Revamping the Quarantine Function
While Reddit has had a quarantine function for almost three years now, we have learned in the process. Today, we are updating our quarantining policy to reflect those learnings, including adding an appeals process where none existed before.
On a platform as open and diverse as Reddit, there will sometimes be communities that, while not prohibited by the Content Policy, average redditors may nevertheless find highly offensive or upsetting. In other cases, communities may be dedicated to promoting hoaxes (yes we used that word) that warrant additional scrutiny, as there are some things that are either verifiable or falsifiable and not seriously up for debate (eg, the Holocaust did happen and the number of people who died is well documented). In these circumstances, Reddit administrators may apply a quarantine.
The purpose of quarantining a community is to prevent its content from being accidentally viewed by those who do not knowingly wish to do so, or viewed without appropriate context. We’ve also learned that quarantining a community may have a positive effect on the behavior of its subscribers by publicly signaling that there is a problem. This both forces subscribers to reconsider their behavior and incentivizes moderators to make changes.
Quarantined communities display a warning that requires users to explicitly opt-in to viewing the content (similar to how the NSFW community warning works). Quarantined communities generate no revenue, do not appear in non-subscription-based feeds (eg Popular), and are not included in search or recommendations. Other restrictions, such as limits on community styling, crossposting, the share function, etc. may also be applied. Quarantined subreddits and their subscribers are still fully obliged to abide by Reddit’s Content Policy and remain subject to enforcement measures in cases of violation.
Moderators will be notified via modmail if their community has been placed in quarantine. To be removed from quarantine, subreddit moderators may present an appeal here. The appeal should include a detailed accounting of changes to community moderation practices. (Appropriate changes may vary from community to community and could include techniques such as adding more moderators, creating new rules, employing more aggressive auto-moderation tools, adjusting community styling, etc.) The appeal should also offer evidence of sustained, consistent enforcement of these changes over a period of at least one month, demonstrating meaningful reform of the community.
You can find more detailed information on the quarantine appeal and review process here.
This is another step in how we’re thinking about enforcement on Reddit and how we can best incentivize positive behavior. We’ll continue to review the impact of these techniques and what’s working (or not working), so that we can assess how to continue to evolve our policies. If you have any communities you’d like to report, tell us about it here and we’ll review. Please note that because of the high volume of reports received we can’t individually reply to every message, but a human will review each one.
Edit: Signing off now, thanks for all your questions!
Double edit: typo.
8,668 comments · 62% upvoted · other discussions
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landoflobsters [OP] 1,728 points · Sep 2018
Given the point of quarantine is to reduce exposure to offensive content, we thought that would defeat the purpose (and let’s be real, redditors who want to will make a list anyway). Nevertheless, due to the warning system, if you encounter a quarantined subreddit, you will know it.
justcool393 1,235 points · Sep 2018
For those who are curious, the /r/reclassified subreddit has been finding subreddits that are quarantined for a few years now.
For bot devs, whether a comment is part of a quarantined subreddit can be gotten with the
quarantineattribute.SchroedingersSphere 105 points · Sep 2018
Ahh, so that's what happened to /r/spacedicks. That sub used to be posted in comments everywhere.
Zombait 36 points · Sep 2018
Also, the famous redditor who ran it, /u/i_rape_cats, is no longer with us, so it's become far less visible.
broccolibadass 14 points · Sep 2018
What happened to them?
Kn0thingIsTerrible 23 points · Sep 2018
He manipulated reddit for personal financial gain. But not in a sanctioned manner like native advertising. He ran an actual fraudulent scheme and got caught.
DJDomTom 5 points · Sep 2018
Can you elaborate? Id rather not just... You know... Google his username
Kn0thingIsTerrible 5 points · Sep 2018
There’s not much else to it.
He was put in charge of a few subreddits and activities on the site, and he used it to secretly promote friends and brands for personal profit.
He got caught when he was put in charge of a contest, but gave the prize to his friend.
hasnotheardofcheese 31 points · Sep 2018
Rabies
broccolibadass 27 points · Sep 2018
What actually happened
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Zombait 11 points · Sep 2018
He had difficulties with mental health.
broccolibadass 7 points · Sep 2018
Wait did he die? I thought he just stopped posting here
Zombait 10 points · Sep 2018
Unfortunately.
[deleted] 15 points · Sep 2018
He's raping cats in heaven now
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TudorPotatoe 3 points · Sep 2018
What is spacedicks
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LymelightTO 42 points · Sep 2018
I'm actually not sure the API ever returns
trueto thequarantineattribute, even when a community actually is quarantined, for example with Ice_Poseidon:https://www.reddit.com/api/info.json?id=t5_3aelr
It seems to only ever return
nullorfalse.They've also essentially introduced a breaking change to about.json queries for a community that's quarantined too, because now it'll throw a 403 error:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ice_poseidon/about.json
justcool393 29 points · Sep 2018
You don't have access to that subreddit, and the breakage has always been a side effect of that. It'll work if you opt in, which you can do via the API. The endpoint is undocumented, but it is:
a POST to
/quarantinewith parameterssr(the subreddit name, not the fullname) andacceptset totrue.LymelightTO 9 points · Sep 2018
The problem with breaking that route is that, as far as I can tell, it's the only case insensitive way to query a subreddit by title, and then gather its reddit
nameproperty.If I'm given a new subreddit title/url, that I have no information about, and I'm asked to get it's reddit identifying
name(t5_whatever), and other data associated with it from the API... how do I do that?I'm not that arrogant, so I can totally believe that I may have just been consuming the API in what was an unsupported/technically incorrect manner until now, but is there a single query that gets me that information anymore? Do I have to use a search endpoint, now?
justcool393 6 points · Sep 2018
It is the subreddit name (not the t5 fullname) that you need. The same happens for private subreddits.
You can query the subreddit, look for quarantine or other such properties being null and then opt in and then re query.
LymelightTO 3 points · Sep 2018
The subreddit
nameproperty is that t5_ fullname, though I think it is or has been referred to as all of "id", "name" and "fullname" at various times and points. info.json has it queried as an "id", but the subreddit listing returns it as "name", and I've definitely heard "fullname" before.In any case, good point, I suppose I had overlooked the prior case of possibly private subreddits as well, so I can improve my existing check, and implement that procedure if it discovers it's 403-ed because of a quarantine.
Still worth noting the info.json issue that quarantine never responds
true.
Edit: I should note, I've just discovered that info.json does respond true if the user has explicitly accepted the quarantine, and null if the subreddit is quarantined, but the user has not accepted it.
justcool393 4 points · Sep 2018
That's what I mean by subreddit name in this instance. I mean /r/X without the "/r/," not the API name or what is commonly referred to as the "fullname" (which is the prefix + the base 36 ID).
goatcoat 201 points · Sep 2018
Reddit is a private site, and the owners can do whatever they please with it, regardless of what I think.
That said, I'd have much less of a personal problem with the quarantining system if there were an automatically maintained list of quarantined subreddits that doesn't rely on third parties and questionably effective web crawlers. I want to have some mechanism to discover what's being kept off my feed and to say either "yeah, good riddance" or "maybe this was unfairly classified and I should subscribe."
Fnhatic 22 points · Sep 2018
I would laugh my tits off if a Supreme Court decision came down and reinforced the logic behind Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins and applied it to websites with 'public access' that survive on user content.
FreeSpeechWarrior 6 points · Sep 2018
Good news then:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/15/17468854/jared-taylor-white-nationalist-alt-right-twitter-ban-lawsuit-ruling
Jared Taylor is suing Twitter in California for violation of CA's affirmative free speech rights in privately owned public spaces using Pruneyard as precedent. Do note this is only applicable in California, not general US law.
Gaenya 66 points · Sep 2018
I'm really surprised to see /r/Ice_Poseidon was just quarantined.
It's a toxic community, but not the type I'd consider quarantine-worthy.
PixelBlock 85 points · Sep 2018
It’s going to be interesting figuring out where the line is drawn. Apparently r/FullCommunism is hit too, and that was mostly just low effort satirising LSC last I checked.
h0nest_Bender 103 points · Sep 2018
The line is drawn at the point where it offends advertisers.
Cronus6 65 points · Sep 2018
uBlock Origin ftw.
Seriously, I've not seen an ad on this site in the 10 years I've been here.
AspergusNiger 20 points · Sep 2018
*adnauseum
dont just block it, poison the data they get off the retards as well
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AxolotlsAreDangerous 37 points · Sep 2018
It wasn’t satire, the mods genuinely loved Stalin.
PixelBlock 28 points · Sep 2018
Well it says something when I thought it was supposed to be over the top parody.
AxolotlsAreDangerous 26 points · Sep 2018
That’s probably because a lot of the users were being genuinely ironic, I’ve seen loads of people say “I just unsubbed from r/FC after finding out it’s not all a joke”.
[deleted] 6 points · Sep 2018
If your looking for a unironic leftist meme subreddit that isn't filled with Stalinists check out r/completeanarchy
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cosine83 4 points · Sep 2018
Poe's Law
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hasnotheardofcheese 10 points · Sep 2018
Tankies are completely indistinguishable from parody.
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beearodeewye 20 points · Sep 2018
People don't understand memes, especially memes from niche communities so when those memes hit /r/all people complain & report instead of just filtering the subreddit.
whoeve 15 points · Sep 2018
Oh yeah the Cx crowd is totally just memes, there's nothing else sinister there! Honest!
elbowe21 10 points · Sep 2018
What the Cx crowd? Is it a twitch thing?
I thought it was an emoticon? Like xD
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Spore2012 26 points · Sep 2018
Thats exactly why they dont. They are effecrively trying to censor/ban communities without actually doing so. They are trying to deflect the striesand effect. Which i think is bullshit tbh. Give everything a platform, let nature take its course with it.
odraencoded 18 points · Sep 2018
You might want to check what voat looks like before saying that.
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TastyTacoN1nja 19 points · Sep 2018
Bakeries are private shops too
Chabranigdo 12 points · Sep 2018
That's different though, because reasons.
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goatcoat 6 points · Sep 2018
I'm on the fence about the whole bakeries thing. I wouldn't want to be forced to bake a cake for a KKK meeting, so I'm inclined to support the general principle that bakers should be able to say "no" for whatever reason.
On the other hand, it used to be so bad that a black person couldn't even find a hotel while traveling through the south, and if we relax things too much we might get back to that point.
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essentialfloss 8 points · Sep 2018
Based on that list this charade is bullshit. /r/FULLCOMUNISM got quarantined?
LargeBlackNerd 4 points · Sep 2018
My favorite part about that is the list of ones that are surprisingly not quarantined
iBleeedorange 35 points · Sep 2018
Interesting subreddit, a lot of people defending some of the banned subreddits like the incel one.
[deleted] 83 points · Sep 2018
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[deleted] 28 points · Sep 2018
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-a-y 3 points · Sep 2018
All of the quarantined ones come up as removed or set to private when I try to see them
justcool393 2 points · Sep 2018
are you using the desktop version of reddit? it may be due to your app.
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Speaker4theRest 2 points · Sep 2018
Hey u/iamthatis I assume you know about this. But when I click on a classified sub. I get the spinning circle of death.
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fghjconner 608 points · Sep 2018
I thought the point was to reduce unintentional exposure to offensive content. If you're going to continue to host the content regardless, might as well make a list. Anyone who goes looking through that list will be well aware of what they're in for. All you do by hiding the list is give credence the idea that you're doing this to suppress ideas you disagree with rather than to protect users.
Flamerunner42 91 points · Sep 2018
Especially when all of the quarantined subs are un-viewable
Absolut_Iceland 91 points · Sep 2018
That's the point. Reddit is pro-censorship, can't be exposing the masses to wrongthink now can we?
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Roastie_haiku_bot 23 points · Sep 2018
Anyone can be 'offended' by anything. Adults simply turn the page. Who decides what is 'offensive'?
SSBM_Rosen 4 points · Sep 2018
Generally speaking, people as a collective, as is the case with pretty much any other social phenomenon. Like, your argument could apply to pretty much any aspect of content. E.g., “Anyone can laugh at anything, who decides what is ‘funny’?” “Anyone can be turned on by anything, who decides what is ‘attractive’?” etc. In fact, with some tweaking, it can be used with pretty much all language—“Anyone can call anything a ‘dog,’ who decides what a ‘dog’ is?” What you’re asking is actually something of a fundamental question in semiotics, and could be rephrased something like, “given the endless number of different ways different people can use the same sign, how can we meaningfully talk about what they refer to?”
The basic answer a semiotician might give you would be that although any word could be used by a specific individual for any referent, communities of language users are essentially forced, by the pragmatic requirements of communication, to use any given word in such a way that there will be a fairly consistent resemblance between its referents where there is similarity in the context in which it is used. That is, meaning is determined by use in a bottom-up social process.
This is simplifying things almost to the point of being misleading, but hopefully it gets the idea across of how we form a basis for talking meaningfully about what is ‘funny’ or ‘attractive’ or ‘a dog’ or ‘offensive,’.
Roastie_haiku_bot 3 points · Sep 2018
Why not let the downvotes decide? Isn't that what the original intent of the up-and-downvote system was?
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[deleted] 195 points · Sep 2018
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personnCx 15 points · Sep 2018
Cx :(
Banaszewski 6 points · Sep 2018
F
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[deleted] 14 points · Sep 2018
So much for transparency.
not_a_qult_ifitsreal 277 points · Sep 2018
How many times do TD users need to be shown to be doxxing people, along with other breaches of site wide policies, before you will actually apply the punishment any other Subreddit would get?
Jess_than_three 32 points · Sep 2018
It's never, ever, ever going to happen.
Stalking_Goat 8 points · Sep 2018
Nah, it'll happen about a week after the next president gets inaugurated.
Jess_than_three 8 points · Sep 2018
Always assuming there is a next President.. Bleh.
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FreeSpeechWarrior 235 points · Sep 2018
Can we get an option to bypass this feature entirely?
I don't want yet another gatekeeper sitting between me and the content on reddit.
Your increasing tendency to ban communities and the heavy handed moderation that most communities are subjected to is more than enough.
If the goal is only to reduce exposure for those who wish to avoid it, those who don't care for your censorship should have the option to bypass it entirely.
That means no warning interstitial, no unexpected filtering of "all"
If reddit plans to use quarantines as a softer alternative to bans, that's a good thing. But reddit has just quarantined more communities and banned communities who were previously quarantined so this seems like just another step down the slippery slope reddit used to want to avoid.
[deleted] 62 points · Sep 2018
I would definitely appreciate an opt-in version of /r/all that includes quarantined content. I go to /r/all instead of /r/popular specifically because it isn't curated. Part of /r/popular's purpose is to be a curated version of /r/all that doesn't have porn or other "objectionable" content. If you start curating /r/all it kinda defeats the purpose of having both.
King_Brutus 41 points · Sep 2018
It just seems like a no brainer to give people control over the content they want. Otherwise Reddit is playing nanny and telling people what is and isn't okay for them to consume.
immibis 9 points · Sep 2018
If you're not spezin', you're not livin'. #Save3rdPartyApps
Thengine 4 points · Sep 2018
Yep, can't have advertisers exposed to content that they don't like! Too much money on the line.
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EggChalaza 6 points · Sep 2018
It is a privately owned enterprise though, they are free to do whatever they feel serves the bottom line.
EternallyMiffed 22 points · Sep 2018
You won't get that option. The whole point of quarantined subs for reddit's admins is to attempt to starve "undesirables".
Thengine 6 points · Sep 2018
It's more that advertisers now won't worry about their ads being hosted next to the "undesirables".
All about the $$$
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jason2306 35 points · Sep 2018
Phone can't even display quarantined subs gotta love censoring
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IVIaskerade 14 points · Sep 2018
Nope.
You'll sit there and enjoy the yellow stars reddit is handing out to wrongthinkers.
[deleted] 3 points · Sep 2018
Signed Nolan T Jones
snake1000234 20 points · Sep 2018
This would be amazing.
Set it up like youtube.
Youtube kids for all the people who are to young, who are to delicate, or who are opposed to seeing such topics while having a plain old reddit for people who are adult and can read and think for themselves and not get offended by everything.
FreeSpeechWarrior 10 points · Sep 2018
Yes, if Reddit made all of its heavy handed censorship opt in (or even opt out) I’d be much less opposed to it.
IVIaskerade 3 points · Sep 2018
Reddit Hut Jr
[deleted] 2 points · Oct 2018
It's nearly time to pass the Reddit torch to Facebook escapees and find a new source.
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[deleted] 433 points · Sep 2018
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[deleted] 148 points · Sep 2018
Are you talking about /r/politicalhumor, which was proven to have had more Russian bots than any other sub on this site?
[deleted] 149 points · Sep 2018
People are downvoting this because they don't realize that the admins themselves said /r/politicalhumor was festering with bots at the last transparency report.
MissippiMudPie 25 points · Sep 2018
So I looked through some of the 944 accounts listed in the transparency report until I finally found one that posted something in /r/political humor:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalHumor/comments/3h4460/dobby_is_free_america_run
Other things mentioned in the report: the majority of those 944 banned accounts had 0 upvotes.
Yeah, real smoking gun you've got there...
beearodeewye 63 points · Sep 2018
"Bots only exist in the subreddits I personally don't like though!"
2SP00KY4ME 14 points · Sep 2018
Source?
[deleted] 13 points · Sep 2018
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2SP00KY4ME 13 points · Sep 2018
Okay, just looked. They don't mention PoliticalHumor at all. So, source?
[deleted] 35 points · Sep 2018
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Shadowstein 3 points · Sep 2018
Doin the hard work for lazy redditors like me. Thank you.
2SP00KY4ME 9 points · Sep 2018
There we go! Thank you. Though that is number of posts and not users.
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Gnometard 7 points · Sep 2018
What if the content I find offensive is constantly making it to the front page?
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Farnsworth_The_Dog 22 points · Sep 2018
FYI, that same quarantine just locked out half of the moderators in WPD and the near entirety of the mod crew from satellite subs from accessing the sub via... 3 apps so far. Nice work. Solid thought process, really.
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handsmahoney 6 points · Sep 2018
But if we're being open and diverse, doesn't that sort of make it a moot point if we can't even see a list of what exactly is quarantined?
[deleted] 12 points · Sep 2018
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essentialfloss 3 points · Sep 2018
I have the same question. How do we get mobile access?
[deleted] 3 points · Sep 2018
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randomsandstorm 2 points · Sep 2018
[...]
Best Freudian slip I've seen in a while.
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