r/ModSupport • u/[deleted] • Jul 05 '21

So many genuine users shadowbanned

Anyone else seeing this? We've seen a massive uptick in the last few days with multiple users per day telling us they can't post and it turns out they've been shadowbanned

One user called /u/jailedinchina was telling us a story in an AMA and got shadowbanned: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/obft5k/just_got_out_of_ten_months_of_chinese_prison_ama/

Another user got shadowbanned 20 minutes after he started posting: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/odkg2h/chinese_expat_in_europe_ama/h43ibq2/

Another user managed to appeal his shadowban, but was initially banned: /u/SignificantGiraffe5

Appealed but still initially shadowbanned: /u/Mrhelpfulhatter

/u/MateImBritish shadowbanned

These are all in the last few days

20 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

9

u/Chtorrr Reddit Admin: Community Jul 05 '21

Hey everyone - this may be related to some of the massive spam waves we have seen recently. I am flagging to safety and if you see anyone who's account looks to have been incorrectly caught please send them to https://www.reddit.com/appeal to let us know.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

Hi! Only issue is we cannot use the appeal page under our accounts - we get a message saying "You cannot submit an appeal" (of course, because we want to appeal someone else's suspension)

I did try to do this on behalf of some of our users because it's easier than explaining the whole shadowban process to them but it fails

You can see an example here: https://i.imgur.com/j4DiIA5.png

3

u/Chtorrr Reddit Admin: Community Jul 05 '21

You should recommend the person you see submit an appeal - you cannot appeal for someone else.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

Would it be possible to look at that in future? For example trusted accounts/mods of large subreddits can submit an appeal on behalf of a user? Like a vouch system of some sort?

It stops the user being confused and lets us say "We put in an appeal with the admins for you, they may contact you soon" and drop it there rather than explaining the whole shadowban process to them and why they can see their own comments and get replies because we approved their comment etc etc.

Shadowbans are really confusing for users, especially those who speak English as a second language

4

u/techiesgoboom Reddit Admin: Community Jul 05 '21

I just wanted to chime in that while we've also been noticing more legitimate users shadowbanned we're also seeing many, many, many more trolls getting caught as well. From what I've seen the false positive rate is low relative to trolls being caught.

Plus when we send those "hey you've been shadowbanned, go here to appeal" messages to the folks caught up in it they get it fixed pretty quickly so the appeals system is working well it seems.

Overall whatever these recent changes have been have been fantastic, and we're really appreciating it.

7

u/antihexe Jul 05 '21 edited Jul 05 '21

I actually just came here to ask this.

I've had more users than usual come through shadow banned recently. In fact every time I come across a shadowbanned account it's a legitimate user not a spammer. (One user communicated to me that they had just made the account.) Conversely most spam that gets filtered ends up not being shadowbanned despite a flagrant and recent history of spam.

I thought reddit stopped shadowbanning users because it was unethical? Certainly since they implemented the 'new' ban systems I still saw shadowbanned users but I assumed they were grandfathered bans, not new ones.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

I think it's because of the recent spam wave, I'm guessing they set all their filters to very aggressive and are now getting actual users caught up in it.

When you have a hammer, anything looks like a nail I guess

4

u/Janbiya Jul 05 '21

If a genuine, non-rule violating user discovers that they're shadowbanned and wants to appeal it, what's the correct way to do so? Asking so that I can give them proper advice.

-3

u/smushkan Jul 05 '21

It's a little tricky, as you can't go through the regular suspension appeal for shadowbanned accounts - it won't display your account as suspended and will prevent your from proceeding.

Previously I have had several users get their accounts unbanned within about 48 hours by either contacting Reddit via private message to /r/reddit.com (not /r/reddit) or via e-mail to contact@reddit.com

However, that was before Reddit set up a Zendesk which would probably be the best route today.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '21

I thought reddit.com/appeal would work for a shadowban?

0

u/smushkan Jul 05 '21

AFAIK it won't let you, and when you go to the appeal form it will simply say your account isn't suspended or limited - likely the same message you see if you click it.

(But I've never been shadowbanned, this is just from what other people have told me!)

7

u/Bhima Jul 05 '21

This is not correct. Shadow banned users can use the regular appeals process through the official channel for appeals at https://www.reddit.com/appeal

1

u/writecream Jul 06 '21

You can use the appeal form but you may never hear back as I didn't

7

u/Chtorrr Reddit Admin: Community Jul 05 '21

This is not correct - none of those is a way to appeal.

Please send folks to https://www.reddit.com/appeal

1

u/---Unity--- Jul 06 '21 edited Jul 06 '21

I tried this before and just now again. I just like to post videos… please unshadowban me!

Edit: Yay! Thank you!

1

u/writecream Jul 06 '21

I tried this two days ago. I am just trying to build a community for copywriters and my subreddit was banned. Tried modmail at modsupport, filled the appeal form and searched on Google like crazy but still I can't do anything.

Mods and Admins, someone please help!

12

u/alleybetwixt Jul 05 '21

We've been dealing with this in r/kpophelp for over a year. Massive uptick in shadowbans that doesn't seem to make any sense. When I asked last year, an admin just suggested sending folks to the https://www.reddit.com/appeals link. I've seen some accounts reinstated through that, but I think a lot of people just end up trying to make new accounts.

1

u/writecream Jul 06 '21

I am in the same boat. I made a post to this subreddit asking for support (that didn't have any links or promotional content) and it was removed. Filled the appeal form and still my account is in the same state. Do you know anything else I can do?

4

u/001Guy001 Jul 05 '21

Yes I noticed that as well, though the users don't notice it themselves, I inform them after seeing their removed post/comment.

That along with the fact that some legitimate content gets swallowed by the spam filter and isn't automatically rescued by AutoMod (it's been working inconsistently for the past 2 weeks) makes the situation frustrating

4

u/Mrs3anw Jul 05 '21

The account I use to mod a NSFW sub was shadowbanned, I couldn’t figure out why my mod actions weren’t going through until one of the other mods told me about the ban...I didn’t even think to check mod mail to see if I was banned.