Why are subreddits going private/pinning protest posts?—Protests against anti-vaxxing subreddits.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/pek9e6/why_are_subreddits_going_privatepinning_protest/

created by Werner__Herzog on 30/08/2021 at 15:23 UTC*

2715 upvotes, 28 top-level comments (showing 25)

UPDATE: r/nonewnormal has been banned.

 

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/redditsecurity/comments/pfyqqn/covid_denialism_and_policy_clarifications/

 

There is a second wave of subreddits protests against anti-vaxx sentiment .

 

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/N8theGr8/comments/pelle1/subs_going_dark/

 

3: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/pbf3rn/megathread_why_have_so_many_subs_gone_private_or/

Several large subreddits have either gone private today or pinned a crosspost to this post in /r/vaxxhappened[4]. This is protesting the existence of covid-skeptic/anti-vaxx subs on Reddit, such as /r/NoNewNormal.

4: https://www.reddit.com/r/vaxxhappened/comments/pbe8nj/we_call_upon_reddit_to_take_action_against_the/

More information can be found here[5], along with a list of subs participating.

5: https://www.reddit.com/r/vaxxhappened/comments/pbe8nj/we_call_upon_reddit_to_take_action_against_the/

Information will be added to this post as the situation develops. **Join the Discord[6] for more discussion on the matter.

6: https://discord.gg/zah2Vdp

**UPDATE:** This has been picked up by news outlets,[7], including Forbes[8].

7: https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-page-calls-on-site-to-combat-covid-19-disinformation-2021-8

8: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/08/25/reddit-moderators-demand-the-platform-take-action-against-covid-disinformation/

**UPDATE:** /u/Spez has made a post in /r/announcements responding to the protest, saying that they will continue to allow subs like /r/nonewnormal, and that they will "continue to use our quarantine tool to link to authoritative sources and warn people they may encounter unsound advice."

**UPDATE**: The /r/Vaxxhappened mods have posted a response to Spez's post[9].

9: https://www.reddit.com/r/vaxxhappened/comments/pcb67h/response_to_yesterdays_admin_post/

Comments

Comment by AutoModerator at 30/08/2021 at 15:23 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Friendly reminder that all **top level** comments must:

1. be unbiased,

2. attempt to answer the question, and

3. start with "answer:" (or "question:" if you have an on-topic follow up question to ask)

Please review Rule 4 and this post before making a top level comment:

http://redd.it/b1hct4/

Join the OOTL Discord for further discussion: https://discord.gg/ejDF4mdjnh

1: /message/compose/?to=/r/OutOfTheLoop

Comment by CleanItUpJannys at 30/08/2021 at 15:41 UTC

413 upvotes, 11 direct replies

Question: what subs have gone private?

Comment by AMWJ at 30/08/2021 at 17:58 UTC

313 upvotes, 9 direct replies

Question: What's the intended end of this blackout? I understand that nobody's bound to any plans, and that all this is fluid, but I guess I'm just wondering about the intended plan right now.

Are the subreddits that have gone dark intending to wait until action is taken? Or are they only committing to staying dark for a certain period of time? Does Spez saying "No." again cause everyone to come out of protest again, or are they all committing to blackout until real change is promised?

Comment by CraftZ49 at 30/08/2021 at 22:11 UTC

214 upvotes, 5 direct replies

Question: Why are the powermods who are organizing this not privatizing the much larger subs they moderate in? Why a bunch of relatively no-name subreddits that nobody would really care if they are gone?

Comment by [deleted] at 30/08/2021 at 19:38 UTC

133 upvotes, 2 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by Zeta42 at 02/09/2021 at 08:36 UTC

10 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Question: I recall protesting subs also banned users who participated in NNN, but said they would unban them if they promised to stop posting there. Now that NNN is gone, what will happen to those users? Will they stay banned?

Comment by Xenostera at 31/08/2021 at 01:30 UTC*

109 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Question: why should i care really what power mods want? They definitely have a lot of horrible people in their ranks with terrible secrets. Why should I want to help someone who's already set up auto ban bors to kick people out who even comment on NNN? I really could not care less what a bunch of snarky power tripping mods with nothing else to do in life think.

Comment by [deleted] at 31/08/2021 at 06:05 UTC

48 upvotes, 3 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by [deleted] at 31/08/2021 at 18:38 UTC

15 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by kkycble at 31/08/2021 at 13:20 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Question: so r/covidiots is one of them right?

Comment by [deleted] at 31/08/2021 at 04:26 UTC

45 upvotes, 3 direct replies

[removed]

Comment by ryumaruborike at 01/09/2021 at 22:09 UTC

7 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Answer: Update: r/NoNewNormal has been banned[1] Looks like brigading Subreddit Drama, OOTL and Technology to spam about Jannies backfired.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal

Comment by ng_executor at 30/08/2021 at 17:37 UTC

85 upvotes, 4 direct replies

answer: i really don't see this working. caving to the janitors would mean that they know they have reddit by the balls and can get them to ban anything they dislike - you can bet if this worked, conservative and other "hate subs" would be next. in the end reddit would be effectively surrendering.

by saying that they'll stay closed until they get what they want, not just a temporary blackout like before, they're kinda forcing reddit's hand to remove them as mods. they can't give in to their demands, and they can't let subs stay private forever. hopefully this means no more powermods (maybe)

Comment by faramir_maggot at 30/08/2021 at 19:21 UTC

52 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Question: Wasn't the first time enough?

Question 2: Does anyone believe that the powermods getting another go at flexing their power give a rat's ass about vaccine misinformation?

Comment by 1lluminist at 01/09/2021 at 15:36 UTC

9 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Question: I have to ask if this is really the smartest thing to do... essentially shutting down subs giving decent information and letting the disinformation subs have full reign of the site? Seems a bit backwards. Doesn't this also give them the sense that they have the power to shut down other subs?

Comment by [deleted] at 31/08/2021 at 00:12 UTC*

43 upvotes, 5 direct replies

[removed]

Comment by Kodiak01 at 31/08/2021 at 11:50 UTC

12 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Answer: They are under the false impression that having the digital equivalent of a temper tantrum is actually going to make Reddit change it's policies and stances. In reality, all it did was allow a bunch of secondary subreddits to temporarily filter to the top of everyone's feeds.

Keep in mind that the majority of the participating "masses" are all actually controlled by a very small group of mods. They "shut everything down" to give the illusion of having more people care about their quixotic endeavor than actually do; Astroturfing at it's finest.

The only way anything would actually change is if people left Reddit en-masse; this is not going to happen of course as it would mean those same "powerful mods" losing their tiny thrones.

Comment by Donkey__Balls at 31/08/2021 at 06:44 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Question: What are the chances that, this time around, the OOTL mods will actually allow a real dialogue to continue without locking the thread?

You know, you guys don’t NEED to close things down the minute people start disagreeing with each other. I know it feels like you’re under pressure to control everything but, maybe just do that you can’t and if you can’t respond to every report within a few minutes just, you know, let it go?

Comment by Choobywooby at 31/08/2021 at 06:44 UTC

11 upvotes, 0 direct replies

answer: biggest online virtue signal of all time

Comment by [deleted] at 30/08/2021 at 17:09 UTC

55 upvotes, 11 direct replies

Answer:

(From a mod of one of the participating subs)

Our subreddits are closed until the Reddit administration removes /r/NoNewNormal and other vaccine misinformation subreddits from Reddit. We cannot remain open and also keep our consciences clear.

Message the moderators of the subreddits you frequent and ask that they make their subreddits private as well. Tell the Reddit administration to remove /r/NoNewNormal and other COVID vaccine misinformation from their website: https://www.reddit.com/report

See https://redd.it/pbe8nj[1] for more information.

1: https://redd.it/pbe8nj

Comment by LiamoBe at 31/08/2021 at 13:43 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Question: What subs has gone private?

Comment by OpalCerulean at 01/09/2021 at 13:35 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Question: why do people get upset when you ask what's going on or create new subreddits? (Sorry if it's a dumb question I'm still confused about this whole thing)

Comment by TheRatatatPat at 31/08/2021 at 10:21 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Answer: there's a big push to trying and stop the flow of misinformation on this site. Particularly with the antivax community. I myself was banned from the PokemonGo sub because they said I posted vax misinformation. The problem is that I'm very pro Vax, my entire family is vaccinated, and I have no idea wtf they were referring to. I tried to contact the mods but didnt get an answer. Talk about fascism.

Comment by Freddi0 at 31/08/2021 at 07:50 UTC*

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Answer: r/DankMemesFromSite19 and r/dndmemes have also gone private

Comment by [deleted] at 31/08/2021 at 05:34 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Question: Why is this up now, when everything mentioned here happened a week ago?