this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
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Privacy

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I know Reddit now has a stupid rule or policy about new accounts posting or commenting. They punish new users for just trying to have a conversation. Why does Reddit hate privacy? Is it just in the system trying to filter out bots? Well, it is doing a shitty job since bots are still a high percentage there. Reddit banned me, even when I was on the new user friendly subs. I tried with multiple locations with a VPN too. This has to make people go to other platforms. Like I did, I moved here.

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[–] Trilogic@lemmy.ml 70 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Who gives a shit about reddit, everything owned by a corporate is a propaganda machine with one goal only, dictating the narrative. Thats called dictature. #selfhosting #privacy #fuckdictature #fuckreddit

[–] green_goglin@thelemmy.club 9 points 2 months ago

I give a shit about poisoning all the LLM models scraping Reddit and in doing so undermining all the traffic measurements pandered to Wall St. every quarter.

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[–] Sexy-Animal-Fucker@thebrainbin.org 37 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What's worse is the number of actual bots that get through easily and unpunished while they shadow ban anyone with a VPN

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Punishing human users and rewarding the bots. How tragic...

[–] TheVoiceOfRaison@thelemmy.club 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The majority of traffic on reddit is bots. Its scary that its getting harder to tell. They're probably sticking AI chat bots in there too.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I assume over 50% of users on there are bots.

[–] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I received notice of replies to some posts of mine of FOUR years ago. I assume bots scraping the barrel.

[–] BlueOysterCultist@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago

I had a guy reply to my 8 year old post once, seemed legit

Sometimes people revive ghost threads from google searches.

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[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

well NOW they are probably just straight up banning you for ban evasion so that's more motive to ban someone than they even usually care to have.

same vibe as arresting someone for resisting arrest

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

The IP and email are totally different on each account set up. I tested it. All cookies are removed before. There would be no way they could tell, I say. But, they can tell that I am using a VPN.

[–] green_goglin@thelemmy.club 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

MAC address or unique fingerprint from the initial banned account when it was first registered has to be the constant here.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, I am realizing that too. A side note, no way I would use apps like that on my actual phone. Using the cell towers, they can find out right where you are, I'm guessing.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Your phone, display size, apps installed, language, android build version etc etc make your anonynouse device unique when they query the browser.

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[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There would be no way they could tell, I say.

You would be wrong

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

Of course, you say this and don't explain why I would be wrong. That is a very Reddit like response. Say I am wrong and then don't explain why. I even tried different browsers. It is because of the VPN. That's why all the banning.

[–] considine@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Also I use temp emails. That could also be why. Wow, can people actually be private online now? I am scared for the future. Have you ever seen that movie "The Enemy Of The State" (1998)?

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Nah, their fingerprinting goes deeper.

Luckily, I don't hate to type it out!

https://chameleonmode.com/reddit-fingerprinting-detection-9-device-signals-that-burn-accounts/

It's possible to get around, but then you hate to be completely passive and not change anything in how you got it done, because even just switching to a different but new device triggers a check by their automation, and it usually just bans.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

So, there is no use in even trying Reddit anymore. Imagine how Edward Snowden feels. Always scared of getting his exact location found out. Thanks for the info.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I take it a sufficiently determined individual can bypass enough of redoit's BS to get in.

You should choose wisely how to allocate your energies.

In this case, do you really want to lend your energy to an outfit that so actively disrespects your preferences? Think about what you are encouraging in your own world.

Even if you could get back on there, is it a good thing FOR You in the long run? Of course you could scratch the itch, but do you lose more than you gain over the long term?

Beyond just the personal energy budgeting, it also seems like we want a tech solution to a political problem. If we are to have a true tech public square, it seems very wrong to allow an unelected and unaccountable entity to own that square. So under no circumstance should you be banned from any public speech forum simply for speech (save maybe for making credible and actionable bodily threats). That's a political guarantee that has to be enforced by a democratically accountable government. No single company can own and make admin decisions for the digital public square. That's a political demand. Obviously that's not how thing work today. But this may give you some ideas of what you may want to push for so that in the future you can avoid what happened to you recently.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For information about fingerprinting techniques there's this site:

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

It has been around for a few years so there are almost certainly other techniques it doesn't mention.

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[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago

corpos are virulently, malignantly predatory and untrustworthy. remember when a music label got sued for literally installing malware on the computers anyone played their discs in?

i suspect they're doing some other shady shit to track you. wonder if it'll still do that if you go to a public library and install it there.

my job uses a vpn too, although i don't know why; for some reason my reported dirtspace location as far as network stuff goes is like 300 miles away from me >.> but for some reason i ain't blocked or banned despite an old account of mine catching a permanent suspension

killing that account was kind of an impulsive act... and i have two other accounts that were both registered from drastically different places, and on different machines. so, i dunno, maybe these are all contributing factors to just not having any traceable meta-data that could establish a pattern sufficient for their automated systems.

[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Browsers are dead easy to fingerprint.

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[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe take a hint and stop using that platform. It'll be a lot better for your health.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

This is true, it is so toxic. Most of the time you can't even tell if you are replying to a bot or not.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 20 points 2 months ago

this is called 'preaching to the choir'. though cathartic, its not really productive for discussion.

no on here cares, because reddit

[–] SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Using a VPN makes it difficult to categorise the user. You're obfuscating the data they want to mine and on sell. As such, your account is deemed "suspicious" (aka same profile as "bad actors") and gets banned.

It's all algorithmic theatre. The rules are intentionally opaque. Pay it no mind; it's not about you, it's about them. Their algo is coarse and binary.

Tldr: you made it too hard to sell your data (you're the product). Fuck reddit. Speed its death by taking the good stuff elsewhere.

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Privacy is too hard to monetize so they actively avoid privacy.

[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Personally use redlib if i need to open reddit, works like a charm + no account needed.

[–] nfreak@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Deleted my account months ago and spun up my own redlib instance behind a VPN container. Definitely one of the best decisions I've made in a long time.

I did make a new account since but it's literally just for trying to trade items in a game, I explicitly don't use it to browse or comment on any thread but my own.

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[–] omodasonya2@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It’s pretty much my first time creating a Reddit account. I posted a question about a camera, and it immediately ran into issues—deleted, probably. The subreddit moderators privately messaged me saying it was likely auto-removed by Reddit's system, and they mentioned they could manually approve and restore it. In the end, my post finally went live, but after that incident, my account was shadowbanned, and now it's permanent. I have absolutely no idea why.

I created my second account about a few months later. I commented normally, but as soon as I made a post, I got shadowbanned. About half a year later, I created a third account, and the exact same thing happened: commenting was fine, but the moment I posted something, I was instantly shadowbanned.

A few months after that, I made a fourth account. I managed to keep it going for 5 days, built up my interaction to around 14x karma, and decided to try commenting in a SaaS subreddit. Boom. I couldn't see my comment anywhere, and I knew what that meant. At that point, I hadn't seen the red server error message yet, so I tried posting in another casual, friendly subreddit. Right then and there, I got hit with a shadowban. The next morning, I created a brand new account; the very first comment I sent out resulted in a shadowban in less than 60 seconds.

I once read a post where someone mentioned:

Old account left inactive for a long time, reactivated just to comment => ban. New account created on a banned device => ban. Randomly commenting out of context => ban. Buying an old account, logging in, and trying to comment => ban.

As for me, I've probably been device-banned.

It's a vicious cycle. They really should just say it bluntly: "New account? Go get 200 karma and make sure it's at least 30 days old, otherwise your account will be banned, which will lead to a device ban!"

Since I started using the internet, I have never seen a system designed in such a bizarre way. It's truly brutal.

As a tech guy, I love discussing AI topics and introducing my own side projects, but dealing with Reddit like this is just tragic. I feel like I have no right to speak just because I don't have enough karma or my account isn't old enough. Then, sitting around waiting for an appeal feels like gambling, with no idea when the results will come. Meanwhile, the chances for a new account are as fragile as sea foam.

I even tried building an app to break Reddit's dominance, but in the end, it went nowhere.

And that's why I'm here, on Lemmy. I'm trying to figure out a way forward, because honestly, things can't go on like this, LOL.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I thought I was going crazy at first, but coming here. People were having the same issues with it. You see all those bot accounts farming for karma but when you post a simple comment, boom! You get banned.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 months ago

Why does reddit hate privacy?

Because their business model is to sell the data you give them and generate on their site.

You are the product.

They do not want bad product.

Yeah dude reddit sucks, we know.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

So stop going to reddit.

[–] 6_Electrons@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Same... Banned my account of nearly 20 years. Still to this day no reason or email why. Then every account I made was banned presumably because I used alias emails on a VPN.

So I find myself here.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Holy shit! 20 years?! I would be so pissed!

[–] slickgoat@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Me too. 14 year account and it never bothered me much because it's like being banned from a dumpster fire.

I'm wondering how driving out users will assist their bottom line? Particularly those of us who were providing content that they can sell. 90% of Reddit accounts are bots and lurkers.

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[–] listless@lemmy.cringecollective.io 6 points 2 months ago (5 children)

it's been a hot minute since ive been on reddit, but iirc shadowbanned means "it appears I can interact, but in fact my posts and comments are silently being hidden from other users"

it looks like you're just straight up being banned.

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[–] robomuffin79@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

It’s a complete shitshow. Been permanently banned three times for commenting on pro Israel subs and calling out the mods for not banning racist comments

[–] KssioAug@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is it a new action from them? I've been reading a lot complaints about it lately.

If they're banning people for using VPN, they've reached a new low. Not that I care though... Reddit is just a shadow of what it once was.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

That is what I have experienced, every new account I sign up with. But noted, I am not perfect and I could be doing something wrong.

[–] roserose56@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago

Should we cry? f**k off reddit. Like I said many months ago, I thought we left reddit to rot, die, but hey, we make posts on lemmy, fediverse about reddit. Feel free to downvote me, like they did on my comment many months ago.

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