As the title says. I believe Reddit has been using shadow bans to quiet dissenting opinions that aren’t inherently breaking TOS.
As the title says. I believe Reddit has been using shadow bans to quiet dissenting opinions that aren’t inherently breaking TOS.
It’s not clear whether you mean Reddit’s administrators (sitewide moderation), or subreddit moderators.
As a subreddit moderator, I have used automoderator to “shadow ban” accounts engaged in spam or harassment that I believed were likely to create new accounts to circumvent regular bans. I’m sure some moderators in some subreddits have done the same to get rid of people they disagree with.
Unfortunately, when I got shadow banned, I wasn’t told who did it or why it happened. I responded frequently to askreddit questions and never said anything aggressive or offensive.
I imagine you can figure out whether you are banned from one subreddit, or the entire site. That will tell you which category of moderator did it.
Entire site.
I think they outsource the sitewide moderation, and much of it is automated, relying on signals like your IP address and the behavior of your web browser (assuming you were using it on the web). It’s more likely their bot thought you’re a bot than a human didn’t like your opinions.
Then why wasn’t it corrected after months and dozens of submitted appeals?
I suspect the appeals are also largely handled by an automated process. It’s the same kind of experience people have when they get banned from Facebook or Youtube.