I have a question about what a ban means on reddit.
Reddit proudly allows users to have multiple accounts (i.e. what the Dope calls ‘socks’ and will get you instantly banned with no appeal allowed).
But on reddit they are called ‘throwaway’ accounts, and are very common.
So if you get banned, what prevents you from creating a new username and continuing to post?
Apparently they track your IP address or something. I’ve tried using a Google account unrelated to my other account or my name and a different phone number and both of those were also blocked shortly afterward.
No it’s site wide, the ban was from Reddit Admin. I’ve copied the message below, note the final line indicating the automated nature of the ban.
And again, I did not promote identity-based hate or attacks, I critiqued the Commonwealth and the racism that shaped it historically.
- Content shared from Yendis_Reddit_Alias on 09/18/2025 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 3-day ban on your 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 using automation.
The really galling thing is that I appealed mine twice, and they kept it standing. I’m irritated by that, because it’s just so… low effort on their part. Kind of a “We’re not going to bother with nuance, we’ll just back whatever techno-idiocy our AI came up with because it’s easier than actually reading the posts beforehand to get an idea of what you were talking about.” type situation.
Did you appeal?
It seems to me that their AI missed the nuance and just picked up on “giving privileges to brown people is problematic”.
It sounds an awful lot like the warning I got, their AI is really flawed. If you say something like
The problem with the world is stupid people that go around saying “-insert hateful racist stuff-“ it will attribute the hateful racist stuff in quotes to you.
Although it seriously has me wondering how they deal with people that quote the President.
I got a warning, not even a temp ban, but I appealed it anyway, mostly on principle. I’m glad I did, they removed the warning and restored the comment.
I think the lesson is if you want to say stuff like that, you need to film yourself saying it while you are wearing a crotchless rubber suit with a dildo up your butt, holding a whip and surrounded by several restrained nude women. Then, and only then, you will meet Reddit’s community standards.
No I didn’t appeal, it was only a 3 day ban and I just couldn’t muster up the energy to fight with what would probably just be another bot.
Sarcastic, but possibly quite true!
So, say, Nazi porn like “Ilsa: She-Wolf of the S.S.” would pass the censor bots?
It’s a challenge appealing to anyone with a wide vocabulary. All it takes is a little imagination plus a big stock of Latin roots: “Time for a little asino–pedal impact.”
I lament the paucity of vocabulary among the youth who could only come up with the pale “unalive” when English offers such rich possibilities of circumlocution. “Time to put a deserved term to N.’s miserable tenure in this world.”
Subs have their own moderators but I think the worst they can do is ban you from their sub. To get a site-wide ban it requires a reddit mod (I think). Maybe sub mods can flag a post for review by a site admin.
My main account got banned but I have no problem using another account. They do warn you something like “if you use an account to get around this ban” there will be greater consequences, but I think they mean if you keep harassing the same people/engaging in the same behavior/whatever got you banned in the first place.
I got banned when the Supreme court essentially ruled the president is above the law about a year and a half ago. I said something to the effect of “Maybe Biden should start using seal team 6 to kidnap or take out supreme court justices until they realize what a mistake it was to give the president unlimited immunity” which to be fair could validly be interpreted as a call to violence, though it was really more political commentary on the insanity of their ruling. I’m not sure it’s a call to violence anymore than saying “I hope we use a special ops team to take out the leader of ISIS” would be, but I get why I was moderated. Still, it was a common sentiment expressed even in mainstream op-eds about the danger of that decision.
Still, the severity – instantly banning my 15 year old account that has always been in good standing and never in trouble with the site mods – was over the top. Why not start with a warning or a 3 day ban or something? You go right from 0 to banned forever for something that’s clearly political commentary?
The moderation is cowardly. Making businesses go public seems to always ruin them. I think reddit is just desperately trying to stay out of the news as sort of how Discord took some heat for simply being a chat program where Charlie Kirk’s assassin would hang out. They don’t want some real world violence somehow being tied to reddit and getting pushback from their advertisers. But as a result they’re way too ban happy.
I got a warning on my account for expressing hope that Peter Thiel would overdose on meth. They said I was “threatening” him.
Definitely a stretch. The use of “I hope” COULD be part of a threat–if, say, a post said “I hope that A exercises their 2nd Amendment rights on B.” But the construction would have to include a human actor even if that actor is an unnamed member of a faceless horde (“A”).
If the hope includes no actor but the object himself, as in Thiel taking an overdose and thus killing Thiel….I don’t see how it could possibly be a threat.
But then I don’t have any advertisers balking at paying me, nor even a website that might make the news for hosting ill wishes.