Reddit hat 90+ Subreddits "versehentlich" gesperrt, doch einige machen sich Sorgen.

Yesterday, Reddit banned over 90 subreddits, later restoring them and blaming the incident on a mistake. However, some moderators are concerned about what this step could mean for the future.

The banned subreddits were all those that allowed adult content (NSFW), but while this is generally considered adult entertainment, it also includes communities as diverse as r/cubancigars and r/transgender_surgeries …

All the banned subreddits had moderators, but were shut down due to alleged lack of moderation. Engadget reported that there were more than 90 newly listed subreddits in r/BannedSubs.

Reddit stated that it was a mistake caused by overzealous automated systems designed to remove unmoderated NSFW communities.

Thank you all for reporting the issue regarding the banning of subreddits "due to lack of moderation." There was a bug in one of our tools that caused some subreddits to be incorrectly banned. We are actively working on a solution and many of your communities are already back online.

But some question this and wonder what it says about Reddit's plans for NSFW subreddits.

So it was reversed? Okay, fine.

Where is the report on Remote Code Execution (RCE) or the incident, and will there be a public version?

2: What functionality was implemented that caused this bug?

It seems like this only affected sub-content marked as NSFW. Is that correct, or were there wider implications we are unaware of?

If such a significant change was going to go live, why wasn't it announced?

Was the implemented functionality designed in any way to further restrict or limit access to NSFW marked subreddits? If so, why?"

Others pointed out that this wasn't the first time exactly the same thing happened, and spoke of emergency plans.

"The explanation given to us on r/modsupport is, in my opinion, inadequate, and I was pretty angry and disappointed that there was no communication with us," a moderator from r/rule34 told Engadget. "So far, we haven't had an emergency plan in place for if this happens again, but we are currently working on creating one, with the help of other moderators within and outside this subreddit."

But some Reddit users said that it was completely understandable if the company automatically banned unmoderated and abandoned subreddits, as these are often taken over by spammers, scammers, and people who post CSAM.

Image: Screenshot on background by Pawel Czerwinski from Unsplash