Not sure if it’s just me but Reddit has been feeling a bit weird lately.

Seeing more posts about bans, shadowbans, AI stuff popping up, and even some big threads don’t really feel as “normal” or casual as they used to.

Could just be overthinking it or spending too much time here tbh.

Been messing around with a small side project called Hideout that kind of came from that feeling — just trying to make something more low pressure and simple to use, nothing big.

Anyone else noticed this or nah?

The Hideout

Just checked in on the subreddit mentioned in this post. It's still getting bot posts in the same style, which get upvoted accordingly and commented on with the vast majority not noticing or caring that it's slop. Mods still out to lunch.

Likewise, there's now a post on /r/all (seen using old.reddit, the only way to get to it now) at #10 and climbing with the same style but targeting povertyfinance, a bigger sub (one with a pinned message claiming to be a "heavily moderated subreddit"). If you look at the users, you can see the details of how they create a couple comments in random subs until one of those comments get several dozen upvotes, then go for the viral post. All accounts make a move around 8 days after creation. And it's working, no problem.

Two bot profiles that just reached this point for comparison/posterity:

https://imgur.com/a/6bz8XxI

I don't know who Sabrina Carpenter nor do I give a shit. I am interested if rich people's lawyers think they can remove shit on Lemmy.

link to the removed post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1sijtm5/during_coachella_someone_did_a_zaghroot_an_arab/

I just found out reddit sold everything we wrote to AI companies... and honestly I don't know how to feel

I just found out reddit sold everything we wrote to AI companies... and honestly I don't know how to feel

So I was reading about Reddit's API controversy from 2023 and fell down a rabbit hole.

Turns out every post, every comment, every opinion you've shared here - reddit licensed it to openai and google. No opt-out. No warning. Just. - done.

And that's just reddit. Meanwhile Google, Meta, and basically every major platform are quietly building a profile on you — your interests, your political leanings, your daily routine, your insecurities. All from things you said or clicked on "anonymously."

The wild part? We already knew this was happening. It's not new. Yet here we all are, still posting.

So I'm genuinely curious — why do you still use reddit (or big tech in general) knowing this?

Is it because:

• The alternatives (Lemmy- kbin- etc..) just aren't there yet?
• You've accepted it as the price of the internet
• You actually don't think it's that big a deal?
• Or you simply never thought about it until now?

Not judging anyone — I'm still here too. Just want to hear honest answers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/66918676

Reason number 5,386 to delete your Reddit account and encourage your friends & loved ones to do the same.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/44753223

The story of how Reddit became ensnared in an ICE-related grand jury began early last month, when the company received a request to turn over the name, address, phone number, and other data associated with an account belonging to a user identified in court records as John Doe.

The request was what’s known as an administrative summons or administrative subpoena, a powerful legal tool typically associated with serious crimes such as child trafficking. Under Trump, the subpoenas, which do not require judicial approval, have increasingly become a weapon wielded against opponents of the president’s immigration policies.

While it does not disaggregate ICE’s activities from other law enforcement agencies’ requests, Reddit reports that January to June 2025 marked the highest volume of requests the company has ever received in a single reporting period. Sixty-six percent of the 1,179 requests came from agencies in the U.S., including 423 subpoenas and 27 court orders. Reddit disclosed user data in 82 percent of those cases. While most requests concern child safety, the next highest category of data sought by law enforcement agencies falls into what Reddit lists as “other/unknown investigation types.”

In the John Doe case, Reddit received an initial request on March 4 from an ICE agent in Fairfax, Virginia.

“Failure to comply with this summons will render you liable to proceedings in a U.S. District Court to enforce compliance with this summons as well as other sanctions,” the summons read. “You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time. Any such disclosure will impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal law.”

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. (Have to sign in to read the whole article, but you can see the first couple paragraphs.)

Yo everyone, what's good? Lemmy virgin here, just got signed up after being banned on Reddit for my opinions and takes on Israel (lol) hoping here isn't the same.

Question though if anyone can help me. I'd been testing out and using Mirage before this and what I really liked over there was the fact I had to give no personal info when signing up. It seems to be more privacy focused. I had to give my personal email to sign up here on Lemmy. But then I seen someone commenting on a topic on privacy that they didn't? Have I done something wrong?

I much prefer operating on these forums without giving any info about myself, like on Mirage for example. Can anyone advise?

Post is basically the title.

This subreddit is all about a series I quite enjoyed called The Nature of Predators. Or at least the first book . So far I can tell, there really isnt another place to discuss this series other than this subreddit. Over time, people have been making their own fan fiction work (as one does). Some are extremely good, at least I enjoyed it! But they stayed on reddit instead of other platforms to write their stories.

Fast forward to now. Reddit has been shadow-banning peoples accounts. Which makes it next to impossible to read their works. Thankfully some people have been saving some of the works on https://archiveofourown.org/ but its not complete.

Reddit is not a good place for anything you want to keep around. But im preaching to the choir here.

I can't even copy a url without being tracked. When I copy the urls, they get copied with tracking ids, i don't know what they are doing with this data but I think they are creating a mesh table of people, their relatives friends etc. So, I am done, I will delete all the social media in a few weeks, use my phone only with federated apps.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/957372

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2377145

along with the strong censoring that has occurred on reddit throughout the years, they have now removed r/all from the app and while using a desktop/laptop browser. instead of being able to stumble upon new subreddits you never knew existed, it wants to curate what you're allowed to see

cross-posted from: https://lemmus.org/post/21196516

Paul McCartney’s official Reddit account seems to have been banned. The account, u/paulmccartney, had just dropped a set of photos and videos from the first night of his shows at the Fonda Theatre. It went straight into the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit. Then, not long after, the whole thing disappeared.

I refused to believe an "artificial intelligence" could write a realistic post title, but then I saw this series of posts. Now I'm 10 feet tall and can move objects with my mind.

Browser extension for downloading images and videos from Reddit posts. Supports individual downloads and mass downloading with auto-scrolling.

Since most other Options have stopped working, I thought I'd share this extension I came across. Works fine, although not the fastest

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/fediverse/p/1923069/with-reddit-flirting-with-requiring-age-verification-the-next-rexit-might-be-around-the

With previous Rexit's like the API debarcle etc. many users were left looking for an alternative, but with decision fatigue and bad UX etc. most did not find the Fediverse a viable option.

What needs to still improve, how can we be ready this time?

First they came for the new accounts but I did not speak out because I did not have a new account...

Reddit's AI ID age verification might affect the whole website. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman recently said that he is considering having "face ID" to ensure humanity to combat AI bots on the platform. Reddit may soon require AI facial scans and age checks just to use the website. Let me know what you guys think about this situation in the comments below.

Steve Huffman, Reddit's CEO, said that using biometrics is the "most lightweight way" to verify that it's a human.