Announcing an Update to Our Post-Level Content Tagging

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditSafety/comments/tl71g0/announcing_an_update_to_our_postlevel_content/

created by uselessKnowledgeGuru on 23/03/2022 at 18:38 UTC

190 upvotes, 40 top-level comments (showing 25)

Hi Community!

We’d like to announce an update to the way that we’ll be tagging NSFW posts going forward. Beginning next week, we will be automatically detecting and tagging Reddit posts that contain sexually explicit imagery as NSFW.

To do this, we’ll be using automated tools to detect and tag sexually explicit images. When a user uploads media to Reddit, these tools will automatically analyze the media; if the tools detect that there’s a high likelihood the media is sexually explicit, it will be tagged accordingly when posted. We’ve gone through several rounds of testing and analysis to ensure that our tagging is accurate with two primary goals in mind: 1. protecting users from unintentional experiences; 2. minimizing the incidence of incorrect tagging.

Historically, our tagging of NSFW posts was driven by our community moderators. While this system has largely been effective and we have a lot of trust in our Redditors, mistakes can happen, and we have seen NSFW posts mislabeled and uploaded to SFW communities. Under the old system, when mistakes occurred, mods would have to manually tag posts and escalate requests to admins after the content was reported. Our goal with today’s announcement is to relieve mods and admins of this burden, and ensure that NSFW content is detected and tagged as quickly as possible to avoid any unintentional experiences.

While this new capability marks an exciting milestone, we realize that our work is far from done. We’ll continue to iterate on our sexually explicit tagging with ongoing quality assurance efforts and other improvements. Going forward, we also plan to expand our NSFW tagging to new content types (e.g. video, gifs, etc.) as well as categories (e.g. violent content, mature content, etc.).

While we have a high degree of confidence in the accuracy of our tagging, we know that it won’t be perfect. If you feel that your content has been incorrectly marked as NSFW, you’ll still be able to rely on existing tools and channels to ensure that your content is properly tagged. We hope that this change leads to fewer unintentional experiences on the platform, and overall, a more predictable (i.e. enjoyable) time on Reddit. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or feedback in the comments below. Thank you!

Comments

Comment by byParallax at 23/03/2022 at 18:41 UTC

123 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Any update on the NSFL/NSFW distinction? I'm still not a fan of having to guess if something is gonna be NSFW or someone's head getting cut off.

Comment by GrumpyOldDan at 23/03/2022 at 18:57 UTC*

46 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will there be modlogs created when Reddit tags something as NSFW?

Can we filter modlog to find these? If so, by what? (Reddit specifically, not just the 'mark NSFW' action). I hope it is not under the unfilterable 'Reddit' user which already seems to be a collection of random actions. Ideally create a new label like "NSFW auto-tag" or something.

If it doesn't, or we can't filter them we need this feature ASAP because otherwise we can't feedback how well this is working and flag issues if needed. I ask because recent features have been released without including modlog entries, or if they're there it's vague and we can't filter them (see Talks, and hate content filter).

Is there a way we can tell from both desktop & mobile just by looking at a post if the user flagged as NSFW, or if the automated system did it?

If we disagree with the automated decision can we unmark it as NSFW, or will that get our mods in trouble? Do we just escalate all questions to r/ModSupport?

Comment by IAmMohit at 23/03/2022 at 18:58 UTC*

74 upvotes, 1 direct replies

If you feel that your content has been incorrectly marked as NSFW, *you’ll still be able to rely on existing tools and channels to ensure that your content is properly tagged.*

Very complicated language here. Did you mean to say, we as Mods, can just Un-NSFW the content if it is wrongly tagged by AI? If that's the case, it is most welcome.

Comment by PTAwesome at 23/03/2022 at 20:01 UTC

23 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Can we use Automod to action off these items?

For example if your software marks something as NSFW can we force it back in the ModQueue so we can review it? Or Generate a report?

Comment by Overgrown_fetus1305 at 23/03/2022 at 22:51 UTC

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

What's your method of training your machine learning algorithim to detect context? I could see for example that bikinis (or culture dependent, full nudity) would be totally acceptable if it was say a photo of friends on a beach, while in other cases it's suggestive enough that I'd imagine it earns an NSFW warning. Or take naked classical statues like Michaelangelo's one in Italy- should that be NSFW, and how will you ensure that the machine learning algorithim can distinguish between it and porn? I can think of one interesting edge case as well: medically accurate images of fetuses, which are technically nudity but hopefully not NSFW (indeed, if someone thinks them sexual, they're a pedo and should get help). I don't think we want to be getting tons of false positives; though I'm aware false negatives are also bad.

Comment by BuckRowdy at 23/03/2022 at 22:11 UTC

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will this be logged in the mod log at all?

Comment by [deleted] at 24/03/2022 at 01:50 UTC

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will this apply to all boobs or just female boobs? Or no boobs at all?

Comment by Spriy at 23/03/2022 at 20:45 UTC

5 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Will this tagging be reversible by mods, users, etc.? (say I post something on r/aww, it gets incorrectly tagged. can i untag it? can the mods of the community untag it if i send them a modmail?)

Comment by [deleted] at 24/03/2022 at 08:31 UTC*

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

dependent physical long badge tender narrow fact birds nose squealing `this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev`

Comment by AppleSpicer at 24/03/2022 at 04:11 UTC

5 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Can you add an auto tagger for gore as well, please? So often things are improperly labeled and I see yet another video of someone dying or being horribly injured. When I ask people to tag their stuff it often turns into an argument of “suck it up” and “don’t like it? don’t watch!” Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do. I can’t choose not to watch a snuff or gore clip until it’s too late if it isn’t tagged properly

Comment by MajorParadox at 23/03/2022 at 19:44 UTC

9 upvotes, 2 direct replies

This is a great change. Many times when I browse r/all, I come across untagged NSFW content. And the communities usually don't have a way to report it.

If you detect communities have high levels of unmarked NSFW content, will you automatically set the community to 18+? Or perhaps send the mod team a warning that they need to better moderate the content?

Comment by SpaccAlberi at 23/03/2022 at 22:59 UTC

7 upvotes, 0 direct replies

just please let it not mark 90% of the images as false positives the discord nsfw detector bot already blocks like 3 images out of 10 which is kind of a bother usually that stops the flow of a conversation

Comment by Lenins2ndCat at 24/03/2022 at 05:18 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

This makes sense if it's on par with discord's. Automatically tag stuff and allow moderators to untag stuff. Very simple to deal with modteams that untag stuff they shouldn't be untagging.

QUESTION: Is this AI trained on drawings and animated content or is it likely to fuck up more on those?

Comment by tumultuousness at 23/03/2022 at 20:07 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I've seen some posts on r/help from users that their posts get automatically tagged spoiler, even though they didn't select the tag or type the word "spoiler" in their title/post. In many cases the posts were also nsfw. Is this related to that possible phenomenon?

Comment by Sun_Beams at 23/03/2022 at 21:22 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

u/uselessKnowledgeGuru if we set up an automod rule as a filter for it, will automod trigger when reddit tags it as NSFW?

If it does, pinning a simple NSFW automod filter in here will be a big help for those that don't have one yet. For added protection for subs.

Comment by [deleted] at 24/03/2022 at 00:31 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

THANK YOU! Now my Sub is safe from NSFW Pokégirl Beach art

Comment by Khyta at 24/03/2022 at 06:16 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I'm just curious: How confident are you that it tags not marked NSFW posts correctly? Is it like >95%?

Comment by x0nx at 24/03/2022 at 13:53 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Congratulations, you did something that we actually wanted.

Comment by thecravenone at 24/03/2022 at 18:12 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I'm old enough to remember when Reddit said they were going to centralize all of their announcements onto /r/reddit[1] .

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/t93ec3/this_subreddit_is_closed_for_new_posts_and/

Comment by HappyRuin at 23/03/2022 at 18:54 UTC

-1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Is this in context of the IPO? Thanks.

Comment by LittleMissMay33 at 24/03/2022 at 03:14 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

All good however my posts keep getting automatically tagged as spoiler now. NSFW is fine but why spoiler?

Comment by the_pwd_is_murder at 24/03/2022 at 01:34 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Good plan. Glad to see you taking steps to eradicate disgusting and triggering content. I look forward to the upcoming purge of NSFW communities. They've been a blight on Reddit for too long.

However, I moderate a subreddit that does not even permit swearing let alone NSFW content. Our brand is "safe for parents with small children." I would want to immediately ban any OPs of adult content uncovered by your new system within my community.

I am guessing you will be doing a large archive run to tag everything previously missed and that you aren't being accountable for your actions in modlog because it would be a flood of questionable accuracy. Or you don't want people reverse engineering the detection algo as you tune it in.

*It should all be in modlog anyhow.** We are the ones who have to explain to our users why our family friendly, wholesome community is suddenly sprouting false positive NSFW tags. We need to know when it happens so we can communicate with our people.

You guys need to start being more transparent with us about your actions. You do not get carte blanche to haul off content and people from my subreddit without my awareness. It's bad enough that you promote other communities on my front page.

The mistrust of the Reddit admins at the current time is sky high. You keep doing shady things like removing posts and shadowbanning with no logs left and making it look like mods are the ones to blame. You force any discussions that might make you look bad over to modsupport modmail. Based on what I can see in modsupport about unactioned reports I don't even bother reporting most offenses to the admins anymore. You say you have high confidence in your detection. I have zero confidence. None.

I would in an ideal world want to permaban anyone who trips your new automated filter immediately. This is one of the rare times where I support your intent if not your methods.

But if you don't provide API access and modlog records, I'll have to scrape my own community to make sure that the NSFW tag never appears. It would be humiliating and an insult to my team's watchfulness and skill.

You guys get to save face by sending your screwups to modmail but this will once again make us look like we're incompetent. When your bot screws up it will look like *we* manually approve NSFW content willy nilly when our brand is "safe for parents with small children."

Get this in the modlogs ASAP.

For now I will post an alert to try and prevent the upcoming PR nightmare that this is going to be.

Comment by rbcarter101 at 23/03/2022 at 18:59 UTC

-16 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Who asked for this?

Your reasoning of "moderators made some mistakes" and "some NSFW got on SFW subs" isnt really grounds to employ sweeping changes that change the default for everyone.

But this is Reddit and lord knows you all haven't got enough money from investors.