r/ModSupport • u/fnovd • 5h ago
Admin Replied Why is “Reddit” approving posts it (and Automod) already blocked?
We had a post (correctly) removed by Automod and even flagged by Reddit as coming from a banned domain. The post stayed removed for a few hours. However, according to the logs, a few hours later “Reddit” approved the post, followed by a deluge of user reports.
How does something like this happen? I’ll add a screenshot in the comments. It makes no sense.
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u/CrazyCatLady108 4h ago
from what i remember reading: if reddit bans an account for spam it removes all the content from the account. then if account appeals successfully all the content is reinstated. which makes sense. it becomes an issue when the reinstated content does not go through automod again.
every once in a while i will find a thread that is 3 months old and still active even though it should have been removed from such an account. automod didn't see it and mods did not note it because it popped into existance on page 30.
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u/baseballlover723 3h ago
every once in a while i will find a thread that is 3 months old and still active even though it should have been removed from such an account. automod didn't see it and mods did not note it because it popped into existance on page 30.
I am pretty sure this only occurs when someone posts something while shadowbanned. So the posts they make are automatically removed by reddit first, and thus, don't make it to automod. And then when they successfully appeal, then the only removal action is the shadowban removal, which is the thing that got overturned, and thus there is no longer a reason to have it be removed.
These cases should probably be reseeded back through automod. Though I imagine there are technical complexities that make it more difficult, and hence why this is not actually the case.
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u/rupertalderson 5h ago
I just want to note that the content was porn. Our automations to prevent this content from becoming visible to the community worked flawlessly. Then Reddit approved the content, overriding our automations. And then many users got exposed to the content before it was re-flagged for our attention by the community.
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 4h ago
What? Your users don’t like “surprise porn”?
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u/rupertalderson 3h ago
If that’s what Reddit is about, then I’d like u/spez to say that on the record haha
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u/fnovd 5h ago
Here’s the mod log. Why on earth would this happen??
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u/PossibleCrit Reddit Admin: Community 4h ago
Hey fnovd!
I'm having a bit of trouble finding this specific piece of content based on the screenshot you provided here. Can you write in via r/ModSupport mail with a link and we can take a look at what's going on.
The
unban-allshould indeed skip things if they've already been removed by your team so want to be sure there isn't a bug here.9
u/eatmyasserole 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 5h ago
I always have just assumed that the user appeals the action.
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u/ShyBearGames 5h ago
That was going to be my guess.
Reddit removed it simultaneously with automod, for a variety of different reasons at that.
If they appealed one of the reasons and had it approved, it's possible the system erroneously reinstated it despite the other removal reasons already in place.
Which, while I can understand how that would happen, I can't imagine that's how it's intended to function
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u/rupertalderson 4h ago
This relates in a way to the ongoing issue, still unresolved, where Reddit notifies users that they’ve received a reply to their post/comment before automod is triggered.
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u/PossibleCrit Reddit Admin: Community 4h ago
While I don't have an update right now rupertalderson I know that teams were working to fix this issue.
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u/FFS_IsThisNameTaken2 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 2h ago
Ugh, that's when the one who receives the notification sometimes makes a comment insulting the other user for deleting their own comment and occasionally tosses in the slang for a female body part. Always such a joy :|
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 5h ago
If you go into the actual modlog in your mod tools, is there any additional information?
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u/fnovd 4h ago
The desktop mod log shows exactly what you see here. The comment was removed for several reasons, and then 6 hours later u/reddit approved it. No reason given. It was a telegram link.
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u/thepottsy 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 4h ago
Gotcha. Admin tattler has been detecting some approvals by u/pe-service-account that mods of subs would NOT have allowed, so I was wondering if you were seeing that.
My theory is that it’s a shadowbanned user, who got all their content removed, and it was blindly restored.
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u/eatmyasserole 💡Top 25% Helper 💡 4h ago
I am very disappointed that your theory conflicts with my theory. Unacceptable.
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u/TheOpusCroakus Reddit Admin: Community 4h ago
Hi. I'm not sure what sub, so if you want to PM me with some deets, I'll take a look.
But based on the kind of content, it's likely that the account was hacked and the owner regained control. So if something was initially removed by Reddit, I could see where it would be visible when the account was back in the correct hands. But if your team removed something, that shouldn't affect a hacked situation.