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.

  • Surp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    I cant even tell you what I got banned for because they banned me without saying why. I dont even know the last thing I was talking about was finding anime in the style of berserk.

    • ghen@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      5 minutes ago

      They probably banned you for something that happened at least 24 hours before the ban hit because they’re just slow. My account was banned a week after I had replied to a racist troll trying to figure out if they were being racist so that I could ban them on my subreddit, and my comment was flagged as racist. I had already banned the user and hidden the thread, but that wasn’t good enough for Reddit and I needed to go.

  • Glaedr304@lemmy.world
    61·
    6 hours ago

    My leaving was originally from the api cost changes, I had payed for a 3rd party reader years ago and all of a sudden my lifetime of no ads was gone and I had to pay. This change was admittedly after reddit decided to follow twitters api cost changes. I am supprised at how close Elon and spez seem to be, given that I don’t know of any photos of the two of them, they they probably only know each other as CEO’s.

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.eeEnglish
    41·
    6 hours ago

    I got permabanned for criticizing Israel. The final comment that got me permabanned was literally ‘No, just the problems they deserve blame for’ to a zionist who accused all Lebanese of blaming all their problems on Israel.

  • BluewaterRed@lemm.ee
    6·
    8 hours ago

    Holy crap that is EXACTLY what happened to me this week. I wasn’t top contributor or anything so grand but I got a 7 ban after criticizing imperialism which after making an appeal that was rejected. I literally did nothing afterwards but woke up to a perma ban that was issued several hours after with no indication of why.

  • Geetnerd@lemmy.world
    111·
    11 hours ago

    Same, happened to me hours ago, with no message stating why, or no recourse.

    Elon whined to Spez to do something about Redditors being mean to him.

    I guess it worked. Fuck both of them.

  • LustyArgonian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    13 hours ago

    First permaban was for asking: “Any updates on Mitch McConnell? I could use some good news.” Mod appeal denied

    Then on another account a year later (bc I got so many death threats from Nazis on Reddit), I forgot I had a ban on that sub and said, “We should spend money feeding our kids instead of spending it to blow up someone else’s kids.” And that was an IP ban.

    Crazy, I’ve seen literal Nazis on there not even get comments removed. We live in dark times.

    • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
      61·
      12 hours ago

      the first reason was ridiculous, jyust for asking that question? you know it turning right wing, when you cant even IMPLY things. i used accounts like you did, dint get ban that aggressively, maybe because i was also using multiple locations, confused reddit for a while.

  • Frjttr@lemm.ee
    81·
    11 hours ago

    Same loool Let’s make Lemmy grow and leave any centralised social network.

  • AidsKitty@lemmy.world
    22·
    5 hours ago

    I got banned for saying a woman was a monster. Yes free speech really must be protected by all sides, we can too easily lose it.

  • Ilixtze@lemm.eeEnglish
    121·
    13 hours ago

    I got banned about a year ago for… checks notes repeatedly calling a genocidal army “bastards” =,D

    Edit… ok maybe I called them sons of bitches and nazis.