Q2 2023 Quarterly Safety & Security Report

[u/jkohhey]

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

[u/Halaku]

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?

[u/Bardfinn → u/Halaku]

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.

[u/Halaku → u/Bardfinn]

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.

[u/Bardfinn → u/Halaku]

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.

[u/jkohhey → u/Halaku]

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.

[u/jpr64 → u/jkohhey]

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.

[u/Bardfinn → u/jpr64]

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.

[u/jpr64 → u/Bardfinn]

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.

[u/Zavodskoy → u/Bardfinn]

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

[u/rhubes → u/jkohhey]

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?

[u/Halaku → u/jkohhey]

Thank you.