I lurked Reddit for a long time before creating an account which is now over 6 years old. I was a ‘Top Contributor’ and in the rewards program. 89k karma, never promoted violence or targeted any group, but I got a 7-day ban which was followed up hours later with a permanent ban. This is because of a comment criticizing Senator Radcliffe, trump, and Musk. The comment included profanity, (I called them hypocrites and cunts), but it wasn’t directed at any user or marginalized group. Just harsh political commentary.
Reddit initially issued a 7-day ban, which I appealed. That appeal was approved, the comment was restored, and they admitted it didn’t violate the rules. But the permanent ban still stands, and my follow-up appeals on that have been ignored. No explanation. No transparency. Just gone.
It’s made me realize how fragile “free speech” is on platforms like Reddit. You can insult regular users and get away with it, say horrendously racist, misogynistic, and homophobic things, but speak too plainly about powerful people and suddenly you’re promoting “hate.”
I combed through the Reddit rules, and nothing I have ever commented or posted violates them.
That’s the reason I’m here on Lemmy now. I’m trying to read more, scroll less, and engage with platforms that aren’t actively censoring political dissent. Who else is in the same boat? Is there anything that can be done to hold Reddit accountable or make people aware of they way they are censoring speech? This is my first Lemmy post. I marked it NSFW because of the profanity.
Perma-banned for fighting back against the fascist take over of Reddit
I got banned for saying Andrew Tate fans are fucking retarded.
They hated him because he spoke the truth.
Genuinely an insult to actual mentally disabled people comparing them to tate groupies.
I told Nazis to go kill themselves. Then made multiple Krasnov accounts. All banned and now perm banned unless I use VPN. It was time to go, fuck that place. Welcome home.
I have said all kinds of nasty things there about GropenFührer…I mean inmate #P01135809 and other than a few downvotes, nothing. Maybe it’s a “no warning” kind of thing?
I really liked Reddit, getting a lot of value out of the content posted there by people. And I met some cool people through it.
I never got banned from it myself, but as time went on it was very clear that the company in charge of the platform was not steering things in a good direction, and was not responsible for the value I liked. They just captured the value by being the place where people posted. They really drove that point home when they locked off the API, and I completely quit Reddit at that point, migrating to Lemmy instead.
I definitely feel that Lemmy doesn’t have as much value collected on it yet compared to Reddit. There’s just not as many people posting and generating that value. But, it is free of that sort of draconian control that Reddit has. Not just temporarily free, as a favor from venture capital to draw people in. Permanently free. So, if we build up the value of Lemmy by having more people post here, we will be able to enjoy that value free from the corpo BS.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. :P
I noticed a big difference after they cut off the API. I’ve only been on Lemmy a few days, but I feel the same way about the amount of content. Hopefully more and more people will migrate here as reddit continues their nonsense. It’s a shame to see what it has become.
I’ve been here since the third party app culling and it’s been steadily growing I think from my anecdotal feels when using it. It definitely has a long way to go to replace what reddit was, but hopefully it just keeps growing bit by bit. I see posts like yours frequently these days so you’re definitely not the only one leaving.
I’d guess a good bit of us used to almost entirely browse reddit through a third party app (me with Sync) and for various reasons didn’t capitulate, been on Lemmy since and have vastly increased my time with Linux as a result xD
Been on Lemmy from Reddit for over a year. Really don’t miss it, except for a few niche communities.
I’m starting to wonder if the head reddit weirdo is getting paid directly by Musk to enforce shit like this
nope, musk told reddit to “moderate more” and HUFFMAN agrees with him. huffmans loves Musk by the way.
I call BS. Reddit didn’t issue a permanent ban for Trump criticism. This is probably a mod action and you are confused.
Here are the messages I received from u/reddit:
Reddit is a vast network of communities that are created, run, and populated by people like you. In order to keep communities welcoming, safe, and great places to be, everyone who uses the platform operates by a shared set of rules.
First message: Banned 7-days for hate
We flagged the following as a potential policy violation:
Content shared from KarlHungus311 on 03/25/2025 UTC After reviewing, we found that you broke Rule 1 because you promoted identity-based hate or attacks. Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. We don’t tolerate promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability, and any communities or people that encourage or incite violence or hate towards marginalized or vulnerable groups will be banned.
As a result, we’re issuing a temporary 7-day ban on your KarlHungus311 account, removing the violating content, and asking you not to break this rule again.
Reddit and its communities are only what we make of them together, and we want you to continue enjoying Reddit while helping your fellow redditors and communities stay safe. We suggest reading and getting acquainted with the Reddit Rules. A better understanding of these rules will help you avoid further actions from our admin team. If you do continue to break Reddit’s rules through this or any other Reddit account, you may face additional actions such as a permanent ban from the platform.
If you feel like you didn’t break the rules, you can file an appeal any time within the next six months and we’ll take a second look.
If you live in the European Union, you can also contact a settlement body to dispute the decision. You may also have the right to have this decision reviewed by a competent court under the applicable laws of your country.
– Reddit Admin Team
Note: This content was flagged by Reddit’s automated systems. This decision was made without the assistance of automation.
Second Message (a few hours later): Your account has been permanently banned for breaking the rules.
This account has been permanently banned due to multiple, repeated violations of Reddit’s Content Policy on your other account(s). For more information about what rules you broke and how to appeal, check your account inboxes.
None of this shows what you were actually posting to earn this. You didn’t get a ban for calling Trump a cunt.
You were either ban evading and got caught after being flagged or you made a threat.
You are wrong. I did none of that. I submitted the appeal, I deleted the app from my phone, and did nothing on reddit. It was followed hours later by the permanent ban.
Nah, something is missing. I shit talk on Reddit all the time about Elon and Trump. It’s all over the place, it’s plain to see.
What’s missing, seems to be your understanding as to how much reddit has changed over the past year or so. Are you not seeing the other comments with similar experiences to mine? I highly encourage you to continue shit talking those two twats, but don’t be surprised when this happens to you as well. All it really takes is drawing the attention one pro-trump mod. Among other things, I made this alternate time cover and posted that in various places. Perhaps it was my overall post history that did me in. There was no explanation beyond what I already posted regarding the permanent ban.
been banned since 2015 when I told a white supremacist Nazi to drink bleach and fuck themselves.
I was perma-banned because I made a joke about chucking a rock through the windshield of a literal, out-and-proud-capital-N Nazi.
Didn’t make any appeals because it was time to leave. I spent waaaay too much time on that stupid site and now I’m starting to finally feel free of the outrage/affirmation addiction.
Things have gotten pretty weird in the last few months. I got a warning and a deleted comment several months ago because there was a debate in some random Colorado sub on what to do about a person living downtown who kept putting a swastika in their apartment window. They lived above a popular local business and it was causing issues. I said something about using a slingshot to solve the problem. I hear you on the time spent on there. After deleting the app from my phone, it really hit home just how much I was compulsively checking it throughout the day.
Same on that last sentiment, dude. The difference in my own temperament has been surprisingly noteworthy since leaving. It took being banned for me to realize how emotionally dependant I had bec9me on their algorithm.
I’m still pissed about why I was banned, but I am ultimately glad to have left. The bump in my productivity has also been noteworthy. My home hasn’t been this clean in a long while lol
I was banned from a sub for explaining that “globalist” is an anantisemetic dogwhistle. They said my comment was hate speech but left up the one I responded to, dogwhistle and all.
When I asked the sub’s mods about the ruling, I was given a 3-day sitewide ban. I brought it to admins, and instead of any explanation, they responded by making that ban permanent.
I dont think there is any way they don’t know what they’re doing. Reddit is complicit.
See I don’t understand why reddit allows this, responding to questions about a ban by permanently banning them! The mod (and admin?) abuse seems to be getting worse. I was banned from a sub for saying it to turned to garbage in a different sub.
The cross-sub silencing is crazy too. I got banned from a bunch of tesla subs for participating in r/cyberstuck. On that one, I did message the mods and told them to go fuck themselves for stifling free speech. Someone actually replied back and said, “Freedom of speech, doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.”, which is an infuriating misuse of that expression in this context. Then I got a 3 day ban.
its crossbanning, its the wierdest policy to pre-emptively ban someone for not even participating in your sub. just because you went to a sub that the mods dont like.
i avoid israeli related post for that reason, i was burned by israeli mods/trolls back oct 23. and subsequently i reported pics that were discussing israeli/gaza in a propagandish manner.
I posted the below about Netanyahu and didn’t get banned on 2 different Lemmy subs, to my surprise:
i meant on reddit.
I know, I’m contrasting the experience bc there’s no way 99% of Reddit mods would allow the comment I made
The CEO is just as horrible, a friend of Musk and a white suprematist.
im not surprised, i was temp ban for reporting someone like your commentor, and i was banned for it. basically the guy was making incorrect, misinformed comments, insta ban, because “we saw you reporting too much, so report abuse” temp ban, later i found out people were getting perma ban after a temp ban, so i just deleted my account. now i tried to appeal on 2 different ones banned at the same time, all denied.
I was banned for saying I should have a legal right to punch Nazis, which I don’t think was “permanent ban” territory.
This to me says that Reddit is Pro Nazi
I was issued a permanent ban that I successfully appealed when all I said was always punch Nazis
I appealed but it was pretty much instantly declined, and you know, fuck em
Yep. That was my first ban. My last pan was saying T n E should face the gallows. I said fuck it and came here.
Funny. I commented on a picture of Indiana jones punching a Nazi which said “there’s never a wrong time to punch a Nazi” and boom! Encouraging violence/ban. 😂
That place is a fucking gong show.
One of my favorite aspects of the new Indiana Jones game is just running around one-punching nazis. It really never gets old.
i have been hearing people were being banned again, soon after thier bans ar elifted. it must be thier AI re-banning and not resetting thier filters.
I came here after they banned third party apps. No way I’m browsing with ads on their shitty app. RES still works fortunately but I’ve grown to really like it here. Haven’t touched reddit in a year or so.
i suggest browsing on a browser, like FF or a fork, with adblock on, not giving them any ad money. ironfox and fennex is a good fork.
thats what RES does-reddit enhancement suite on firefox. I combine that with adblock, ublock too. I go out of my way to make sure I mever see any ads anywhere I go, usually reddit/youtube.
Yeah I moved here for a ban too. Mine was political. I was banned for telling a mod that I will spank them and, essentially, that they will like it
I got banned in 2019 for hate speech against cops.
They’re most vulnerable and marginalized community. How dare you refuse to kiss their boots.
