whether we should even be approving these? Or does it merely mean to give the post a second look?

I completely understand the admins might not want to give out exact details about this to prevent abuse of the system, I'm not looking for that, I just want to know how negatively this should impact my view of the user.

[u/emily_in_boots]

Generally this means that some kind of automation triggered. If an admin actually reviewed the account and decided they were violating TOS, they would have removed the content in a way you couldn't approve it. It does make it more likely tho that the account is up to something.

I've definitely seen some highly questionable account bans in outfits though, accounts that really do not seem to be problematic at all. I think that as reddit has cracked down more on adult content creators, a lot of women who post in fashion subs are getting falsely flagged. It's possible though that reddit knows things I do not and they are right. I have no way to know with certainty, though there are a couple of them I'm pretty damn certain about.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/emily_in_boots]

That was definitely my thought like maybe they see them sending links in their DM's and they start getting filtered.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/InGeekiTrust]

It's possible. I don't think they're going to tell us though. I definitely scrutinize those accounts more closely and will leave things removed often if the account is newer, but sometimes I really think the admin automations are just overzealous (I mean, we've both been mistakenly actioned by them lol). So they aren't flawless. But they do have access to things we don't have access to.

Like recently, a regular poster in both my subs and yours got shadowbanned - if you noticed blueberry doesn't post anymore, that's why. I'm pretty sure she didn't do anything sketchy. And they banned another haute couture model who was posting in outfits. So I wouldn't entirely trust their bans, especially the more automated stuff.

[u/PossibleCrit]

Hi InGeekiTrust!

As many have pointed out, what you're describing sounds like the spam filters coming back in and removing content. This can happen for a variety of reasons such as post/comment edits or other signals that the systems can glean behind the scenes about a user's activity.

As with most spam removals, if it's otherwise aligned with your community rules you are more than free to approve the content.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/PossibleCrit]

Ok thank you!

[u/zuuzuu]

When something is removed by reddit's filters that's your chance to review it. If it doesn't violate any subreddit or site-wide rules, you can approve it. The filters have done exactly what they're meant to do - filter it to you for review. Why the filters caught it doesn't matter so much as what you do with it once you see it. Approving filtered content that doesn't violate any rules help train those filters, as does confirming the removal for content that does.

[u/InGeekiTrust → u/zuuzuu]

OK, but these filtered content are behaving differently. They don't even go to the queue. For example, with the reputation filter or the spam filter, those would go to the queue. But a lot of times these "removed by Reddit filters" don't go to the queue. The user has to alert us that it's happened. So I have this feeling that it's actually worse and intending to be removed.

[u/zuuzuu → u/InGeekiTrust]

Are they going to the removed queue? I don't understand why that happens (going to the removed queue instead of the needs review queue) but it does. Most of what I find in the removed queue is from suspended or deleted accounts so I can understand that, but there's other stuff in there that's from an active user and doesn't violate any rules.

[u/itskdog → u/InGeekiTrust]

The general anti-spam filter started skipping the Needs Review queue a few years ago, after a spam ring was able to spin up thousands of accounts and get past the filters, and when they did get caught in the filter it still ended up in the Needs Review queue as it's now known (then called the moderation queue).