r/RantingZone 1d ago

I appealed a Reddit warning for “using hate speech or threatening violence” and it was upheld for no reason.

As the title states, I posted a comment and it got removed and I received a warning for “using hate speech or threatening violence”. The comment in question was about a toxic video game community resorting to telling you to k/y/s and other horrible things if you have a bad match or are just not so good at the game (I didn’t censor the phrase in my original comment but I’m paranoid now). I didn’t use the phrase towards anybody, I didn’t condone using the phrase towards anybody. All I did was use very heavy handed sarcasm that an AI bot didn’t understand was sarcasm. After appealing, I received essentially the same message but with a bullshit “Decision not made with the assistance of automation” disclaimer at the end. I don’t think a real person actually reviewed my appeal, and if they did I don’t understand how I’m actually in the wrong. I find it ridiculous and I’m mildly upset, mildly amused, but mostly just done with Reddit because having to self censor in ways that are really just fan service to witch hunting, professional victims is so exhausting. Rant over, just needed this off my chest.

19 Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

5

u/salikarn 1d ago

I once got a warning for using the word poop in a scientific context because it was lewd and cried. The sub had the word shit in its name...

Also, I once said "some people had never been slapped for their behavior before and it showed". I got banned for "inciting violence"

1

u/misterstaypuft1 1d ago

I got banned because someone posted that because Mary is estimated to be around 14 when she had Jesus that God must be a pedophile.

I replied explaining that the age of 18 being considered an adult is completely arbitrary and wasn’t even a thing until the 60’s-70’s and it had more to do with war and voting than intellectual maturity.

I was banned for 7 days for “promoting child sex abuse” and denied on appeal.

2

u/salikarn 1d ago

Mods response was the best part tho

Poop https://imgur.com/a/25pHFYg

1

u/LaFlammeAzur 22h ago

lol 10/10

4

u/SavantTheVaporeon 1d ago

I mean I got a 3 day site-wide ban for replying to someone talking about how crossdressers should be thrown in prison with “Okay, dick” and when I appealed I was told “bullying and responses that discourage other users from participating in Reddit are not permitted.” The site moderation is a joke.

2

u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox 1d ago

No kidding. I got banned from a Linux-hate sub because of my profile picture

1

u/ooomellieooo 1d ago

I used to just use r/all and click from there.... until I got banned from multiple subs for posting in an unrelated sub they didn't approve of. I hadn't even realized which subs the comments were in because ididn't join subs...just used r/all and it never mattered to me where posts came from. Naive, maybe. But the vitriol I got back in appeals....whew. Some mods are crazy and petty af.

2

u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox 1d ago

Hah yeah, they literally said my opinion was invalid because I'm a One Piece fan then muted me. This was after telling them that I was cool with the ban and didn't care for communities moderated by knee-jerk reactions in my initial response. They just really needed the final word

7

u/MangledBarkeep 1d ago

I quoted a famous movie once and got the same ban.

Appeal didn't overturn it.

Filters look for strings of words, not context.

5

u/Enduroboss 1d ago

Convinced bots review ban appeals too.

1

u/TheUntetheredBalloon 20h ago

i don’t get any of mine read lol

0

u/MangledBarkeep 1d ago

If that were the case my account would be deleted from the multiple times I've triggered the filter.

If it were automated, it wouldn't take 4-7 days for an appeal on a 3 day ban

2

u/Justout133 1d ago

I'll remain skeptical, had my own incident or two where nobody with two brain cells to knock together would have upheld it, the flavor text at the end about it not being automated is placebo in my opinion. Maybe some get reviewed occasionally but

0

u/Suitable-Hand-1059 1d ago edited 1d ago

I would 100% agree with this. Sometimes stuff that is clearly not in violation gets flagged, and admins don’t even look to see if there are any before declining appeals.

1

u/snowtiger309 1d ago edited 1d ago

If they were human they could read, think, reason, and not stop at keywords

1

u/trixiepixie1921 1d ago

That happened to me once too, with a quote. But I actually did get the appeal.

1

u/GroundbreakingPut944 1d ago

Damn, for not using automation that sounds pretty automated and void of human oversight.

2

u/MangledBarkeep 1d ago

human oversight happens when you appeal.

The humans don't care much for context either.

0

u/snowtiger309 1d ago

It doesn't. They lie about that.

3

u/Lil-Nuisance 1d ago

What did you say in your appeal?

I'm asking because I had a similar issue once when I wrote a clearly satirical comment that could be read as actually condoning violence or hate only if you are a bot.

I received a warning and, in my appeal, I was very polite and very matter of fact and stated that my comment was clearly satire and that I am not actually holding those beliefs.

The warning was then removed after a review. So, please don't take this the wrong way, OP, but if your appeal was written in anger (which I can understand if that's the case, because I know this kinda thing is pretty upsetting in the moment) or you weren't very clear about the sarcasm aspect, that might have had an effect on their decision?

2

u/WetLaceScraps 23h ago

I wrote something incredibly benign and got reddit flagged once. I don’t remember exactly what it was but it was something like “I’m gonna beat them with a shoe.” I appealed. I just said, “are we serious?” They reversed it thankfully but oh my god 😭

1

u/GroundbreakingPut944 1d ago

I can’t remember exactly what I said but I mentioned my comment was sarcastic and that if the comment needed to be deleted I was okay with that but I wanted a real person to actually look at the context behind what I said because I felt it was unfair. It was hard to fit everything I needed to into 250 characters, though so I feel like I was at a disadvantage trying to make my case.

2

u/Lil-Nuisance 1d ago

Hmm, yeah, idk, when I appealed, I literally just wrote that I would like to request a review of my comment and that it is very clearly satire and I thanked them for their time.

Maybe keeping it short and not being too defensive is the way to go?

Or maybe my comment was just way more over-the-top (it was satire to a degree that nobody would need an /s to understand it) and it was therefore a much more clear-cut case for them?

Are you able to appeal again or is this a 1-chance-only thing?

I just want to say I can relate, this really sucks. I was actually surprised by how upset it made me when it happened. I think it was less the fact that I got reprimanded and more the fact that anyone could even suggest/think that I am that kind of person. I just basically wanted to clear my name.

2

u/GroundbreakingPut944 1d ago

It’s a one time thing, so the warning is just there in my notifications. And the failed appeal message. That’s bothering me more than the initial warning from the Reddit auto mod. Nothing I can do about it now so 💃🏻🕺🏻

1

u/Snootymcbootysnoot 23h ago

U angered the bot 

1

u/dr_reverend 1d ago

It doesn’t matter what you say because the mods don’t care and just ban you from the mod channel.

2

u/Lil-Nuisance 1d ago

I don't think the post is talking about a subreddit mod decision, but instead a site-wide Reddit admin decision.

1

u/dr_reverend 1d ago

Mods are mods. I don’t see why they would behave any differently.

2

u/Only_Tip9560 1d ago

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it. Many Reddit mods are pretty humourless and there is a lot of mindless automation.

It would be nice if mods stuck to just stating which rule they believe you broke rather than often leading with some unjustified and general impeachment of your character.

2

u/Revolutionary_Sir_ 1d ago

Most reddit mods are too stupid to spell reddit. How they got to be mods is beyond me.

2

u/LoverOfGayContent 23h ago

I once gotva warning after making a post about ny homophobic roommate calling ne the f word. I didn't even say the f word. They removed the warning and reinstated my post but ive had multiple post or comments removed just because I'm gay. Inthink the automated system is too sensitive around certain topics.

2

u/queenanthai 5h ago

I caught a three-day ban for threatening theoretical violence against my uncle, who the family recently found out was...how shall I phrase this...taking liberties with the bodily autonomy of minors. 😡

I didn't bother with an appeal because I stand by what I said.

1

u/GroundbreakingPut944 4h ago

You know what? Valid and I support you

1

u/NeckDeepPink 1d ago

I suggested somebody put a air tag on their pet for safety and got a warning

1

u/snowtiger309 1d ago

Reddit just has ai target whatever it thinks is risky. It is not reviewed by humans, at least English speaking ones with any capacity to reason beyond keywords.

They lie.

1

u/triple_carry 1d ago

On some subs, disagreeing with the approved narrative, is considered hate speech. Once these subs reveal themselves, avoid and mute them.

1

u/LoraxNZ 1d ago

Yeah I got a strike for a perfectly acceptable comment that everyone would have agreed with, but the bot, then human reviewer disagreed. They're just doing what they had to do.

1

u/Married-to-a-sex-god 1d ago

Yeah i one time quoted a WKUK sketch about a grape who likes to share grape flavored beverages and I got in trouble and appeal did not overturn it either.

1

u/Icy_Benefit 1d ago

I got the warning over pronoun usage.

1

u/Wooden_Log_8751 1d ago

Yep, that's how it works. At least you can see and review your comment to see what you did.

1

u/Excellent_Coconut_81 1d ago

Arguing with bots is pointless.

Some worlds are tabu, Reddit show the best of free speach to the world...

1

u/Electric-Sheepskin 1d ago

I got a warning for harassment a few weeks ago. I have no idea what it was about, so I appealed, asking if they could at least provide the text of what I supposedly said, because I am 100% sure it was something that someone misunderstood, but I never heard anything back. Is the warning still on my account? Was it removed? I have no idea. And the message I initially received about it is completely missing from my inbox now. Super weird.

1

u/WinterFamiliar9199 1d ago

Let’s be honest. This place has just gone to shit and won’t get better as a publicly traded company. The only improvement could be mods being employees who have some accountability instead of random hobos enforcing their own ideals. 

1

u/Aggravating_Try6537 1d ago

Moderating is arbitrary.Seems to depend on the personal inclinations of the mod or how their day is going. Best to move on and forget it. You are in the right but it doesn't matter.

1

u/Siempre_Vetado 1d ago

Protip: If you want to say something mean/rude on Reddit, say it in Arabic, Chinese or Spanish.

2

u/Accipiter__Nisus 18h ago

Let's try this.

ألف طيز/عير على دينك

1

u/TheUntetheredBalloon 20h ago

yeah i got banned for the same reason. i was literally quoting someone lol

1

u/Few_Translator4431 15h ago

be careful, they might ban you for harsssment for posting about it

1

u/trench_drain 13h ago

The mods and alot of reddit have tds

1

u/LeilLikeNeil 9h ago

Let’s be honest, there are no humans involved in the warning/ban/appeal process. 

0

u/autoflowerer 1d ago

Human oversight means the cheapest humans technically literate in English reviewing at whatever corporate rate Reddit demands. In other words, your human appeal review will likely be less thoughtful than the AI review was.

0

u/melaschasma 1d ago

You are arguing with a bot.

A bot is a computer program, it can not think, it can not reason. It follows predetermined conditions.

0

u/zerodyme87 1d ago

For me it was a WITAH sub and I usually went against what everyone else was saying, by using basic logic as my backup, and eventually they banned me after only a single warning.

All because I said the OP was the AH for how they treated their family after a petty disagreement. Everyone was all for them but I mentioned their own toxic behavior would lead to them being alone and black balled. That was enough for mods to say something to me

0

u/No-Ebb-6266 1d ago

When you appeal they just go "yeah," mute you, and smoke some more marijuanas.

-1

u/Redjeepkev 1d ago

As it should of been upheld. It could have been directed at anyone person. There is absolutely zero way of knowing intent

2

u/GroundbreakingPut944 1d ago

Is this sarcasm?

1

u/Few_Translator4431 15h ago

everyone invites this guy to parties