March 2021 Subreddit Blackout - Images

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An update on the recent issues surrounding a Reddit employee

Posted by u/spez 50 minutes ago 8 2 2 40 e39 3 29 42 2 O An update on the recent issues surrounding a Reddit employee We would like to give you all an update on the recent issues that have transpired concerning a specific Reddit employee, as well as provide you with context into actions that we took to prevent doxxing and harassment. As of today, the employee in question is no longer employed by Reddit. We built a relationship with her first as a mod and then through her contractor work on RPAN. We did not adequately vet her background before formally hiring her. We've put significant effort into improving how we handle doxxing and harassment, and this employee was the subject of both. In this case, we over-indexed on protection, which had serious consequences in terms of enforcement actions. • On March 9th, we added extra protections for this employee, including actioning content that mentioned the employee's name or shared personal information on third- party sites, which we reserve for serious cases of harassment and doxxing. On March 22nd, a news article about this employee was posted by a mod of r/ukpolitics. The article was removed and the submitter banned by the aforementioned rules. When contacted by the moderators of r/ukpolitics, we reviewed the actions, and reversed the ban on the moderator, and we informed the r/ukpolitics moderation team that we had restored the mod. • We updated our rules to flag potential harassment for human review. Debate and criticism have always been and always will be central to conversation on Reddit -including discussion about public figures and Reddit itself-as long as they are not used as vehicles for harassment. Mentioning a public figure's name should not get you banned. We care deeply for Reddit and appreciate that you do too. We understand the anger and confusion about these issues and their bigger implications. The employee is no longer with Reddit, and we'll be evolving a number of relevant internal policies. We did not operate to our own standards here. We will do our best to do better for you. 5.8k Comments Award A Share 70% Upvoted
Posted by u/spez 50 minutes ago 8 2 2 40 e39 3 29 42 2 O An update on the recent issues surrounding a Reddit employee We would like to give you all an update on the recent issues that have transpired concerning a specific Reddit employee, as well as provide you with context into actions that we took to prevent doxxing and harassment. As of today, the employee in question is no longer employed by Reddit. We built a relationship with her first as a mod and then through her contractor work on RPAN. We did not adequately vet her background before formally hiring her. We've put significant effort into improving how we handle doxxing and harassment, and this employee was the subject of both. In this case, we over-indexed on protection, which had serious consequences in terms of enforcement actions. • On March 9th, we added extra protections for this employee, including actioning content that mentioned the employee's name or shared personal information on third- party sites, which we reserve for serious cases of harassment and doxxing. On March 22nd, a news article about this employee was posted by a mod of r/ukpolitics. The article was removed and the submitter banned by the aforementioned rules. When contacted by the moderators of r/ukpolitics, we reviewed the actions, and reversed the ban on the moderator, and we informed the r/ukpolitics moderation team that we had restored the mod. • We updated our rules to flag potential harassment for human review. Debate and criticism have always been and always will be central to conversation on Reddit -including discussion about public figures and Reddit itself-as long as they are not used as vehicles for harassment. Mentioning a public figure's name should not get you banned. We care deeply for Reddit and appreciate that you do too. We understand the anger and confusion about these issues and their bigger implications. The employee is no longer with Reddit, and we'll be evolving a number of relevant internal policies. We did not operate to our own standards here. We will do our best to do better for you. 5.8k Comments Award A Share 70% Upvoted

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout Summary by Sarcasryx

Sarcastryx 11 hours ago · edited 2 hours ago O 2 2 6 2 0 47 & 80 More Answer: For those who don't want to visit the links: Reddit recently hired a new admin, Aimee Challenor, who had previously been a politician in the UK. Aimee is publicly tied to two different instances of supporting pedophiles. The first, her father r---- and abused a child, in the house Aimee was living in. After being arrested and charged for the crime, but before being tried and sentenced, Aimee hired her father to be her campaign manager for elections with the Green party, and gave a false name to the party on the paperwork. When this was found out, she claimed ignorance of the extent of his crimes, and was removed from the party for safeguarding failures. The second, her husband is an open p--------, who posts erotic fiction about children. Aimee had joined the Lib Dem party, and was removed when her husband tweeted that he "Fantasized about children having sex..sometimes with adults, sometimes kidnapped and forced in to bad situations". Both Aimee and her husband claim that the twitter account was hacked at that time. The fact that she is trans has meant that she is a prime target for harassment or as a demonstration by TERF/hard right groups of how "terrible" trans people can be. This lead to Reddit (per their claims) secretly enabling protections, that all posts on Reddit would be automatically scanned, and if it was detected to be doxxing Aimee, it would result in an automatic ban. After however long of running undetected by the userbase, the automatic doxxing protection proceeded to ban a moderator of r/UKPolitics who posted a news article, as Aimee Challenor was mentioned by name in the article. r/UKPolitics went private and shut down to figure out what was happening, and the admins reinstated the mod's account. r/UKPolitics then re-opened and posted a statement, that the shutdown was due to a ban, the ban was caused by an article including a line that referenced a specific person who now worked for Reddit, and that they were specifically requesting people not post the person's name or try to find out who the person was, as site admins would issue bans for that. Word of getting banned for saying "Aimee Challenor" spread quickly, and other OOTL posts show some of the results of that - many people repeating her name and associations and support for pedophiles, and a few (notably significantly less) removed comments. The admins put out a statement on r/ModSupport, stating that the post had "included personal information", that the ban was automated, not manual, and that the moderation rule had been too broad and was being fixed. People who can post on r/ModSupport (you must be a moderator, or your comments are automatically removed) immediately took issue with every part of the statement, as: -There had been a number of manual removals and direct edits of comments by reddit staff as the incident escalated (The second being something u/Spez was previously guilty of, and said he would lock down to prevent abuse of during the T_D issues) -The ban and post deletion on r/UKPolitics had been hours after the post, not immediate (which would be expected of an automated process) -Nobody believed that Reddit was automatically seanning the contents of every link to check for blacktisted words (Edit, striking this part out, looks like the text of the article was copied in to a comment which is what was scanned.) -The definition of "personal information" had just changed so much that posting the name "Joe Biden" could be considered doxxing -Reddit had not commented at all on the "open support for pedophiles" part Many moderators also raised complaints in the post about their personal issues with being doxxed, and that they had been reaching out to Reddit staff about consistent harassment and doxxing of their mod teams with no help given by Reddit, or wondering why these protections weren't enabled for them. One notable post states that inaction from Reddit staff with regards to doxxing resulted in a situation so bad that they were forced to contact the FBI in the USA and the RCMP in Canada to resolve the situation. This continued to rapidly escalate, and a group of mods started pushing for a blackout of their subreddits, something that has forced Reddit's hand with regards to responding to issues before. The list has been changing through the night, as different subreddits join in or leave the blackout, either protesting the censorship, protesting Reddit's perceived proxy-support for pedophiles, or (in many cases) both. + 12.8k + Reply Give Award Share Report Save
Sarcastryx 11 hours ago · edited 2 hours ago O 2 2 6 2 0 47 & 80 More Answer: For those who don't want to visit the links: Reddit recently hired a new admin, Aimee Challenor, who had previously been a politician in the UK. Aimee is publicly tied to two different instances of supporting pedophiles. The first, her father r---- and abused a child, in the house Aimee was living in. After being arrested and charged for the crime, but before being tried and sentenced, Aimee hired her father to be her campaign manager for elections with the Green party, and gave a false name to the party on the paperwork. When this was found out, she claimed ignorance of the extent of his crimes, and was removed from the party for safeguarding failures. The second, her husband is an open p--------, who posts erotic fiction about children. Aimee had joined the Lib Dem party, and was removed when her husband tweeted that he "Fantasized about children having sex..sometimes with adults, sometimes kidnapped and forced in to bad situations". Both Aimee and her husband claim that the twitter account was hacked at that time. The fact that she is trans has meant that she is a prime target for harassment or as a demonstration by TERF/hard right groups of how "terrible" trans people can be. This lead to Reddit (per their claims) secretly enabling protections, that all posts on Reddit would be automatically scanned, and if it was detected to be doxxing Aimee, it would result in an automatic ban. After however long of running undetected by the userbase, the automatic doxxing protection proceeded to ban a moderator of r/UKPolitics who posted a news article, as Aimee Challenor was mentioned by name in the article. r/UKPolitics went private and shut down to figure out what was happening, and the admins reinstated the mod's account. r/UKPolitics then re-opened and posted a statement, that the shutdown was due to a ban, the ban was caused by an article including a line that referenced a specific person who now worked for Reddit, and that they were specifically requesting people not post the person's name or try to find out who the person was, as site admins would issue bans for that. Word of getting banned for saying "Aimee Challenor" spread quickly, and other OOTL posts show some of the results of that - many people repeating her name and associations and support for pedophiles, and a few (notably significantly less) removed comments. The admins put out a statement on r/ModSupport, stating that the post had "included personal information", that the ban was automated, not manual, and that the moderation rule had been too broad and was being fixed. People who can post on r/ModSupport (you must be a moderator, or your comments are automatically removed) immediately took issue with every part of the statement, as: -There had been a number of manual removals and direct edits of comments by reddit staff as the incident escalated (The second being something u/Spez was previously guilty of, and said he would lock down to prevent abuse of during the T_D issues) -The ban and post deletion on r/UKPolitics had been hours after the post, not immediate (which would be expected of an automated process) -Nobody believed that Reddit was automatically seanning the contents of every link to check for blacktisted words (Edit, striking this part out, looks like the text of the article was copied in to a comment which is what was scanned.) -The definition of "personal information" had just changed so much that posting the name "Joe Biden" could be considered doxxing -Reddit had not commented at all on the "open support for pedophiles" part Many moderators also raised complaints in the post about their personal issues with being doxxed, and that they had been reaching out to Reddit staff about consistent harassment and doxxing of their mod teams with no help given by Reddit, or wondering why these protections weren't enabled for them. One notable post states that inaction from Reddit staff with regards to doxxing resulted in a situation so bad that they were forced to contact the FBI in the USA and the RCMP in Canada to resolve the situation. This continued to rapidly escalate, and a group of mods started pushing for a blackout of their subreddits, something that has forced Reddit's hand with regards to responding to issues before. The list has been changing through the night, as different subreddits join in or leave the blackout, either protesting the censorship, protesting Reddit's perceived proxy-support for pedophiles, or (in many cases) both. + 12.8k + Reply Give Award Share Report Save

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

List of Protesting Subreddits (Only Subreddits with 500k+ Subs Shown)

Posted by u/Blank-Cheque 5 hours ago 212 e3 List of Protesting Subreddits Link back to original post DEFAULT SUBREDDITS r/Fitness r/listentothis r/Music 1,000,000+ Subscribers r/AbruptChaos r/AmItheAsshole r/apple r/awfuleverything r/childfree r/comedyheaven r/confusing_perspective r/Coronavirus r/CozyPlaces r/Cringetopia r/cursedcomments r/HealthyFood r/HistoryMemes r/hmmm r/insaneparents r/instantkarma r/iphone r/JusticeServed r/mac r/MurderedByWords r/nevertellmetheodds r/Outdoors r/perfectlycutscreams r/pokemongo r/ProgrammerHumor r/quityourbullshit r/rareinsults r/softwaregore r/technicallythetruth r/techsupport r/thatHappened r/TIHI r/TooAfraidToAsk r/trashy. r/WeAreTheMusicMakers r/Wellthatsucks rlyouseeingthisshit r/Zoomies 500,000+ Subscribers r/AccidentalRenaissance r/agedlikemilk r/AmongUs r/antiMLM r/Bad Cop No Donut r/BigBoobsGW r/Bossfight r/ComedyCemetery. r/Conservative r/dankchristianmemes r/delusionalartists r/discordapp r/engrish r/forbiddensnacks r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR r/gatekeeping r/GoCommitDie r/houseplants г/НydroHomies r/ihadastroke r/IsitBullshit r/jailbreak r/lotrmemes r/NoMansSkyTheGame r/okbuddyretard r/pussypassdenied r/reddeadredemption r/ShitPostCrusaders r/smashbros r/suspiciouslyspecific r/TikTokCringe r/tiktokthots r/TrueCrime | info
Posted by u/Blank-Cheque 5 hours ago 212 e3 List of Protesting Subreddits Link back to original post DEFAULT SUBREDDITS r/Fitness r/listentothis r/Music 1,000,000+ Subscribers r/AbruptChaos r/AmItheAsshole r/apple r/awfuleverything r/childfree r/comedyheaven r/confusing_perspective r/Coronavirus r/CozyPlaces r/Cringetopia r/cursedcomments r/HealthyFood r/HistoryMemes r/hmmm r/insaneparents r/instantkarma r/iphone r/JusticeServed r/mac r/MurderedByWords r/nevertellmetheodds r/Outdoors r/perfectlycutscreams r/pokemongo r/ProgrammerHumor r/quityourbullshit r/rareinsults r/softwaregore r/technicallythetruth r/techsupport r/thatHappened r/TIHI r/TooAfraidToAsk r/trashy. r/WeAreTheMusicMakers r/Wellthatsucks rlyouseeingthisshit r/Zoomies 500,000+ Subscribers r/AccidentalRenaissance r/agedlikemilk r/AmongUs r/antiMLM r/Bad Cop No Donut r/BigBoobsGW r/Bossfight r/ComedyCemetery. r/Conservative r/dankchristianmemes r/delusionalartists r/discordapp r/engrish r/forbiddensnacks r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR r/gatekeeping r/GoCommitDie r/houseplants г/НydroHomies r/ihadastroke r/IsitBullshit r/jailbreak r/lotrmemes r/NoMansSkyTheGame r/okbuddyretard r/pussypassdenied r/reddeadredemption r/ShitPostCrusaders r/smashbros r/suspiciouslyspecific r/TikTokCringe r/tiktokthots r/TrueCrime | info

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit list

The Message Sent by Reddit Admins to Moderators of Several Large Private Subreddits

Ir/theydidthemonstermath Regarding going private ? lu/landoflobsters [A] a minute ago Quote Report Hi mods, We're writing in with regards to this community going private. We understand your concerns and are still evaluating. In the meantime, there is a lot of incorrect information regarding some of our previous actions. We are not removing mentions of admins names, nor are users being suspended for it unless it is accompanied by harassment. Again, the suspension of the mod of /r/ukpolitics mod was a mistake which we reversed and apologized for shortly after it occurred. You can see our thread in /r/ModSupport along with an updated comment offering more details here. As we continue to evaluate, we'd like you to ensure that you are not spreading incorrect information. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Best, -The Reddit Admins
Ir/theydidthemonstermath Regarding going private ? lu/landoflobsters [A] a minute ago Quote Report Hi mods, We're writing in with regards to this community going private. We understand your concerns and are still evaluating. In the meantime, there is a lot of incorrect information regarding some of our previous actions. We are not removing mentions of admins names, nor are users being suspended for it unless it is accompanied by harassment. Again, the suspension of the mod of /r/ukpolitics mod was a mistake which we reversed and apologized for shortly after it occurred. You can see our thread in /r/ModSupport along with an updated comment offering more details here. As we continue to evaluate, we'd like you to ensure that you are not spreading incorrect information. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Best, -The Reddit Admins

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

Subreddit Blackout Clarification Post by Blank-Cheque

Posted by u/Blank-Cheque 23 hours ago O 65 & O 2 61 e50 3 63 O "Why is this subreddit private?" See here for answers! The best current TL;DR can be found at this link If you've been linked to this page, you likely tried to view a subreddit that's been made private. You may be asking yourself "Why can't I look at teh memes and teh cat gifs??" I'll tell you why, young redditor: It's because one of reddit's new employees is a close associate of child rapists & pedophiles, and the mods of the subreddit you're attempting to view think that's bad. They also think it's bad for reddit to be censoring any mention of this across the site, including banning people just for saying the name of said admin in a completely unrelated context. What am I talking about? Click here for more information! See the comments for a list of subreddits currently private! FAQ: Q: What does "private" mean in this context? A: Reddit mods have the ability to make their subreddits unavailable for public use if they so choose - this is what they're doing here. Private is not the same thing as banned. Q: When will these subreddits reopen? A: I cannot speak for all of the subreddits involved, but I would not support reopening until reddit makes a statement explaining either why they hired the admin in question despite her past, or why they can't explain it. Q: What can I do to help? A: The best thing you can do is talk about this to make people aware. The more angry users, the more pressure is on reddit. Q: Have I lost my karma from these subs/Do I have to join them again when they reopen? A: No. You still have all your karma, even now. You are still subscribed to the subreddits, you just can't see them right now. Additional info I've been tipped off to that may not be included in any of the linked threads: before becoming an admin, the person in question moderated subreddits specifically for teenaged audiences. I cannot link to proof of this because it uses their full name which reddit won't allow me to say, but it's from a well-known and reliable online newspaper. Yet more info that I've been shown screenshots proving (out of respect for the person who showed me I cannot share them, unfortunately): as part of their duties as a reddit employee, the admin in question has been in charge of reviewing content for potential minor sexualization, and has explicitly refused to take down content containing sexualization of children. She then threatened to ban the user submitting the reports for "report abuse." Why does reddit allow this to happen? Is there literally zero oversight here? Do you mod a subreddit that has gone private over this as well? Message me or reply to this post and let me know so I can include you in the list! If I forget to reply to your comment/message I'm sorry, I promise it's nothing against you. Reddit is being buggy about editing a comment this large so if your subreddit doesn't show up within 10 minutes feel free to poke me again. Update 6:24 PM EST: Reddit came up with their first attempt at damage control! Update 11:26 PM EST: Reddit is "unable to comment on specific employment details" of why they employed someone who supports child rapists! Very cool, reddit! Update 11:30 PM EST: Reddit sent this message out to several of the larger private subreddits - this message has replies disabled, of course, so I can't ask for further clarification. If I could reply to /u/landoflobsters, I would ask them: "Can I then put the full name of the admin in question at the top of my megathread?" Feel free to reply here with your answer! P.S. Please do not dox anyone or post bigotry in this thread. P.P.S. Please do not give me awards, reddit doesn't deserve your money. If you would like to show your support please donate to a relevant charity (see below for examples) - if you send me proof of your donation I'll feature you in this post. Charitable people: • /u/RedditSuxGoTORuggus donated $106 to the American Cancer Society! • /u/TheReluctantOtter donated £50 to The Lucy Faithfull Foundation! • /u/HilariousScreenname donated $50 to Prevent Child Abuse America! • /u/AshRae84 donated $50 to the R---, Abuse & I----- National Network! • u/DoomEmpires donated Mex$1040 (~$50) to the Wikimedia Foundation! • /u/Aimless27 donated CA$50 to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection! • /u/nuclearnerfbat donated $30 to The Trevor Project! • /u/CodPolish donated $25 to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention! • /u/Devonmartino donated $25 to the R---, Abuse & I----- National Network!
Posted by u/Blank-Cheque 23 hours ago O 65 & O 2 61 e50 3 63 O "Why is this subreddit private?" See here for answers! The best current TL;DR can be found at this link If you've been linked to this page, you likely tried to view a subreddit that's been made private. You may be asking yourself "Why can't I look at teh memes and teh cat gifs??" I'll tell you why, young redditor: It's because one of reddit's new employees is a close associate of child rapists & pedophiles, and the mods of the subreddit you're attempting to view think that's bad. They also think it's bad for reddit to be censoring any mention of this across the site, including banning people just for saying the name of said admin in a completely unrelated context. What am I talking about? Click here for more information! See the comments for a list of subreddits currently private! FAQ: Q: What does "private" mean in this context? A: Reddit mods have the ability to make their subreddits unavailable for public use if they so choose - this is what they're doing here. Private is not the same thing as banned. Q: When will these subreddits reopen? A: I cannot speak for all of the subreddits involved, but I would not support reopening until reddit makes a statement explaining either why they hired the admin in question despite her past, or why they can't explain it. Q: What can I do to help? A: The best thing you can do is talk about this to make people aware. The more angry users, the more pressure is on reddit. Q: Have I lost my karma from these subs/Do I have to join them again when they reopen? A: No. You still have all your karma, even now. You are still subscribed to the subreddits, you just can't see them right now. Additional info I've been tipped off to that may not be included in any of the linked threads: before becoming an admin, the person in question moderated subreddits specifically for teenaged audiences. I cannot link to proof of this because it uses their full name which reddit won't allow me to say, but it's from a well-known and reliable online newspaper. Yet more info that I've been shown screenshots proving (out of respect for the person who showed me I cannot share them, unfortunately): as part of their duties as a reddit employee, the admin in question has been in charge of reviewing content for potential minor sexualization, and has explicitly refused to take down content containing sexualization of children. She then threatened to ban the user submitting the reports for "report abuse." Why does reddit allow this to happen? Is there literally zero oversight here? Do you mod a subreddit that has gone private over this as well? Message me or reply to this post and let me know so I can include you in the list! If I forget to reply to your comment/message I'm sorry, I promise it's nothing against you. Reddit is being buggy about editing a comment this large so if your subreddit doesn't show up within 10 minutes feel free to poke me again. Update 6:24 PM EST: Reddit came up with their first attempt at damage control! Update 11:26 PM EST: Reddit is "unable to comment on specific employment details" of why they employed someone who supports child rapists! Very cool, reddit! Update 11:30 PM EST: Reddit sent this message out to several of the larger private subreddits - this message has replies disabled, of course, so I can't ask for further clarification. If I could reply to /u/landoflobsters, I would ask them: "Can I then put the full name of the admin in question at the top of my megathread?" Feel free to reply here with your answer! P.S. Please do not dox anyone or post bigotry in this thread. P.P.S. Please do not give me awards, reddit doesn't deserve your money. If you would like to show your support please donate to a relevant charity (see below for examples) - if you send me proof of your donation I'll feature you in this post. Charitable people: • /u/RedditSuxGoTORuggus donated $106 to the American Cancer Society! • /u/TheReluctantOtter donated £50 to The Lucy Faithfull Foundation! • /u/HilariousScreenname donated $50 to Prevent Child Abuse America! • /u/AshRae84 donated $50 to the R---, Abuse & I----- National Network! • u/DoomEmpires donated Mex$1040 (~$50) to the Wikimedia Foundation! • /u/Aimless27 donated CA$50 to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection! • /u/nuclearnerfbat donated $30 to The Trevor Project! • /u/CodPolish donated $25 to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention! • /u/Devonmartino donated $25 to the R---, Abuse & I----- National Network!

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

Additional Clarifications by Reddit Admins

landoflobsters Reddit Admin: Safety 16 hours ago · Stickied comment We're seeing a number of good questions regarding where our policies around public information, personal information, and harassment intersect. While we're unable to comment on specific employment details, we do want to address a few of these questions, especially around what is or isn't allowed to be posted. A few answers: | May we allow articles about an admin's personal and professional history? Yes, articles are allowed to be posted on Reddit as long as they do not spread private information or invite harassment against others. May we allow proper names of admins? It depends on the context - posting of any personal information, including names, coupled with harassment of any sort may result in action by us. Some admins are public figures by virtue of their job, so those names are okay. Other employees may have chosen to explicitly link their usernames to their real life, that's also okay. Some employees may have taken pains to not associate themselves with their specific usernames for safety reasons, in which case linking their names to their account is not ok. | Can we allow wikipedia pages if they mention the names of admins? As long as it's not being posted in conjunction with other rule breaking content, nor as a springboard for harassment. If we approve this kind of content can we be banned? We know mods make mistakes and it's only a problem if we see it becoming a pattern. If we see that we will talk to you before further steps are taken. That said, we sometimes make mistakes too, as we did in this instance. When we do so, we will correct the situation as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, there have been instances where mods have been removed from their positions or suspended over repeatedly ignoring site wide rules or encouraging others to break them. Given that this person is a public figure, why is this standard in place? They ran for public office and have been covered in the media. Our intent was never to remove any and all mentions of this admin's name. Just an overzealous automation when attempting to prevent doxxing and harassment. Ok, so why did you suspend the mod last night just for posting the name of an admin? (this is not a quoted question, but a sentiment we're still seeing here so wish to address) As we mentioned, this was an error on our part and quickly rectified with the mod team in question. We also communicated clearly with them while we were in the process of resolving this.
landoflobsters Reddit Admin: Safety 16 hours ago · Stickied comment We're seeing a number of good questions regarding where our policies around public information, personal information, and harassment intersect. While we're unable to comment on specific employment details, we do want to address a few of these questions, especially around what is or isn't allowed to be posted. A few answers: | May we allow articles about an admin's personal and professional history? Yes, articles are allowed to be posted on Reddit as long as they do not spread private information or invite harassment against others. May we allow proper names of admins? It depends on the context - posting of any personal information, including names, coupled with harassment of any sort may result in action by us. Some admins are public figures by virtue of their job, so those names are okay. Other employees may have chosen to explicitly link their usernames to their real life, that's also okay. Some employees may have taken pains to not associate themselves with their specific usernames for safety reasons, in which case linking their names to their account is not ok. | Can we allow wikipedia pages if they mention the names of admins? As long as it's not being posted in conjunction with other rule breaking content, nor as a springboard for harassment. If we approve this kind of content can we be banned? We know mods make mistakes and it's only a problem if we see it becoming a pattern. If we see that we will talk to you before further steps are taken. That said, we sometimes make mistakes too, as we did in this instance. When we do so, we will correct the situation as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, there have been instances where mods have been removed from their positions or suspended over repeatedly ignoring site wide rules or encouraging others to break them. Given that this person is a public figure, why is this standard in place? They ran for public office and have been covered in the media. Our intent was never to remove any and all mentions of this admin's name. Just an overzealous automation when attempting to prevent doxxing and harassment. Ok, so why did you suspend the mod last night just for posting the name of an admin? (this is not a quoted question, but a sentiment we're still seeing here so wish to address) As we mentioned, this was an error on our part and quickly rectified with the mod team in question. We also communicated clearly with them while we were in the process of resolving this.

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

A Statement by Reddit Admins

Posted by u/landoflobsters Reddit Admin: Safety 21 hours ago O A clarification on actioning and employee names We've heard various concerns about a recent action taken and wanted to provide clarity. Earlier this month, a Reddit employee was the target of harassment and doxxing (sharing of personal or confidential information). Reddit activated standard processes to protect the employee from such harassment, including initiating an automated moderation rule to prevent personal information from being shared. The moderation rule was too broad, and this week it incorrectly suspended a moderator who posted content that included personal information. After investigating the situation, we reinstated the moderator the same day. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation to ensure that we protect users and employees from doxxing -- including those who may have a public profile -- without mistakenly taking action on non-violating content. Content that mentions an employee does not violate our rules and is not subject to removal a priori. However, posts or comments that break Rule 1 or Rule 3 or link to content that does will be removed. This is no different from how our policies have been enforced to date, but we understand how the mistake highlighted above caused confusion. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation. ETA: Please note that, as indicated in the sidebar, this subreddit is for a discussion between mods and admins. User comments are automatically removed from all threads. 2.9k Comments Award Share ... 13% Upvoted
Posted by u/landoflobsters Reddit Admin: Safety 21 hours ago O A clarification on actioning and employee names We've heard various concerns about a recent action taken and wanted to provide clarity. Earlier this month, a Reddit employee was the target of harassment and doxxing (sharing of personal or confidential information). Reddit activated standard processes to protect the employee from such harassment, including initiating an automated moderation rule to prevent personal information from being shared. The moderation rule was too broad, and this week it incorrectly suspended a moderator who posted content that included personal information. After investigating the situation, we reinstated the moderator the same day. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation to ensure that we protect users and employees from doxxing -- including those who may have a public profile -- without mistakenly taking action on non-violating content. Content that mentions an employee does not violate our rules and is not subject to removal a priori. However, posts or comments that break Rule 1 or Rule 3 or link to content that does will be removed. This is no different from how our policies have been enforced to date, but we understand how the mistake highlighted above caused confusion. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation. ETA: Please note that, as indicated in the sidebar, this subreddit is for a discussion between mods and admins. User comments are automatically removed from all threads. 2.9k Comments Award Share ... 13% Upvoted

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit /r/ukpolitics

A Statement by /r/ukpolitics

Posted by u/ukpolbot Official UKPolitics Bot 1 day ago O O 3 2 0 2 21 e16 WELCOME BACK - SUBREDDIT STATEMENT As you will have noticed, the moderators set the subreddit to private last night. This is not a decision we took lightly, but one that was made to protect both the users and moderators of r/ukpolitics. A moderator posted an article from the Spectator - which contained a three-word mention, in passing, of a minor British public figure (expelled from both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party) - and was permanently suspended from Reddit (and later reinstated after we contacted the admins) for "doxxing" as a result. As we had no idea what had happened, or why posting this article resulted in a permanent suspension, we took the emergency step of making the subreddit private and immediately contacting the admins for clarification. We took this step to protect both the users of the subreddit, and ourselves, from further action by the Reddit admin staff. It later became apparent that Reddit has hired this individual as an Reddit admin, and were banning people from discussing her past to protect their employee from harassment. We would ask the following: • Please do not name this individual, at allI. Doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. • Please do not ask further questions about this, as doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. • Please do not discuss this incident on Reddit publicly or privately (e.g. on private subreddits and/or in private messages, chat etc.), as doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. We are obviously extremely concerned by these developments, but cannot express our full dissatisfaction with Reddit on the platform at this time. -the r/ukpolitics mods EDIT, 12:50 GMT: Just a reminder that the usual subreddit rules and Reddit-wide ToS apply. We do not support nor do we condone any harassment or abuse of the people, publications or redditors involved. Our issues lie solely with the actions that Reddit have taken (and continue to take) in relation to this event. EDIT, 22:25 GMT: The Reddit admins have issued a statement: We've heard various concerns about a recent action taken and wanted to provide clarity. Earlier this month, a Reddit employee was the target of harassment and doxxing (sharing of personal or confidential information). Reddit activated standard processes to protect the employee from such harassment, including initiating an automated moderation rule to prevent personal information from being shared. The moderation rule was too broad, and this week it incorrectly suspended a moderator who posted content that included personal information. After investigating the situation, we reinstated the moderator the same day. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation to ensure that we protect users and employees from doxxing -- including those who may have a public profile -- without mistakenly taking action on non-violating content. Content that mentions an employee does not violate our rules and is not subject to removal a priori. However, posts or comments that break Rule 1 or Rule 3 or link to content that does will be removed. This is no different from how our policies have been enforced to date, but we understand how the mistake highlighted above caused confusion. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation. EDIT, 22:35 GMT: We disagree with Reddit's assertion in their statement that an r/ukpolitics moderator posted "personal information" about a Reddit employee. It was a news article from a respected (if not universally popular) UK publication which included the name of the employee specifically in relation to their UK political history. EDIT, 23:25 GMT: As we're experiencing a high level of traffic, we have temporarily enabled Reddit's "crowd control" feature across the entire subreddit. You may see some collapsed comments from new users who are not regulars on the subreddit. This is completely intentional. We will review the use of crowd control in the morning (GMT). EDIT, 23:35 GMT: We see that a number of subreddits have "gone dark" in protest / solidarity with the situation we found ourselves in last night. It's clear that this is now much bigger than r/ukpolitics. We remain dissatisfied with Reddit's response, particularly in light of their "statement" on r/ModSupport. We still cannot express our full dissatisfaction with Reddit on the platform.
Posted by u/ukpolbot Official UKPolitics Bot 1 day ago O O 3 2 0 2 21 e16 WELCOME BACK - SUBREDDIT STATEMENT As you will have noticed, the moderators set the subreddit to private last night. This is not a decision we took lightly, but one that was made to protect both the users and moderators of r/ukpolitics. A moderator posted an article from the Spectator - which contained a three-word mention, in passing, of a minor British public figure (expelled from both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party) - and was permanently suspended from Reddit (and later reinstated after we contacted the admins) for "doxxing" as a result. As we had no idea what had happened, or why posting this article resulted in a permanent suspension, we took the emergency step of making the subreddit private and immediately contacting the admins for clarification. We took this step to protect both the users of the subreddit, and ourselves, from further action by the Reddit admin staff. It later became apparent that Reddit has hired this individual as an Reddit admin, and were banning people from discussing her past to protect their employee from harassment. We would ask the following: • Please do not name this individual, at allI. Doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. • Please do not ask further questions about this, as doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. • Please do not discuss this incident on Reddit publicly or privately (e.g. on private subreddits and/or in private messages, chat etc.), as doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. We are obviously extremely concerned by these developments, but cannot express our full dissatisfaction with Reddit on the platform at this time. -the r/ukpolitics mods EDIT, 12:50 GMT: Just a reminder that the usual subreddit rules and Reddit-wide ToS apply. We do not support nor do we condone any harassment or abuse of the people, publications or redditors involved. Our issues lie solely with the actions that Reddit have taken (and continue to take) in relation to this event. EDIT, 22:25 GMT: The Reddit admins have issued a statement: We've heard various concerns about a recent action taken and wanted to provide clarity. Earlier this month, a Reddit employee was the target of harassment and doxxing (sharing of personal or confidential information). Reddit activated standard processes to protect the employee from such harassment, including initiating an automated moderation rule to prevent personal information from being shared. The moderation rule was too broad, and this week it incorrectly suspended a moderator who posted content that included personal information. After investigating the situation, we reinstated the moderator the same day. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation to ensure that we protect users and employees from doxxing -- including those who may have a public profile -- without mistakenly taking action on non-violating content. Content that mentions an employee does not violate our rules and is not subject to removal a priori. However, posts or comments that break Rule 1 or Rule 3 or link to content that does will be removed. This is no different from how our policies have been enforced to date, but we understand how the mistake highlighted above caused confusion. We are continuing to review all the details of the situation. EDIT, 22:35 GMT: We disagree with Reddit's assertion in their statement that an r/ukpolitics moderator posted "personal information" about a Reddit employee. It was a news article from a respected (if not universally popular) UK publication which included the name of the employee specifically in relation to their UK political history. EDIT, 23:25 GMT: As we're experiencing a high level of traffic, we have temporarily enabled Reddit's "crowd control" feature across the entire subreddit. You may see some collapsed comments from new users who are not regulars on the subreddit. This is completely intentional. We will review the use of crowd control in the morning (GMT). EDIT, 23:35 GMT: We see that a number of subreddits have "gone dark" in protest / solidarity with the situation we found ourselves in last night. It's clear that this is now much bigger than r/ukpolitics. We remain dissatisfied with Reddit's response, particularly in light of their "statement" on r/ModSupport. We still cannot express our full dissatisfaction with Reddit on the platform.

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit /r/ukpolitics

The Spectator Extract Mentioning Aimee Challenor

The formidable feminist author and journalist Bea Campbell, a former Green party candidate, resigned from the party last year after being disciplined, in part for refusing to keep quiet about the shocking and disturbing Aimee Challenor case. Having put up with crazy, anti-women transgender ideology for years, a significant number of other women are set to leave the party. The only question that remains is why they have stayed so long. WRITTEN BY Julie Bindel Julie Bindel is a feminist campaigner against sexual violence
The formidable feminist author and journalist Bea Campbell, a former Green party candidate, resigned from the party last year after being disciplined, in part for refusing to keep quiet about the shocking and disturbing Aimee Challenor case. Having put up with crazy, anti-women transgender ideology for years, a significant number of other women are set to leave the party. The only question that remains is why they have stayed so long. WRITTEN BY Julie Bindel Julie Bindel is a feminist campaigner against sexual violence

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
subreddit blackout reddit aimee challenor reddit admin gone private protest censorship private subreddit

Drama on /r/ukpolitics

Answered Whats the deal with /r/UKPolitics going private and making a sticky about a new 5650 admin who cant be named or you will be banned? (self.OutOfTheLoop) submitted 7 hours ago by ThislsBanEvasion O 23 @2 34 & 2 more [-] sloth_on_meth |Crazy mod M [score hidden] 3 hours ago" 2 stickled comment The situation is as follows, the moderators of /r/Ukpolitics set the subreddit to private last night. This was not a decision they took lightly, but one that was made to protect both the users and moderators of /r/ukpolitics. A moderator posted an article from the Spectator - which contained a three-word mention, in passing, of a minor British public figure ( who was expelled from both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party) - this moderator was permanently suspended from Reddit (and later reinstated after we contacted the admins) for "doxxing" as a result. As they had no idea what had happened, or why posting this article resulted in a permanent suspension, the mods of /r/Ukpolitics took the emergency step of making the subreddit private and immediately contacting the admins for clarification. They took this step to protect both the users of the subreddit, and themselves, from further action by the Reddit admin staff. It later became apparent that Reddit has hired the individual as an Reddit admin, and were banning people from discussing the employees past to protect their employee from harassment. Like the /r/Ukpolitics mods we would ask the following, in order to protect your account from getting terminated by Reddit: • Do not name this individual, at all. Doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. We are obviously extremely concerned by these developments and expect Reddit to explain this situation. The usual subreddit rules and Reddit-wide ToS apply. permalink embed save report give award reply load more comments (117 replies) https://infogalactic.com/info/Aimee Challenor "Aimee" Challenor (real name Ashton Lucas David, born male 1998 in Coventry, England) UK transgender activist and former member of the Green Party of England and Wales. Identifies as female. Held post of LGBTQI+ officer and campaigned vociferously for the transgender agenda, including gender-self-identification without medical or legal hurdles. Loud and aggressive on social media he has taken a leading part in the banning of all those who express dissenting views. In 2018 his father David Challenor was convicted of imprisoning, r----- and torturing a 10-year-old girl in the attic of the family home. Ashton's claims to be unaware of what was going on were met with widespread incredulity. On 3 Sept 2018 he announced that he was resigning from the Green Party, after a scandal which he blamed on their "transphobia". YOU'RE HIRED
Answered Whats the deal with /r/UKPolitics going private and making a sticky about a new 5650 admin who cant be named or you will be banned? (self.OutOfTheLoop) submitted 7 hours ago by ThislsBanEvasion O 23 @2 34 & 2 more [-] sloth_on_meth |Crazy mod M [score hidden] 3 hours ago" 2 stickled comment The situation is as follows, the moderators of /r/Ukpolitics set the subreddit to private last night. This was not a decision they took lightly, but one that was made to protect both the users and moderators of /r/ukpolitics. A moderator posted an article from the Spectator - which contained a three-word mention, in passing, of a minor British public figure ( who was expelled from both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party) - this moderator was permanently suspended from Reddit (and later reinstated after we contacted the admins) for "doxxing" as a result. As they had no idea what had happened, or why posting this article resulted in a permanent suspension, the mods of /r/Ukpolitics took the emergency step of making the subreddit private and immediately contacting the admins for clarification. They took this step to protect both the users of the subreddit, and themselves, from further action by the Reddit admin staff. It later became apparent that Reddit has hired the individual as an Reddit admin, and were banning people from discussing the employees past to protect their employee from harassment. Like the /r/Ukpolitics mods we would ask the following, in order to protect your account from getting terminated by Reddit: • Do not name this individual, at all. Doing so may result in your account being banned by the admins. We are obviously extremely concerned by these developments and expect Reddit to explain this situation. The usual subreddit rules and Reddit-wide ToS apply. permalink embed save report give award reply load more comments (117 replies) https://infogalactic.com/info/Aimee Challenor "Aimee" Challenor (real name Ashton Lucas David, born male 1998 in Coventry, England) UK transgender activist and former member of the Green Party of England and Wales. Identifies as female. Held post of LGBTQI+ officer and campaigned vociferously for the transgender agenda, including gender-self-identification without medical or legal hurdles. Loud and aggressive on social media he has taken a leading part in the banning of all those who express dissenting views. In 2018 his father David Challenor was convicted of imprisoning, r----- and torturing a 10-year-old girl in the attic of the family home. Ashton's claims to be unaware of what was going on were met with widespread incredulity. On 3 Sept 2018 he announced that he was resigning from the Green Party, after a scandal which he blamed on their "transphobia". YOU'RE HIRED

March 2021 Subreddit Blackout
reddit banned spectator aimee challenor sloth_on_meth david challenor transphobia hired torture