Do you mean Steve "spez" Huffman? A paid reddit employee (An Admin)? A volunteer user moderator of the comics subreddit? In any of those cases, the comment is currently visible so... ?
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Censored Content by Reddit Owners / Admins, not moderators
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BLUNT + LOUD & CLEAR: I am not posting these off-Reddit for mockery entertainment + insults of Reddit or myself. I am documenting a pattern of USA media influence I have seen on Reddit.
See this Lemmy post:
founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
The moderators must have released it. I just now got a reply to the comment.
It was the OWNERS, which is more than just Spez. It's the people who write the server-side code, not the moderators.
They do not notify you, they just do not publish even for a single second. they even make it seem falsely that your comment is there, you have to check out-of-band to see that it is not published. The Spam Filters have been weaponized by Russia against Americans on Reddit and many other media platforms.
In fact, I just replied to a reply and IT TOO is not being published.
https://old.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/1k52y62/oc_distraction_tactics/mofcga7/
content:
There will be no balance until a correction is made.
Yes. The entire social media society needs to make a massive change away from junk noise content and educate all people, voters and even those too young to legally vote, on two key topics:
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Mass psychosis, how an entire society becomes mentally sick
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Media ecology, we all need to study the 184 page book and teach each other using front-page postings and Hashtags for at least 6 months. Neil Postmans book "Amusing Ourselves To Death"
“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985
It was the OWNERS, which is more than just Spez. It's the people who write the server-side code, not the moderators.
So the paid reddit employees, the admins.
They do not notify you, they just do not publish even for a single second. they even make it seem falsely that your comment is there, you have to check out-of-band to see that it is not published
Thats literally just what automod does, which is a automated moderator tool. You can be hit by the spam filter of the website (In my experience just for using link shorteners, not much else) but the overwhelming majority of non-batant spam removals are automod rules set up by user moderators.
Without looking behind the curtain I could make guesses as to why those comments were removed (One guess that frequently is the case, a low karma filter, another guess would be some prior shitter had a term they used a lot, so the mods filtered it.), but I couldn't say with certainty.
I've been in social media since the early 1980's. I know how all this works. I used to work for Paul Allen and Bill Gates as a consultant and on Paul Allen's private staff, I'm a published author on media systems and an expert on spam filtering.
Silent removal (or never publishing, even for a single second) is unethical and bad, especially how it manipulates you as creator into appearing as if your comment was published - and you wonder why nobody replies or upvotes. It's manipulative. My Reddit account is over 15 years old, the spam filters have clear patterns of Russian manipulation / weaponized agitation to remove content on important keywords and author names.
I'm not sure why you are here defending Reddit against someone calling it out who clearly knows what the fuck they are talking about. But it's very sus.
I’ve been in social media since the early 1980’s.
Legit question: What social media existed in the early 80's? Usenet? Were you a big name on a dial-in BBS?
I used to work for Paul Allen and Bill Gates as a consultant and on Paul Allen’s private staff, I’m a published author on media systems and an expert on spam filtering.
I was a reddit mod for over a decade. I wrote automod rules for subreddits with several million users and dealt with the reddit spam filters on various occasions. Not to take away from your experiences, but I think I have a pretty good knowledge of this very specific set of systems that we're discussing now.
Silent removal (or never publishing, even for a single second) is unethical and bad, especially how it manipulates you as creator into appearing as if your comment was published - and you wonder why nobody replies or upvotes. It’s manipulative.
Never said it wasn't. The only discussion I'm having with you is whether or not it was the paid reddit employees who removed it or volunteer user moderators, and I'm inclined to think its the latter based on the fact that it was later approved and visible. A user moderator wouldn't be able to override the admins removing it, or rather wouldn't even try because the admins would then take action against that user moderator. My personal inclination is that your post got filtered by automod and later approved by a user moderator. Admittedly it could also have somehow fallen into an actual spam filter, but that tends to be much rarer, especially for an account with some karma and age. I suppose it could also be that billmoyers.com is on reddit.com spam filter, you could check that by posting with a alt in a subreddit you mod and see what happens.
My Reddit account is over 15 years old
Mine was too until reddit banned it during the API protest.
I’m not sure why you are here defending Reddit against someone calling it out who clearly knows what the fuck they are talking about.
I'm not defending reddit. I'm pointing out that you're assigning blame to the reddit admins when it's not definitively them doing something.
But it’s very sus.
vOv If you think it's that suspicious by all means block or ban me. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
vOv If you think it’s that suspicious by all means block or ban me. I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
I don't support book burning, blocking content I disagree with. That's nazi Germany shit. You know they didn't have the Apple iPhone and Unicode text in 1935 Germany? They had to burn actual books and magazines printed on paper. Many people seem to invite book burning and say "bring it on", I don't.
I’m pointing out that you’re assigning blame to the reddit admins when it’s not definitively them doing something.
Automated systems they don't publish the rues on topic is their responsibility. Why do you keep deflecting for them? This is not a human judgement, this is code server-side at time of publication.
A user moderator wouldn’t be able to override the admins removing it
I am in NO WAY saying a human "admin" or "owner" removed it by hand. It is INSTANT, under 1/4 second that I can see it never gets into the comment queue, it is server-side filtered, I'm talking about who programs the server-side code and allows a system of spam filtering and automod that does not publish the rules. They - THE CODE AUTHORS and SITE OWNERS - FORBID topics on front-page communities that in no way are hostile to anything but Russia's information warfare ("Internet Research Agency") and Cambridge Analytica topics.
I filed bug report after bug report that whenever I posted a specific link to the BBC, it would get filtered off: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45294192
Why was this August 24, 2018 story being unpublished by Reddit servers on ANY community during the 2020 / 2021 pandemic?
99% of the Reddit community doesn't even realize their comments don't get published. I go through people's profiles and see many are unpublished and they never comment about it. You can see them ONLY in the profile page. The keywords and patterns are rather predictable in some circumstances, so I can often predict which ones to spot-check.
I'm not talking about hate-messages or attacking other users here, I'm talking about certain topics of Donald Trump, Russian / Kremlin information warfare, etc. Even specific USA teachers (from the 1990's) I have found about media ecology and "War Against Reality" topics (Russian information warfare methods). And Reddit is NOT the only systems to have these targeted patterns of suppressing certain teachers / educators / books when mentioned with identifiable keywords.
you could check that by posting with a alt in a subreddit you mod and see what happens.
I already do, it is only on front-page postings that they have a different set of filter rules in place. I've been analyzing this problem since 2015 when I contacted the Pentagon specifically about Reddit infiltration by someone waging Hybrid Warfare / state-level sophistication. "I reported it in 2015 under Biden/Obama! At the time, I did not know it was Russia attacking social media, but I knew it was hard core Joseph Campbell / Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller level Mythology, and I reported it! I was BOOTS on the Ground in North Africa Arab Spring, December 2010. I know my shit!"
Automated systems they don’t publish the rues on topic is their responsibility. Why do you keep deflecting for them? This is not a human judgement, this is code server-side at time of publication.
The automoderator bot was integrated into the website years ago, so yeah, it's going to be instantaneous. The rules for automoderator are still put in place by volunteer human moderators. You mod a couple subreddits, you can verify that you can put in rules yourself on the automoderator config page for any of them.
I am in NO WAY saying a human “admin” or “owner” removed it by hand. It is INSTANT, under 1/4 second that I can see it never gets into the comment queue, it is server-side filtered, I’m talking about who programs the server-side code and allows a system of spam filtering and automod that does not publish the rules.
Refer to previous comment. Also, publishing automod or spam filters just tells potential bad actors they've been found out, leading to them adjusting accordingly. Personally I'd set automod to notify folks on some things (Usually just not having enough karma), but not, say, slurs. To wit: here's the regex we used just to catch variations of the n-bomb in several subreddits- n[i!j1e]+gg?(rs?|ett?e?s?|lets?|ress?e?s?|r[a0oe]s?|[ie@ao0!]rs?|r[o0]ids?|ab[o0]s?|erest)
99% of the Reddit community doesn’t even realize their comments don’t get published. I go through people’s profiles and see many are unpublished and they never comment about it. You can see them ONLY in the profile page. The keywords and patterns are rather predictable in some circumstances, so I can often predict which ones to spot-check.
A lot of communities use automod. A lot of stuff can get false flagged by automod configs depending on how anal retentive or bad at doing it the writer of the individual config is. Scunthorpe and all that.
The rules for automoderator are still put in place by volunteer human moderators. You mod a couple subreddits, you can verify that you can put in rules yourself on the automoderator config page for any of them.
I KNOW ALL THIS. You keep deflecting the OWNERS of the site, as if they are not responsible for what goes on with secret manipulation of content!
A lot of stuff can get false flagged
Yha, which is why I have been tracking the problem since 2015! It isn't accidental on certain topics. You seem extremely gullible or here to promote gullibility among social media users. You should see the changes since October 7, 2023 Palestine terrorism attack in the Middle East! (Which is also Putin's birthday). Massive filtering is being done on topics and it is being done in secret, concealed from both the author of the comments and other consumers (there is no message that a comment was removed, no tombstone appears), and nobody is talking about it. People on Reddit only talk about being banned, not for this NEVER-PUBLISHED server-side filtering of topics.
I suggest you face up to your attitude if you aren't outright being insincere just to waste my time.
Mastadon Hashtag "Gullible USA": https://mastodon.social/tags/GullibleUSA
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"Michael Tomasky. April 21, 2025. Fooled Again Who Were Those Gullible People Who Believed Donald Trump’s Bullshit? His campaign promises, from peace in Ukraine to “beautiful” tariffs, were truly unbelievable. And yet, somehow, many people believed him." - https://newrepublic.com/article/194176/donald-trump-voters-gullible-lies-ukraine-tariffs
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October 19, 2024 - "America's gullibility crisis. by Zachary Basu. In the heat of this historic election, educated elites who should know better — billionaires, elected officials, journalists — keep falling for fakes, conspiracy theories and outright lies. Why it matters: Human gullibility is not a new phenomenon. But social media and polarized politics are exposing it at industrial scale" - https://www.axios.com/2024/10/19/musk-ackman-election-misinformation
::: _________________
“The first tool of authoritarian regimes is always informational control—both in the gathering of information on the public through surveillance and the filtration of information to the public through owned media. In its early days, the Internet seemed to pose a challenge to authoritarian regimes, but with the advent of social media, we are watching the construction of architectures that fulfill the needs of every authoritarian regime: surveillance and information control. Authoritarian movements are possible only when the general public becomes habituated to—and numbed by—a new normal.”
― Christopher Wylie, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, published 2019
I KNOW ALL THIS. You keep deflecting the OWNERS of the site, as if they are not responsible for what goes on with secret manipulation of content!
If you know this then why did you say, "This is not a human judgement, this is code server-side at time of publication.", and "It is INSTANT, under 1/4 second that I can see it never gets into the comment queue, it is server-side filtered"? Both of those would imply that you did not know that automod was a native part of the site used by the volunteer moderators of the site. Automod configs are not set up by the admins of reddit. Moderators of subreddits can use those automod configs as they please so long as they don't violate site rules.
Yha, which is why I have been tracking the problem since 2015! It isn’t accidental on certain topics. You seem extremely gullible or here to promote gullibility among social media users.
Pointing out that automod both exists and a user created config is the likely reason your comment was removed from the comics subreddit (Which itself probably goes harder on political commentary because the mods there likely don't want to have to deal with said commentary.) isn't promoting gullibility.
I suggest you face up to your attitude if you aren’t outright being insincere just to waste my time.
I suggest you stop spending time on reddit. spez isn't going to change. All you're doing going there now is enriching him with all of your content that he's going to sell for AI bucks.
https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/reddit-is-reportedly-selling-data-for-ai-training/
Automod configs are not set up by the admins of reddit.
You continue to act like a public relations agent for Reddit owners who deflects all responsibility of their website. "The Buck Never Stops with the Owners Here". As if they are not supposed to police and validate the website and see if they have been infiltrated by FSB moderators and other nation-state actors.... or Elon Musk or whoever.
I suggest you stop spending time on reddit. spez isn’t going to change.
If I wanted to change spez and was only concerned about a single person, I'd be messaging him directly. You seem to be doing everything you can to deflect that the topic is a matter of media ecology education for the entire world of 8 billion people. !MediaEcology@lemm.ee I teach here on Lemmy.
isn’t promoting gullibility.
I think you are gullible about gullibility being widespread in USA and needing attention.
You continue to act like a public relations agent for Reddit owners who deflects all responsibility of their website. “The Buck Never Stops with the Owners Here”. As if they are not supposed to police and validate the website and see if they have been infiltrated by FSB moderators and other nation-state actors.
You continue to act like the reddit admins are secretly targeting you when you bring up psi-ops in the comics subreddit, when in reality the solution is likely a lot simpler... but doesn't let you feel like someone important.
As for what the admins are supposed to do, the fact that the only reason they banned the jailbait subreddit was media outcry should tell you everything you need to know about their moral compass.
If I wanted to change spez and was only concerned about a single person, I’d be messaging him directly.
And you'd be ignored at best or have your account suspended at worst.
You seem to be doing everything you can to deflect that the topic is a matter of media ecology education for the entire world of 8 billion people
Its not deflecting if I am not discussing it in the slightest and made it clear several comments ago what I very specifically AM discussing, which is that your commentary was very likely not removed by a paid employee of reddit (As I previously stated: "The only discussion I’m having with you is whether or not it was the paid reddit employees who removed it or volunteer user moderators"). I will continue to discuss that, and only that, if you'd like to save yourself a fair amount of typing.
You continue to act like the reddit admins are secretly targeting you
Nope, it's systemic on front-page topics. I already mentioned I check other profiles of other users, but you keep defecting responsibility away from those making profit off the site.
You have consumed a lot of my time and attention defending Reddit owners for profiting off manipulating their end-users.
doesn’t let you feel like someone important.
You sound very ego driven in your concerns for the population of the world, the everyday people. My concern is 8 billion people on the planet as I said to you in my last reply. !MediaEcology@lemm.ee literacy of every person.
which is that your commentary was very likely not removed by a paid employee of reddit
I have said this again and again, it was not hand removed. The owners have a responsibility to know if they have been infiltrated by hostile parties. It sounds to me like you could use !RemedialMorality@lemm.ee lessons on what "good" means from bad, a lot of machine lovers in 2025 seem to defend machines and computer systems that wreck human purposes. Where I live, the United States of America, where Reddit is centered, we in April 2025 are having a Mass Dehumanization Crisis right now, lead by Elon Musk / his Memphis data-center values.
::: _________________
"Darth Vader has not developed his own humanity. He’s a robot. He’s a bureaucrat, living not in terms of himself but in terms of an imposed system. This is the threat to our lives that we all face today. Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes? How do you relate to the system so that you are not compulsively serving it?" - Skywalker Ranch California, summer of 1987, Joseph Campbell at age 83
Nope, it’s systemic on front-page topics. I already mentioned I check other profiles of other users, but you keep defecting responsibility away from those making profit off the site.
Because you've provided zero evidence that it's the admins of the site doing it and not merely automod configs made by users.
You have consumed a lot of my time and attention defending Reddit owners for profiting off manipulating their end-users.
You have consumed a lot of my time and attention by replying to my comments with assumptions of grand conspiracy theories that are easily and simply explained.
I have said this again and again, it was not hand removed.
Do you actually not know what Automod does? It seems like you don't. Like, it REALLY seems like you don't. Here is its documentation. Note that it can automatically remove comments and submissions, if the individual who sets up its config chooses to do so.
https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/wiki/automoderator/full-documentation
The owners have a responsibility to know if they have been infiltrated by hostile parties.
The admins of reddit do not give a shit what's going on with the site so long as they're making money and the news isn't reporting them negatively. You've been on the site long enough that you should already know that. You were definitely around for beatingwomen, the_donald, fatpeoplehate, the various incel subs, the chimpire, and creepshots, if the existence and allowed growth of all of those (Before each finally got banned, for most, after something big happened outside reddit.) didn't convince you, then I don't know what to tell you.
It sounds to me like you could use !RemedialMorality@lemm.ee lessons on what “good” means from bad
It sounds to me like you could a bag of dicks to eat with this condescending bullshit for a nice dip. Pointing out that that your comments very likely weren't removed by the admins of reddit, but by a bot hosted on reddit and programmed by user moderators isn't a reflection of morality, but your reaction to immediately start to attempt to insult me or call me a shill or whatever definitely reflects the very sad bubble you've placed yourself in.
You're pathetic.
Because you’ve provided zero evidence that it’s the admins of the site doing it and not merely automod configs made by users.
There is no distinction to me. It's automated by the creators of the server-side software. Just because they allow front-page topics to be infiltrated by hostile agents doesn't free them of responsibility. Especially how they (the profiting owners) have programmed their site code to allow silent manipulative removal of content without notifying the author. I keep saying this to you, but you seem to have no comprehension of ethics or morality with the public / end-users.
End-users are not educated on media ecology, the owners have the money to study media ecology and mass mind psychology.
You’re pathetic.
Again, your active measures against someone taking on the owners of Reddit, Kremlin information warfare, the Donald Trump White House, Elon Musk xAI / Twitter values society, etc.
like you could a bag of dicks to eat
Hate-values. You really need to study morality and learn goodness from bad. All hate is bad. You dehumanize people you disagree with and promote mass dehumanization via Reddit cloud computing systems.
your reaction to immediately start to attempt to insult me or call me a shill or whatever definitely reflects the very sad bubble you’ve placed yourself in.
I didn't put me in the egomania bubble called the United States of America in April 2025. It is very sick and very sad. I'm trying to rescue people from this nightmare, as nothing has been able to stop people going more and more into fiction meme patterns in their mind, the 5,000 alternate reality screen games created by Russia and deployed on Reddit March 2013 onward.
Your mission of consuming my time to defend the owners of Reddit is accomplished. You sure want to "Stand Up For the Big Guys" who profit off an entire Internet population stuck in Eternal September level of understanding of media ecology.
::: _____________
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995