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

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121–130 of 254 posts

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

#121

I've gotten a 7 day ban just for being a member of a group. Never posted, never up or down voted. Just a member. Banned for 7 days. I'm Reddit user 2,200 or so, never had even a warning about anything. I'm lucky they didn't permanently ban my account

How would that even work? Moderators don't have access to any lists of users that have subscribed to their subreddits.

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

#122

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

> Recently it almost happened again with my current account (Reddit allows the creation of multiple usernames using the same email address,) were your two different accounts that were (1) permanently banned and (2) temporarily banned using the same email address?

> Reddit allows the creation of multiple usernames using the same email address

Interesting, didn't know that. But the E-mail addresses are different.

My previous account was initially shadowbanned without notice (all posts auto-filtered, and if I remember it correctly, it was a global shadowban on all subreddits) so I had stopping using that account. Weeks later I checked again and it became permanently banned explicitly. The system said,

> Your account has been permanently suspended for breaking the rules. This account has been permanently closed. To continue using Reddit, please log out and create a new account (the username [REDACTED] cannot be reused). This is an automated message; responses will not be received by Reddit admins.

My current account in question was temporarily shadowbanned. I was able to post in a subreddit without problems, and one day I was suddenly shadowbanned. But it was not a global one because I was able to post in another subreddit, so I suspect it was just an Auto-Moderation filter. After I sent a message to the mod of that subreddit (not Reddit admins) and stopped logging in via Tor, the account went back to normal again. But I never actually received a reply from the mod, I'm not sure how exactly I got unbanned - automatically due to a "good" IP, or manually by a mod.

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

#123

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

>Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked.

FWIW I had that happen to me a year or two ago and was able to get the ban overturned.

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

#124
post #123

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

>Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. FWIW I had that happen to me a year or two ago and was able to get the ban overturned.

Interesting. How did you do that? Does the "Contact US" form really work?

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

#125
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They appear to get some kind of sadistic pleasure in reading ban appeals and denying them, knowing full well that the bans are improper and the appeals are justified." Or they get pleasure by making more money, in not paying enough people to manual review issues.

I thought mods are unpaid?

Mods are not paid by Reddit, admins are paid but I think that some admins are also modding a few subs.

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

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Seems like they're following Google's strategy. Presumably, ad profit from each individual user is low enough that it's cheaper to accept false positives in their anti-abuse mechanism than it is to provide a functioning appeal process. Maybe if the user manages to go viral on Twitter or…

It's the strategy of all the major social players. Several months ago I followed a new cardistry (look it up) personality on Instagram. I scrolled through and "liked" one or two dozen of their performance clips, out of the hundreds that they've posted. My Instagram account was blocked, for "manipulation" or some verbiage like that. Basically, the algorithm thought that I was a bot hired to inflate that person's numbe…

Delete your email address from your profile. That got my ten year account banned.

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

#127
post #87

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

Shadow banning is such a disgusting practice. It's basically sweeping the "problem" under the rug, whilst leaving the "problem" completely in the dark with regards to what it was they did wrong. It's lazy, it's abusive, and it should be illegal. Edit: to clarify, I'm totally fine with this tool being employed to combat spam(bots). Just not against normal posters/contributors.

>whilst leaving the "problem" completely in the dark with regards to what it was they did wrong.

This is the original intent. As far as I understood shadowbanning was for nefarious actors such as spambots, manual spammers, etc so they'd keep going without automatically creating new accounts.

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

#128
post #114

It can be even worse than suspending you, as early as 2018 i noticed they were shadow banning you based on VPN (PIA also). Meaning you could still post but not be seen, or have the ability to notify people you replied to. I've never since bothered to have an account there. Reddit's CEO, like Jack Dorsey, denies 'shadow banning', even though you can test it by getting -100 karma and watching your comments reach nobody…

> Reddit's CEO, like Jack Dorsey, denies 'shadow banning', even though you can test it by getting -100 karma and watching your comments reach nobody Jack Dorsey was the CEO of Twitter, not Reddit. Edit: Fair, I stand corrected. Leaving comment as-is.

"like" implies he's not.

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

#129
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Seems like they're following Google's strategy. Presumably, ad profit from each individual user is low enough that it's cheaper to accept false positives in their anti-abuse mechanism than it is to provide a functioning appeal process. Maybe if the user manages to go viral on Twitter or…

Is Google banning accounts just for vpn usage?

I don't know about VPNs specifically, but stories of Google handing out automated, unappealable permabans are rampant. There's one on the front page of HN right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345201

Entirely possible that user will get their account back since they won the social media lottery, but for every viral story there are god knows how many people out there who lost all their email/photos/etc. because of some inscrutable machine's mistake.

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

#130
post #87

It's how the Reddit spam filter works. Once your account is flagged as spam by the system, it would be global shadowbanned automacially. At this stage, your account is essentially finished, it's basically impossible to talk to someone and get your account unblocked. Eventually the account would be deleted, all the post you've ever made would also be gone in the worst-case scenario, just like my previous account. My R…

Shadow banning is such a disgusting practice. It's basically sweeping the "problem" under the rug, whilst leaving the "problem" completely in the dark with regards to what it was they did wrong. It's lazy, it's abusive, and it should be illegal. Edit: to clarify, I'm totally fine with this tool being employed to combat spam(bots). Just not against normal posters/contributors.

It should not be illegal to ban someone from a website under any circumstances.
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