Reddit blames 'bug' after banning more than 90 NSFW subreddits

Reddit briefly banned dozens of subreddits without warning on Wednesday due to a “bug” that affected scores of NSFW communities on the site. Redditors were told the subreddits were banned for being “unmoderated” even though many were heavily moderated, according to numerous posts from confused moderators. 

Engadget counted more than 90 subreddits that seem to have been caught up in the “unmoderated” ban. The vast majority of these have now been restored after going offline for a few hours Wednesday morning. In a post in r/ModSupport, a Reddit admin blamed the widespread bans on a bug. “There was a bug with one of our tools that caused some subreddits to be banned incorrectly,” they wrote. “We are actively working on a fix and many of your communities are already back up and running. We appreciate that you are already busy moderating in your communities, and we will do our best to prevent this from happening again.”

A Reddit spokesperson told Engadget the issue was a "bug related to how we detect unmoderated communities" but didn't provide details or confirm how many subreddits were affected. But it appears the bug was widespread across the site. It affected scores of subreddits followed by millions of people.

The banned subreddits included some of the most popular NSFW communities, including r/porn (3.9 million members), r/rule34 (3.6 million), r/boobs (2.5 million) and r/NSFW_gifs (2.1 million). It also affected some subreddits related to drugs, including r/drugs, r/cocaine and r/NarcoClips. Some subreddits that aren’t tagged as NSFW but allow NSFW content, like r/transgender_surgeries and r/cubancigars, were also caught up in the ban.

The nature of the affected subreddits has alarmed some users and moderators who worry the company may be getting ready for a bigger crackdown. In r/transgender_surgeries, where users discuss their medical care, members began to discuss ways to “back up” the content of the subreddit. Elsewhere, concerned users pointed out this is the second time in six months that Reddit has mistakenly banned popular NSFW subreddits for supposedly being unmoderated. Redditors complained about similar bans last year.

“Our subreddit automation was a bit overzealous,” a Reddit admin said at the time. They added to the months-old thread today, saying that the recent bans are “different from what happened before,” but didn’t elaborate.

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