u/worstnerd
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Findings of our investigation into claims of manipulation on Reddit (self.RedditSafety)
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Addressing claims of manipulation on Reddit (self.RedditSafety)
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Q4 Safety & Security Report (self.RedditSafety)
worstnerd
worstnerd
Yeah, thats correct, it will be triggered by that exact set of removals
worstnerd
Yes, we know which version of content was reported and voted on and have all of that information (for those of you that think you're being sly by editing your comments...its not sly)
worstnerd
No, because this is targeting users that do this repeatedly in a window of time. Once is a fluke many times is a behavior. Its the behavior we want to address. Otherwise we risk unintentionally impacting voting, which is an important dynamic on the site.
worstnerd
Great callout, we will make sure to check for this before warnings are sent.
worstnerd
Yeah, this would be an unacceptable side effect, which is why we want to monitor this closely and ramp it up thoughtfully
worstnerd
- We focused our investigation first on the subreddits mentioned in recent public claims, however, we continue to investigate more broadly
- We also looked into content removal and found that the mods investigated were not disproportionately removing content from ideological opposites
- We do not have visibility into activity occurring on other platforms.
- We took a look at content related to Israel/Palestine issues in non-Palestine-related subreddits where these mods are present and did not find a significant influx of this content in the subreddits investigated
- We have not ignored this and stated that we are expanding our detection efforts and instituted new bans related submissions of this content
- At this time we do not see this behavior related to the moderators of the subreddits investigated as part of these claims.
- We cannot address the exploitation of other platforms
worstnerd
As noted in the bit you quoted, we're evaluating the role of those bots while also looking into more sophisticated tooling we could offer. Part of that evaluation includes discussions we started last month with our Reddit Mod Council and Reddit Partner Communities. We're learning from mods across the site all the reasons they use them and how effective they seem to be for managing all types of traffic. We’ll share more as we evaluate ways to manage influxes and keep conversations civil.
worstnerd
Keep at it, you can be the worst one day!
worstnerd
We don't have those numbers at hand, though it's worth noting that certain types of violations are always reviewed regardless of whether the user has already been actioned or not. We also will review any reports from within a community when reported by a moderator of that community. We are working on building ways to ease reports from mods within your communities (such as our recent free form text box for mods). Our thinking around this topic is that actioning a user should ideally be corrective, with the goal of them engaging in a healthy way in the future. We are trying to better understand recidivism on the platform and how enforcement actions can affect those rates.
worstnerd
OK, Ill take that back to the team. Thanks
worstnerd
This is the way
We're thinking a lot about report abuse right now. I'll admit that we don't have great solutions yet, but talking to mods has really helped inform my thinking around the problem.
worstnerd
Should we just turn the automated notification off? I agree that it doesn't seem particularly helpful. We can't reply to each spam report (even just from mods) with custom messaging, so should the generic "we received your report blah blah blah" just go away?
worstnerd
Yes please! Spam detection is inherently a signal game. Mod removals tell us a little bit, a report tells us much more.
worstnerd
It sends a signal to us that a user may be spamming the site, which is no change from before.
worstnerd
Not everyone using chat GPT is a spammer, and we’re open to how creators might use these tools to positively express themselves. That said, spammers and manipulators are constantly looking for new approaches, including AI, and we will continue to evolve our techniques for catching them.
worstnerd
Its a movie stunt ad
worstnerd
you should consider upgrading to Hunt3r2
worstnerd
The problem is less about being able to detect them and more about not casting such a wide net that you ban lots of legit accounts. This is where reporting is really helpful, it helps to start to separate the wheat from the chaff as it were, at which point we can refine our detection to be able to recognize the difference.
worstnerd
Yeah, we're working on these bots. They are more and more annoying and in some cases the volume is quite high. In many cases we're catching this, but with the high volume, even the fraction that slip through can be noticeable. Also, if you haven't done so yet, I'd suggest taking a look at the new feature in automod for subreddit karma...that may be helpful.
worstnerd
Thank you! Looking forward to a great 2023!
It will only be for content that is banned for violating our policy. Im intentionally not defining the threshold or timeline. 1. I don't want people attempting to game this somehow. 2. They may change.