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Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

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11–20 of 254 posts

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#11
Small tip for people reading comments: if you want to read Reddit anonymously you can replace the domain of any reddit URL with teddit.net.

It's an open source, lightweight, web UI for Reddit focused on privacy: https://teddit.net/.

Git repo available here: https://codeberg.org/teddit/teddit.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#12
I wonder if it's feasible to make a VPN network where you peer with only _one_ other individual but that individual is selected somewhat randomly. As in, you offer your residential IP to one other person and one other person offers their residential IP to you.

The only services I've seen involve a few people offering their servers as n-ary client exit nodes which obviously ends up with saturation problems like the tor network. Obviously the legal concerns are a big deal but if companies like Mullvad aren't liable for illegal web traffic, one might be able to get similar protections for people that install this VPN.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#13
I’d guess it’s not the usage of a VPN that has triggered this, but rather a new account immediately presenting multiple IP addresses. I’d guess that would trigger abuse flags at most places (especially from known VPN IP addresses which tend to have a lot of malicious activity originating from them).

This isn’t to defend them - it seems very odd to immediately permanently suspend accounts like that!

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#15

Can you disclose which VPN you are using? I sometimes use ExpressVPN + a different browser to protect my identity, but it would be annoying if I lost my account. The charitable interpretation is that Reddit got a lot of abuse from individual IPs, the IP didn't seem to be shared to them, and they just blacklisted it. I assume they don't generally blacklist IPs from abusive users, since otherwise university campusses w…

PIA

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#17

Doesn't surprise me the slightest, Reddit is not like it used to be. It used to be the underdog where free speech flourished and today it's a chineese-owned propaganda machine. A few users controls the biggest subreddits and most deviating views get themselves either banned or restricted.

Chinese? I'd say Russian.

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#18

It seems fine to me, had an account for 5+ years, 30k karma and use a VPN to access it at school daily.

Same VPN exit point? Maybe this is the difference between traveler like my case and someone protecting their comm over same infra path?!?

Re: Tell HN: Reddit accounts cancellation/suspension caused by VPN usage

#20
post #12

I wonder if it's feasible to make a VPN network where you peer with only _one_ other individual but that individual is selected somewhat randomly. As in, you offer your residential IP to one other person and one other person offers their residential IP to you. The only services I've seen involve a few people offering their servers as n-ary client exit nodes which obviously ends up with saturation problems like the to…

That seems like a bad idea. When illegal activity is done on the internet the first thing law enforcement will do is go after you (by subpoena'ing your ISP for your information based on IP). You also have places like Germany where copyright representatives are very aggressive and will fine/settle you large amounts when downloading pirated content.
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