Reddit briefly banned dozens of subreddits with out warning on Wednesday attributable to a “bug” that affected scores of NSFW communities on the location. Redditors have been instructed the subreddits have been banned for being “unmoderated” despite the fact that many have been closely moderated, in keeping with quite a few posts from confused moderators.
Engadget counted greater than 90 subreddits that appear to have been caught up within the “unmoderated” ban. The overwhelming majority of those have now been restored after going offline for a couple of hours Wednesday morning. In a publish in r/ModSupport, a Reddit admin blamed the widespread bans on a bug. “There was a bug with one among our instruments that induced some subreddits to be banned incorrectly,” they wrote. “We’re actively engaged on a repair and lots of of your communities are already again up and working. We recognize that you’re already busy moderating in your communities, and we’ll do our greatest to stop this from occurring once more.”
A Reddit spokesperson instructed Engadget the difficulty was a "bug associated to how we detect unmoderated communities" however didn't present particulars or verify what number of subreddits have been affected. Nevertheless it seems the bug was widespread throughout the location. It affected scores of subreddits adopted by hundreds of thousands of individuals.
The banned subreddits included a number of the hottest NSFW communities, together with r/porn (3.9 million members), r/rule34 (3.6 million), r/boobs (2.5 million) and r/NSFW_gifs (2.1 million). It additionally affected some subreddits associated to medication, together with r/medication, r/cocaine and r/NarcoClips. Some subreddits that aren’t tagged as NSFW however permit NSFW content material, like r/transgender_surgeries and r/cubancigars, have been additionally caught up within the ban.
The character of the affected subreddits has alarmed some customers and moderators who fear the corporate could also be preparing for an even bigger crackdown. In r/transgender_surgeries, the place customers talk about their medical care, members started to debate methods to “again up” the content material of the subreddit. "The reason given to us in r/modsupport is missing for my part, and I used to be a bit livid and disenchanted that there was no communication to us," a moderator for r/rule34 instructed Engadget. "Thus far, we have now no ready contingency in case this occurs one other time, however we’re at the moment discovering a strategy to construct one, with assist of different mods in and outdoors this subreddit."
Elsewhere, involved customers identified that is the second time in six months that Reddit has mistakenly banned standard NSFW subreddits for supposedly being unmoderated. Redditors complained about comparable bans final 12 months. “Our subreddit automation was a bit overzealous,” a Reddit admin mentioned on the time. They added to the months-old thread right this moment, saying that the latest bans are “totally different from what occurred earlier than,” however didn’t elaborate.
Have a tip about Reddit or different info to share? Get in contact by electronic mail at karissa.bell [at] engadget.com or message securely on Sign at karissabe.51.
Replace, February 5, 2025, 8:25 Pm ET: Added extra feedback from a Reddit moderator.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-blames-bug-after-banning-more-than-90-nsfw-subreddits-221908069.html?src=rss
