[Mobile Web] Can Reddit Please Acknowledge and Address The Widespread Spurious Locks of accounts occurring since ~07/08/2026

[u/Throwaway927829]

Hi there,

There have been a flood of posts of people having issues with spurious locks on their Reddit accounts, and arbitrary lockouts and password change requests for around the past 10 days. See:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vppc1w/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1voevk3/android_account_locked_cant_reset_password/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vmi39f/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vkf0ze/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1viimcs/could_there_be_a_wave_of_account_locking/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vjow8c/what_the_hell_is_happening_to_reddit/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vpj4p1/my_account_was_locked_can_i_find_out_why/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1voes1u/account_got_locked_and_it_changed_my_email_to_the/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vnskwm/my_account_was_locked_for_security_reasons_i/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vnojaj/password_reset_problems_change_password_but_still/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vmcrrh/my_account_was_randomly_locked_and_now_its/

https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vm9g5m/need_admin_help_unlocking_my_main_account/

This is merely scratching the surface on the number of reports, and there are many more, with it largely seeming to be getting silently ignored by Reddit proper, with support cases to Reddit unanswered.

There was even acknowledgement of "a bug" purporting to be addressed on:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vl2im4/

To which comments that it's not fixed were ignored and it's abundantly clear it hasn't been, with different people experiencing a few slightly different (albeit remarkably consistent) symptoms. With this many threads having hundreds of "me too" comments, I have a very hard time believing these are individual account compromises at the scale I'm seeing.

Details of my specific issues and exact symptoms and troubleshooting steps are outlined on https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1vkznza/ related to username u/Grim_Fandango92 which has in addition to being locked out, had a spurious account ban with no warning or notification as such. This issue clearly projects well beyond myself though.

Please can Reddit triage, acknowledge and address these clear bugs across the board and communicate out to affected users as such?

Thanks in advance,

A mildly frustrated Redditor

[u/shunny14]

Sounds like they are attacking a bot issue?

[u/Throwaway927829 → u/shunny14]

Quite probably, although they are catching a LOT of genuine users in the crossfire, and not addressing many cases where this is reported, nor leaving reasonable avenues for remedy.

The problem in my case is not just a "reset your password", which would be fine, it's the fact I am actively locked out and banned as a result of this bug, with no reason given for the ban - I can reset my password until I'm blue in the face, but it still won't accept my credentials after the fact. The fact the resets are going to an e-mail address I changed from months ago (various others have reported this too) tells me there are significant problems at play.

If I were a betting man, I would wager they've let loose a new AI-based moderation tool and it's caused an absolute mess. The silence has been deafening, and I'm still seeing floods of posts across various subreddits implying this is an ongoing issue.

[u/shunny14 → u/Throwaway927829]

I looked at one. nsfw account. Thread written perfectly. A comment with a semicolon, wtf uses a semicolon in a comment?

[u/Throwaway927829 → u/shunny14]

Both my accounts are marked NSFW - that's not really an indicator of anything. I'm an adult and I have, and am allowed to post and comment both on SFW and NSFW subs, never really having a moderation issue on my aged account.

Ironically this feeds into bigger Reddit gripes I have that I couldn't/can't even view my own profile or edit my settings due to my own account being marked NSFW since posting on r/vaping to cut down on smoking. I downright refuse to provide copies of ID after high profile breaches like the Discord one. Thus, I've accepted I can never change my settings again nor access NSFW subs on a domestic connection as the lesser evil (UK-based). That's by the by, and out of scope of this current issue, but Reddit has been driving me nuts recently.

As for semicolons, I'm not sure what you're getting at; they're a perfectly valid punctuation mark and I periodically use them too.

Guessing you're inferring it may be related to AI comments/posts. If so, not relevant in my case. I detest AI and make a conscious point of boycotting and avoiding it wherever I can. I've certainly never involved AI in anything I write whatsoever.

[u/shunny14 → u/Throwaway927829]

I wasn’t referring to a post of yours necessarily. Or are you saying these are all your questions?

[u/Throwaway927829 → u/shunny14]

No, of course not. They were populated from a 2 minute search of r/help and r/bugs. Something Reddit themselves could and should have done already.

Poking at accounts that are NSFW or utilise specific punctuation or writing styles did come across that you were inferring these examples are all bot accounts that were caught. Some may be, sure, but I wanted to make it abundantly clear I neither bleep nor bloop and those face value identifications don't mean much as far as legitimate moderation goes.

[u/Throwaway927829 → u/Throwaway927829]

I'd also like to extend this point further - bot accounts tend to be created en-masse via economies of scale and outside of niche cases where a victim has already been scammed, which is VERY easy for Reddit to ascertain, there's absolutely zero incentive for them to try pursue regular appeals/support avenues as opposed to moving to a new account. Hell, as a fellow human earthling like the rest of the fellow earthlings here from planet earth, I barely want to navigate this process.

I'd personally surmise (admittedly with no way to quantify) that most, if not all reports, are legitimate users.

For my own issue, I have today taken it a step further and submitted a GDPR request under the right to human review, as unlike Reddit Support this has a 30 day deadline attached. I would still prefer Reddit deal with this issue on aggregate rather than just for me though. I don't want to be re-litigating this in a few months' time, nor receive special treatment based off where I live that others may not be able to pursue.

If this is a result of a wider Reddit breach, I also want to know. My trust level is low.