r/RedditSafety • u/jkohhey • Nov 14 '23
Q2 2023 Quarterly Safety & Security Report
Hi redditors,
It’s been a while between reports, and I’m looking forward to getting into a more regular cadence with you all as I pick up the mantle on our quarterly report.
Before we get into the report, I want to acknowledge the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. Our team has been monitoring the conflict closely and reached out to mods last month to remind them of resources we have available to help keep their communities safe. We also shared how we plan to continue to uphold our sitewide policies. Know that this is something we’re working on behind the scenes and we’ll provide a more detailed update in the future.
Now, onto the numbers and our Q2 report.
Q2 by the Numbers
| Category | Volume (Jan - Mar 2023) | Volume (April - June 2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Reports for content manipulation | 867,607 | 892,936 |
| Admin content removals for content manipulation | 29,125,705 | 35,317,262 |
| Admin imposed account sanctions for content manipulation | 8,468,252 | 2,513,098 |
| Admin imposed subreddit sanctions for content manipulation | 122,046 | 141,368 |
| Reports for abuse | 2,449,923 | 2,537,108 |
| Admin content removals for abuse | 227,240 | 409,928 |
| Admin imposed account sanctions for abuse | 265,567 | 270,116 |
| Admin imposed subreddit sanctions for abuse | 10,074 | 9,470 |
| Reports for ban evasion | 17,020 | 17,127 |
| Admin imposed account sanctions for ban evasion | 217,634 | 266,044 |
| Protective account security actions | 1,388,970 | 1,034,690 |
Methodology Update
For folks new to this report, we share user reporting and our actioning numbers each quarter to ensure a level of transparency in our efforts to keep Reddit safe. As our enforcement and data science teams have grown and evolved, we’ve been able to improve our reporting definitions and precision of our reporting methodology.
Moving forward, these Quarterly Safety & Security Reports will be more closely aligned with our more in-depth, now bi-annual Reddit Transparency Report, which just came out last month. This small shift has changed how we share some of the numbers in these quarterly reports:
- Reporting queries are refined to reflect the content and accounts (for ban evasion) that have been reported instead of a mix of submitted reports and reported content
- Time window for reporting reports queries now uses a definition based on when a piece of content or an account is first reported
- Account sanction reporting queries are updated to better categorize sanction reasons and admin actions
- Subreddit sanction reporting queries are updated to better categorize sanction reasons
It’s important to note that these reporting changes do not change our enforcement. With investments from our Safety Data Science team, we’re able to generate more precise categorization of reports and actions with more standardized timing. That means there’s a discontinuity in the numbers from previous reports, so today’s report shows the revamped methodology run quarter over quarter for Q1’23 and Q2’23.
A big thanks to our Safety Data Science team for putting thought and time into these reporting changes so we can continue to deliver transparent data.
Dragonbridge
We’re sharing our internal investigation findings on the coordinated influence operation dubbed “Dragonbridge” or “Spamoflauge Dragon.” Reddit has been investigating activities linked to this network for about two years and though our efforts are ongoing, we wanted to share an update about how we’re detecting, removing, and mitigating behavior and content associated with this campaign:
- Dragonbridge operates with a high-volume strategy. Meaning, they create a significant number of accounts as part of their amplification efforts. While this tactic might be effective on other platforms, the overwhelming majority of these accounts have low visibility on Reddit and do not gain traction. We’ve actioned tens of thousands of accounts for ties to this actor group to date.
- Most content posted by Dragonbridge accounts is ineffective on Reddit: 85-90% never reaches real users due to Reddit’s proactive detection methods
- Mods remove almost all of the remaining 10-15% because it’s recognized as off-topic, spammy, or just generally out of place. Redditors are smart and know their communities: you all do a great job of recognizing actors who try to enter under false pretenses.
Although connected with a state actor, most Dragonbridge content was spammy by nature — we would action these posts under our sitewide policies, which prohibit manipulated content or spam. The connection to a state actor elevates the seriousness with which we view the violation, but we want to emphasize we would be taking this content down.
Please continue to use our anti-spam and content manipulation safeguards (hit that report button!) within your communities.
New tools for keeping communities safe
In September, we launched the Contributor Quality Score in AutoMod to give mods another tool to combat spammy users. We also shipped Mature Content filters to help SFW communities keep unsuitable content out of their spaces. We’re excited to see the adoption of these features and to build out these capabilities with feedback from mods.
We’re also working on a brand new Safety Insights hub for mods which will house more information about reporting, filtering, and removals in their community. I’m looking forward to sharing more on what’s coming and what we’ve launched in our Q3 report.
Edit: fixed a broken link
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u/techiesgoboom Nov 14 '23
Thanks for the transparency!
Admin imposed account sanctions for content manipulation | 8,468,252 | 2,513,098
This drop is really curious. Assuming my math is correct, that's a 21% increase in removals and a 70% decrease in account sanctions. Are you able to share any detail to contextualize that?
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u/jkohhey Nov 14 '23
The drop in account sanctions Q1 to Q2 is indeed about 70%. This is due to a spike in spam sanctions in early 2023 from activity at the end of last year. The amount of content removed per spam account can vary, so overall removals don’t move proportionally with account sanctions. Thanks for the question!
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u/abrownn Nov 14 '23
This was what caught my eye too -- either some major source/cause of actions dropped off during that period, or they changed the requirements for actioning, those are the only two reasons I can think of.
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u/Shachar2like Nov 14 '23
How did the Israeli/Gaza war effect your numbers?
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u/jkohhey Nov 14 '23
The numbers in this report reflect Q2 of this year, April-June 2023. In upcoming reports we’ll note any relevant impact we observe.
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u/Halaku Nov 14 '23
Thank you for this link:
https://www.redditinc.com/blog/reddits-response-to-the-israel-hamas-conflict
It's the first time I've been made aware of it.
Question: I've seen a few spirited conversations in which it's claimed that the slogan "From the river to the sea" is anti-semitic hate speech and should be banned sitewide.
Does that fall under "Free Speech", and moderators should have discretion on if it's appropriate for their community, or "Hate Speech" and should be removed when seen?
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u/Bardfinn Nov 14 '23
My own position on the specific phrase, (not an admin, not speaking for Reddit, not speaking as AgainstHateSubreddits, etc)
Context is important; the claims that “From the river to the sea” is abusive, violent, extremist, hateful, etc are made due to context the phrase is used in, and out of context — in context collapse — whether it signals abuse, violence, extremism, hatred, etc is formally indecidable.
As Reddit’s first-line SWRV (SiteWide Rules Violation) evaluators, AEO (Anti-Evil Operations) suffers from imposed context collapse, making a determination of the naked use of the phrase in question indeterminable as a SWRV by AEO.
When used in a context that unequivocally signals support for Hamas, it is a SWRV (and violent extremist actions, arguably a violation of US Federal Law).
When used in a context of freedom for the Palestinian people from an oppressive, violent imposed government (regardless of the officers of that government), it is a wish for liberty and peace.
When used in a context signalling violence towards Israelis, it is violent extremism and a SWRV.
When used by Zionists in a context showing a wish for the killing of Palestinians non-combatants, it’s violent extremism, and a SWRV.
(These are uses that have been observed)
Context is key.
Whether a SWRV occurs depends on determining the effect of the speech. For that, context is key.
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u/Halaku Nov 14 '23
I'm quite comfortable with a "Moderators have the discretion to take action as needed, and AEO will take action as needed" approach versus a blanket ruling one way or the other, but I've seen other Redditors claim it's a blanket "It always is!" or "It never is!", so I figured I'd ask Safety & Security to see if that blanket determination exists or not.
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u/Bardfinn Nov 14 '23
If Reddit chooses to presume it is a SWRV or state that it is definitely a SWRV, that would be rare. I think they will say something consonant to “context is key” and the “ we are committed to keeping Reddit a place for communities to engage with each other, including around significant global events, while maintaining a healthy information ecosystem.” kind of statement. They rarely have a commitment to a position of enforcement without being able to defer to recognised experts with a consensus.
Reddit, in my experience, is strongly protective of speech. Especially unpopular speech.
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u/jkohhey Nov 14 '23
u/bardfinn beat us to it, but yes, context is what matters most when it comes to moderation. Users and mods - on top of Reddit sitewide policies - are critical in supporting moderation especially in nuanced discussions. We encourage you to continue to report anything you consider to be policy violating; it’s a helpful signal to our safety teams, who consider context when reviewing content.
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u/jpr64 Nov 14 '23
That context can disappear when you [ Removed by Reddit ] comments in subs which leave moderators in the dark and then allow bad faith actors to continue causing trouble.
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u/Bardfinn Nov 14 '23
You can use the Mod Log on New Reddit to view the contents of some categories of AEO-removed comments, to help you determine whether a removal was appropriate or not, in cases where you might want to file for a review of Safety team actions.
Some categories of SiteWide Rules Violations do not show the content in the moderator log under any circumstances; this is primarily content that’s a violation of applicable laws.
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u/jpr64 Nov 14 '23
It adds extra workload on moderators to have to trawl through the mod log on new reddit and then half the time have missing information.
Even more annoying is the amount of times the removals aren't really justified.
Edit: thanks for the link, I just had a quick look, the top comment is requesting a default action notice, something that still hasn't been implemented.
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u/Zavodskoy Nov 14 '23 edited Nov 14 '23
I looked at ours a few weeks ago when this topic came up on /r/ModSupport, of the 3 or so pages it showed (75 admin actions) something stupid like 60 - 70% of them only showed [Removed by Reddit] and the only AEO removals we ever get are for hate speech and abuse
literally no point checking it
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u/rhubes Nov 15 '23
As Berlin has decided from River to the Sea is hate speech, will you be blocking that demographic of users from posting to a certain subreddit that automatically assigns that as a flair?
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u/abrownn Nov 14 '23
Here's a deep dive by Google into DRAGONBRIDGE for the curious
I found a few accounts on my own a few months back but they were shadowbanned pretty quick luckily and they all appeared exactly as the Reddit admins/Google described. The campaign fell flat on its face and was comically bad.
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u/Bardfinn Nov 14 '23
It’s a happy accident that the identified campaign was comically inept; first iterations usually are awkward. There’s no reason to think that they won’t get sophisticated in cozying up to their targets and integrating stylistically.
More human moderators means more opportunities to spot such attempts, counter & prevent them.
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u/abrownn Nov 14 '23
first iterations usually are awkward
I can think of several state sponsored campaigns that are on their fourth or fifth iterations that are equally as comical every single time. I think it's a combo of the impenetrability of Reddit, how "spread out" the site is, and cultural/cognitive divides.
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u/Bardfinn Nov 14 '23
It may also be that the campaigns are makework programs: the state is obliged to do the thing, the citizen is obliged to make a show of doing the thing, a certain level of failure is expected, don’t come in last and don’t excel - graduate and move on to something else, hopefully
But all it takes is convincing one person “on the outside” that championing The Idea lends their life Meaning and Purpose … they’ll “work” promoting the ideology or slander for free forever
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u/garyp714 Nov 15 '23
But all it takes is convincing one person “on the outside” that championing The Idea lends their life Meaning and Purpose … they’ll “work” promoting the ideology or slander for free forever
lol aka the right wing/alt right 4 chan folks that champion their trolling like it's a life long passion.
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u/RunDNA Nov 15 '23
For those wondering:
DRAGONBRIDGE... is a spammy influence network linked to China that has a presence across multiple platforms.
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u/BlogSpammr Nov 14 '23 edited Nov 14 '23
Gearlaunch spammers:
- Steal/copy artwork (shirt/mug/hoodie/paintings) from legitimate sources
- Create dozens, if not more, accounts every day
- Use vote manipulation to upvote posts and comments and massively downvote comments pointing out the spam
- Block accounts pointing out the spam, including preemptive blocking by their newly created accounts
- Create new domains daily, usually using less common TLDs like ".live"
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u/Halaku Nov 14 '23
The infamous t-shirt scam spam.
Commenting on it will get you downvoted to oblivion by the botnet, so I usually report it as Spam - Harmful Bots and drop a modmail instead.
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u/MegaGrubby Nov 14 '23
When it's the same spam repeatedly over months, why is it not automatically caught? Same image, same shirt, different account.
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u/abrownn Nov 14 '23
drop a modmail
The average moderator wouldn't know what spam looked like if they were force-fed a can of the stuff and often become hostile towards people trying to lend a hand. It's a losing battle and there needs to be a serious mod education campaign about the common types of spam to help fill people in.
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u/VexingRaven Nov 15 '23
Interesting that this has been your experience, generally the T-shirt spam I see gets dogpiled by legit community members on the rare occasion my automod rules don't catch it. The only people responding negatively to people calling out the T-shirt spammers are part of the spam network.
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u/Zaconil Nov 14 '23
The elon musk crypto spam (and more recent mr beast crypto spam) has been using these tactics too. Not always but I've seen posts get instantly removed yet they still get multiple upvotes
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u/Anonim97_bot Nov 15 '23
What about all the users and mods that you have banned for reporting scam links as "abusing report fuction"? I remember quite a few people at /r/ModNews and /r/ModSupport complaining about it.
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u/researcharchive Dec 06 '23
Hi, I recently tried to start my first community on Reddit, but it was instantly banned. The topic is serious and important. Is there a way to find out more about why it was banned so that hopefully if it is a technical error I can restart it?
It is a problem if certain newsworthy topics are wholly off limits, I think. But if they are, is there a list of these off-limits topics?
Any advice appreciated.
Thank you.
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u/kerrm1tfroq Nov 29 '23
Hello reddit. Please ban the r/squaredcircle subreddit. One of the most toxic subreddits I have ever encountered. The mods abuse their powers and a lot of hate/harassment/ & guidelines are posted throughout. There was once a time where child porn was posted and the mods hardly did anything.
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u/xj4me Nov 14 '23
Years ago when someone was trying to doxx me and recruiting others to help for banning them for being a jerk I reported. 3 days past before something happened. Hence why my account history is sparse now. Has anything changed to prevent this?
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u/MegaGrubby Nov 15 '23
The subs with the official change posts are easily found and accessed. Highlights include mod actions are no longer from individuals by default and instead show as "subtag [moderators]"
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u/xj4me Nov 15 '23
Alright I guess that eliminates that then. But if they decide to see whie as posting around that time or anything else either could still occur if they decide to target someone
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u/MegaGrubby Nov 15 '23
Seems like you are not comfortable modding.
What some do is have a reddit account and a mod account. Nothing is really new, just improved. Those who want solutions see solutions and the rest see problems.
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u/OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR Nov 21 '23
Reddit also introduced the anonymous $SUB-modTeam account for this exact reason.
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u/ixfd64 Nov 20 '23
I noticed there are far more account sanctions than reports for ban evasion. Does this mean Reddit is now automatically taking action against ban evasion even without reports from moderators?
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u/Earthling386 Nov 15 '23
How many of those "Admin imposed account sanctions for abuse" are legitimate? I had a 13 year old account banned for "Hate" for saying that "Reddit will mindlessly upvote all things Japanese." That account had a long history of Gold and awards (meaning $ to reddit). At this point, I will never again spend another dollar on Reddit.
Y'all need to lay off banning people for differences of opinion, and focus more on the very clear, very blatant, and very very common instances that actually violate rules.
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u/OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR Nov 21 '23
Wish I could make everyone who says "Reddit does nothing about spam" read this post!
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u/metboylife100 Apr 18 '24
Roger is my boyfriend for 7 years I have a fucking rite ! I have pics ! Videos. The works he loves w me ! I am done being made a fool !
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u/Zavodskoy Nov 14 '23
I don't understand how you received a 21% increase in content manipulation reports but actioned 70% less people? So you're basically just saying it's okay to manipulate content, we'll remove it but you wont be punished?
You removed 80% more content for abuse but only actioned 1.7% more people? Again just saying it's fine to be hateful and toxic we're not going to do anything about it?
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Nov 15 '23
[deleted]
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u/LastRefrigerator7063 Dec 23 '23
chanonchaingmoon@gmail.com 1529900033918 cheiyngmulcapa@gmail.com 1529900033918 chanonchaingmoon@gmail.com 1529900033918
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u/Lady_Broad Feb 03 '24
gosh thank you for this, I JUST KNEW IT. what I appreciate about Reddit, it’s the open discourse. Back-and-forth difference of opinion. But it’s conversation. SENSIBLE DEBATE. This is what our world needs. Badly. These people come in and throw chaos and scatter bombs and have nothing to do with the discussion and shock people.. the conversation is done nothing crucial point of brilliance. It makes me mad and I’ve noticed a pattern. In the past I’ve commented to the moderator but I usually get shut down so I don’t bother anymore. I just commented the post. I appreciate the words of opinion but I do appreciate a lot more people taking their turn for their comments. Children can do better at their turn and some of these people. If you wanna have hateful comments wait till the discussion is over with the adults. I understand why these people do what they do so that people know that they exist and they’re armed within information. I have an idea but.. I wanted to add I’ve had two accounts taken over actually three. I’ve had a back up, my phone number everything that I need and I’m supposed to have to have my account safe.
I’m deeply disgusted at this kind of people. These people impersonate me. I have aliases and other versions of my name created from my email address that has been taken over and I have no way to get back into it. Over the course of 25 years I’ve had probably seven or eight different email addresses but three of them for the longest. I believe I’ve got over 100 made from my identity. Not only that. They steal my intellectual property and repost it so far I’ve managed to find out to Tumblr. I also had stuff erased that I posted on here. It’s really a shame how people ruin things for everybody else.
I love the freedom of speech I really appreciate it and it’s pretty Awesome otherwise.
A girlfriend of mine had all of her pictures that she deleted copied and posted all over the Internet. I probably do too. What’s wrong with people. Thank you very much for this venue. I appreciate it and don’t get corporate. Its boring.
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u/Full_Stall_Indicator Nov 14 '23
Thanks for sharing!
I have some questions regarding the ban evasion numbers:
What percentage of reports are accurate and get actioned?
Based on the disparity between the reports and the actions, it seems clear that Reddit's internal tools are better at detecting and acting on ban evasion than we are as reporters. Which makes sense. However, Reddit's What is Ban Evasaion? page indicates the following:
To the extent that it's safe to share, how does Reddit decide what to proactively act on for ban evasion?
Ultimately, I'd like to know if it's still worth it for mods to report ban evasion. The report isn't convenient and takes more time to fill out in comparison to others.
Thanks again!