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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Halaku

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.

Fair enough.

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.

So this is a way of making sure that advertisers don't find their products displayed on racist subreddits, "alternative truth" hoax subreddits, or other such 'unsavory' corners of Reddit?

Does the "Won't appear on r/popular" also apply to r/all?

landoflobsters [OP]

Yes -- it does apply to r/all.

seriouslyFUCKthatdud

Seems odd they don't come in searches though.

You mean, searches for words in the content? Or literally searching for the name?

Like if I firmly believe that the polish built the Nazi south pole base where aids was invented, and I searched for that I couldn't find it? Even if the sub name was /r/southpolenazismadeaids and I searched those words, I wouldn't see it?

Or just, if u searched for info on aids, you wouldn't get it popping up?

[deleted]

Dude, you cant even Google these subs. Try searching ''r/watchpeopledie reddit" on Google. It wont be there.
Its fucking scary how quickly this happened.

seriouslyFUCKthatdud

Well I'm torn to be honest.

I mean, now you can still find a link like you posted, so the search has to find it

So for instance, do the words still show up in search? Could this comment be in google, with the link?

[deleted]

No. Only reddit results are threads on r/outofloop and r/wpdtalk TALKING about r/watchpeopeldie but r/watchpeopledie is nowhere to be seen.
I guess reddit modified robots.txt or some other shit, to effectively make sub dissapear.

seriouslyFUCKthatdud

Yeah that's my point though, you can still search for people talking about it. So it's not hard to find, but you can't accidentally stumble on it.

It's a decent middle ground.

If a sub like /r/conspiracy started to dox or threaten or violate rules, I would support this quarantine, but if it's just presenting alternative theories or they fix their violations, I'd expect it not to be quarantined.

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seriouslyFUCKthatdud

But people can find that sub because you linked it, and that comment appears on searches.

People kinda forget reddit is a private company and can do anything they want.....

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Alexdadank

So do you want nazis to have a voice

anothdae

yes, I believe in the first admendment.

I believe that the solution to bad ideas are to openly debate and refute them, not try and ban them, ineffectively.

do you believe that books should be banned?

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Kwahn

Is there some sort of opt-in /r/trueall option? I enjoy gawking at cesspools sometimes.

ketosoy
[deleted]

The word 'all' does not mean 'all' anymore, we make our own definitions!

Should rebrand to r/some

[deleted]

Call it /r/unlimited since that's what unlimited means now. Thanks Verizon.

undercooked_lasagna

That's exactly what /r/news is. It isn't actually news, it's stories that are approved by extremely biased moderators.

TheWorstNL
Dont_Think_So
bullseyed723

Funny how reddit is whining about "alternatives" while doing this.

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Damn-hell-ass-king

u/landoflobsters I, too, would like an opt in for all.

Let me, as a discerning adult make the decisions on what is okay and not okay for me.

I don't need a nanny to curate for me.

I've been called a nigger/fag/spic/beaner (every single possible derogatory term for a Mexican) since I was a literal child.

I can handle this shit. Let me discover things and navigate the world for myself.

SupSumBeers

I’m with you, I’m a 39 year old male. There isn’t much I haven’t seen or heard. I want to opt in to everything. I’ll decide if I like it or not.

TheJollyLlama875

But were you ever called a big stupid doodoohead poopface?

Steamships
Reported for harassment
TheJollyLlama875

Just because you're a peepeebreath jerkus doesn't mean you have to act like one

Damn-hell-ass-king

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HYPERBOLE_TRAIN

That’s a great idea.

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[deleted]

So this is a way of making sure that advertisers don't find their products displayed on racist subreddits, "alternative truth" hoax subreddits, or other such 'unsavory' corners of Reddit?

Does this mean The_Donald will be quarantined?

EDIT: I love how the admin responded to a Star Wars sub with a meme an hour after I asked the same question regarding The_Donald that was ignored.

[deleted]

Dam they are dodging this thing like cats dodging water

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onlyforthisair

"the floor is addressing the t_d issue"

[deleted]

I WILL NOT YIELD

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[deleted]

They already stopped. The admin only answered the last question and ignored the others in the first post.

unbitious

At least we know this isn't a battle of wits.

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lasagnaman

I just lost the game :|

DoctuhD

Dammit, way to ruin my win streak of 10 years.

nota90skid

Has anyone tried to track this shit down yet man? Ontario reporting here as having lost the game

JustaNormalLAlurker

Holy shit I just lost. Also 10 year win streak.

Also, the most popular game on the internet at one time but many redditors are likely under the age of 21 and have no clue what were talking about

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Blazerboy65

Provided you can side shuffle a sleeved pile of 240 cards in 3 minutes unassisted.

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JayInslee2020

I'll answer this for them: No, it won't be quarantined because they're getting handsome kickbacks for letting it continue to exist. If you want a "shocking" or "offensive" subreddit to stop being quarantined out of "fairness", open your checkbook; they'll likely listen.

Northsidebill1

Quarantined communities generate no revenue

Not a chance in hell, brother. Not a chance in hell.

[deleted]

Yup. That sentence is probably still accurate about the subs in question before they're quarantined as well. Not making revenue. No harm quarantining one that's already worthless!

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[deleted]

I showed you my comment please respond

ZorglubDK

Encourages or incites violence

Threatens, harasses, or bullies or encourages others to do so

Is personal and confidential information

^ as per how frequent those three rules are broken, they should be...but nothing but silence from the admins about t_d

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*edit:* Sources (going with journalists instead of reddit posts, of which there are plenty calling out their rule breaking though):

  1. fivethirtyeight.com/features/dissecting-trumps-most-rabid-online-following/
    \"r/The_Donald has repeatedly been accused of offering a safe harbor where racists and white nationalists can congregate and express their views, much the same way that Trump’s campaign is said to have mobilized and emboldened those same groups. And indeed, r/The_Donald is home to some pretty vile comment threads."\
  2. motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53d5xb/what-is-rthedonald-donald-trump-subreddit
    \" The moderators of the_donald have a long history of banning people who overtly break "rule three," which is the community's "no racism" rule, but allow codedracism that has long been used by white nationalists."
    "February 10, the day after the New Hampshire primary (Trump's first victory), the subreddit had ballooned to 10,000 subscribers. That was when the subreddit started becoming a place where Islamophobia was not only tolerated, but was cheered on, and the extent of the subreddit's "no racism" rule, which replaced "no bigotry" in February, was explained.
    A moderator told users to stop reporting instances of Islamophobia, indicating that the subreddit was a safe place for people who hate Muslims: "Jesus Christ people, stop reporting Islamophobia. We don't fucking care about our 'Islamophobia problem' AT ALL!""\
  3. medium.com/@pst3k/r-the-donald-has-a-worse-record-than-most-of-the-fascist-flavored-subreddits-that-have-been
    \"/r/the_donald has a worse record than most of the fascist-flavored subreddits that have been quarantined or banned. They have participated in vote manipulation, brigading other subreddits, and doxing"\
  4. bustle.com/p/trump-supporters-have-a-database-of-anti-trumpers-personal-information-report
    \"Supporters of President Trump have created and circulated a document with the names and addresses of anti-Trump activists, some of which were culled from public petitions. According to BuzzFeed, the document was posted in a pro-Trump chat room on Saturday night before being taken down, and contained contact information for thousands of people.
    The database of names reportedly surfaced on the Discord server Centipede Central. Discord is a Slack-like chat service, and Centipede Central is basically a chat room on Discord created by members of the the /r/The_Donald subreddit. It appears to have been crowdsourced, as it contains detailed instructions for finding the home addresses, phone numbers, and employment information of those who oppose Trump."\
[deleted]

Someone summarized their response earlier with a link to crickets. It was 👌

[deleted]

Admins are pussies

StrangeDrivenAxMan

You spelt capitalist whores wrong

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ObnoxiousOldBastard

Ayup. Just as when people point out that T_D needs to be banned.

TudorPotatoe

Ayup

MY HEAD DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A SODDING TIC - TAC

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[deleted]

paging /u/landoflobsters - I'd really love a reply as to whether The_Donald is currently being evaluated for quarantine or not.

shadus

The answer is- not until after trump is no longer in office.

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DrewsephA

TD generates a huge amount of advertising money, of course they won't cut off that revenue stream.

maybesaydie

What are you talking about? There are no ads on T_D. They enjoy an ad free experience. Nice reward for hosting content that advertisers would disapprove of.

DrewsephA

They buy a huge amount of gold, as well.

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DrewsephA

His responses have since been deleted by the mods. Wonder why...

Because his responses then contradict his responses now, and we can't have contradicting responses, let alone in his fan club sub.

OhhhNoose

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

[deleted]

Is it archived anywhere? Ceddit isn’t fetching the removed comments.

jal0pee1

It was actually pretty difficult to find this archive.

edit: just a heads up, it's boring. someone made a table with all the answers he gave, I think it was 10-15 total.

youarean1di0t

FYI - archive.is domain has been hijacked for anyone using Cloud Flare DNS (1.1.1.1)

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roguevirus

E2: HAHAHA they're restored now lmao. What a fucking dumpster that place is...

I can only imagine you'll be brigaded to death in the coming weeks.

Lone_K

Death threats are numbing, all of it is shallow with little conviction. Anyone who makes death threats is bordering to the point of unstable and can nary last in social situations without being set off. It's grossly pathetic.

FreeSpeechWarrior

They appear to have restored these responses and the posts.

I looked into this, verified everything was removed (it was) and reported it at r/subredditcancer

But now everything is back.

r/The_Donald are still just as censor happy as the reddit admins if not worse.

frothface

TFW censored and banned from T_d and flagged by masstagger a t_d user..

critically_damped

They literally ban dissent. Makes me happy every time someone from there bitches about SENSORCHIPS

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jamesgiard

His 12 answers received 40 gildings...because... You know... He needs it?

I'll tell you what, that is one "millennial" thing I cannot understand, I'm not donating to Ninja, I'm not helping a Jenner become a billionaire, why would you give a rich person money that you earned!? They have money!

mdgraller

Do you have an addon that changes Trump to Chucklefuck? Cuz it's fucking up your facebook link lol

PM_Me_Melted_Faces

I have an add-on that changes Trump's tweets to kid's crayon scrawlings. It's entertaining every single time.

C4ptainR3dbeard

I had a professor one time who had a Chrome extension that changed 'cloud' to 'butt' and 'the cloud' to 'my butt' because he was sick of it becoming a tech buzzword or something.

We didn't know about it until he googled something about the Equifax breach during a lecture and 'Buttflare' was the second result.

1RedOne

Lol buttflare, that's hilarious

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[deleted]

Lol. I had some dumb fuck moron from T_D arguing that that sub didn't buy gold, because it didn't want to support the liberal Reddit bias.

They really are a bunch of delusional fucking retards.

dissenter_the_dragon

For the most part, they're disenfranchised young people that finally have a community to belong to. A community based on positivity, unity, exclusion and 'truth'. I can see the appeal. It's a draw for the self-righteous. Vindication is addictive. For people that feel smarter than their peers, and ostracized because of it, TD is a paradise. It's a garbage sub, a trash community with a ridiculous 'culture', but I get why people flock there.

xiphoniii

Not sure I've ever seen someone refer to that sub as a place of "positivity"...

JamesNinelives

Positive towards themselves/each other I suppose.

xiphoniii

Ah, I suppose. My only interaction with that group has been pure toxicity and nastiness towards anyone that disagrees with them, so I wasn't thinking that way.

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[deleted]

Positivity used in the same sense as Values is used at KKK meetings.

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hasharin

Peter Thiel invests in Reddit so it will never be banned.

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dabneckarb

So r/all isn't all?

heroicraptor
[deleted]

/r/all has never been all. Subreddits can opt-out of appearing there.

dabneckarb

True, but there's a difference between electing to be a private sub and being hidden from the public by the admins.

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FreeSpeechWarrior

I think all censorship should be deplored. My position is that bits are not a bug – that we should create communications technologies that allow people to send whatever they like to each other. And when people put their thumbs on the scale and try to say what can and can’t be sent, we should fight back – both politically through protest and technologically through software


Both the government and private companies can censor stuff. But private companies are a little bit scarier. They have no constitution to answer to. They’re not elected. They have no constituents or voters. All of the protections we’ve built up to protect against government tyranny don’t exist for corporate tyranny.

Is the internet going to stay free? Are private companies going to censor [the] websites I visit, or charge more to visit certain websites? Is the government going to force us to not visit certain websites? And when I visit these websites, are they going to constrain what I can say, to only let me say certain types of things, or steer me to certain types of pages? All of those are battles that we’ve won so far, and we’ve been very lucky to win them. But we could quite easily lose, so we need to stay vigilant.

— Aaron Swartz (co-founder of Reddit)

SpezForgotSwartz

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian have entirely forgotten about Aaron Swartz. They were bad friends.

FreeSpeechWarrior

There is no need to make things personal.

I only quoted Swartz here because my government took his voice away for trying to do the right thing.

I miss his influence on the site and wider internet culture greatly and I can't help but think the internet as a whole would be vastly different if his light was not prematurely snuffed out by the State.

r/aaronswartz https://youtube.com/watch?v=gpvcc9C8SbM&t=23

He would be ashamed to have contributed at all to what reddit has become.

The "all censorship should be deplored quote" in my parent comment comes from this interview: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-05-07-n78.html

With a followup question:

But most technology makers today seem to go a different route. They compromise, and they might defend this compromise by saying it will bring greater freedom in the long run. What do you say to this argument?


How is compromising supposed to bring greater freedom in the long run? That’s like saying “I’m going to beat you up now so that you don’t have to be hit as much in the long run.” The right answer is to stop beating people up.

SpezForgotSwartz

There is no need to make things personal.

It'd be one thing if they never agreed with Swartz's vision, but they clearly indicated to him that they did. And now they've completely shit over his memory. They should feel bad.

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[deleted]
[deleted]

So r/politics generates no revenue? Or is only certain racism a problem for Reddit

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