Reddit Bans Impersonation On Its Platform

Reddit has updated its policies to no longer allow impersonation of an individual or entity in a misleading or deceptive manner. "That means the new policies won't just affect things like misleadingly altered videos (like deepfakes), but could implicate simple lies made by people impersonating others online," reports The Verge. From the report: The new policies expand upon the platform's 2018 ban on deepfake porn videos and were made just days after Facebook updated its own platform policies to ban deepfake videos. Here are Reddit's updated policies: "Reddit does not allow content that impersonates individuals or entities in a misleading or deceptive manner. This not only includes using a Reddit account to impersonate someone, but also encompasses things such as domains that mimic others, as well as deepfakes or other manipulated content presented to mislead, or falsely attributed to an individual or entity. While we permit satire and parody, we will always take into account the context of any particular content."

In the announcement post about the updated policies, a Reddit admin said that Reddit updated the rules to "hedge against things that we haven't seen much of to date, but could see in the future." (Reddit says impersonation was the second-lowest "class" of reported policy violation on Reddit in 2018, making up only 2.3 percent of reports.) The admin also cited malicious deepfakes of politicians as an example of content the platform is trying to prevent. The updated policies seem to imply that any kind of misleading impersonation, deepfake or not, could trigger a removal or ban. The new policies do allow impersonation that's seen as satire and parody, however, which could be a hard line to enforce.

Re:I can only wish

[Arthur, KBE]

Greetings... I'm Arthur, King and Knight of the British Empire, and a technical support agent for Windows. Please good Sir, can you confirm you computer is running? Can you please go to your control panel, Sir?

Re:

[That Ordinary Guy]

Ah, that's sounds like a relief for us here the in the US. At least we aren't the only ones experiencing such a phenomenon.

Re: I can only wish

[DonkeyG5]

Please good Sir, can you confirm you computer is running?

Yes, itâ(TM)s been running since the day I tried to install Windows 10 on it. Are you going to help me catching it?

Re:

[Arthur, KBE]

Good Sir, Please extend thy cupholder in order to receive my finest chalice of meade.

Re:

[rudy_wayne]

Does your nose run?

Do your feet smell?

You're upside down!

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[stealth_finger]

Please good Sir, can you confirm you computer is running?

Yes, it's been running since the day I tried to install Windows 10 on it. Are you going to help me catching it?

It's not running, you've got two empty halves of coconuts and your banging them together.

Re:

[stealth_finger]

Pull the other one.

Re:

[Z00L00K]

My control panel is located in the basement, and the computer is in another building.

King of Britian?

[rsilvergun]

Watery tarts handing out swords is no way to form a system of government.

I'm Batman!

[MrKaos]

I'm Spartacus!

Re:

[antdude]

/me stands. "No, I'm Spartacus."

r/redditsucksanyway

[stealth_finger]

stealth_finger . 18097points . some time ago

reddit is a site for chumps. change my mind

Reply Give Award Share Report Save

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Its mostly full of leftists and those needing more social justice. Trolling there is so easy.

Re:

[alvinrod]

Doesn’t it also have a really huge Trump community as well? Like any social media, the whiniest group will appear disproportionately larger than they actually are, but there’re probably a lot of other groups on reddit, including many that have nothing to do with politics or social justice that go unnoticed because they’re not screaming about anything.

Re:

[middlemen]

That is correct. The subreddits for car culture are much less volatile. The properly moderated communities are nice to be around for information. However, there are definitely terrible people in all communities, whether reddit, slashdot or hacker news etc. These people have nothing better to do but troll and hence give informative forums a bad name. Everything is not 4chan and does not need "alternative" viewpoints.

Re:

[LenKagetsu]

TwoXChromosomes cunt "ALL MEN ARE RAPISTS REEEEEEEEEE"
Guy who posted a conservative opinion once "That is demonstratably false."
TwoXChromosomes cunt "ADMINS HELP HELP WE'RE BEING BRIGADED!!! REEEEEEEEE!!! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

To be fair they do it on the right wing forums too

[rsilvergun]

If you go to _any_ political forum and dissent in any way, shape or forum you get banned. Reddit is for cat video links, jokes, dumb internet memes and the occasional tech or hobby forum. It's useless to discuss politics on there except as a means of organizing supporters, and there are better ways to do that.

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

I think the Trump community is more satire than actual fans.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

> Its mostly full of leftists and those needing more social justice.

Ignore and block them. Leave communities that done ban them

"Shut up, I don't care."

Re:

[Cito]

I remember when site admin banned the parody Clinton account during elections. It was got popular during the debates between Clinton & Trump. But I agree with ya cause the Trump parody account in leftist subreddits is still active.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

> reddit is a site for chumps. change my mind

Sure. Just re-popularize Usenet and we'll all bail willingly.

Verified accounts only?

[Gabest]

How do they know I'm the one commenting under my own name?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Or that this guy really isn't some guy in France called Pierre Delecto fed up with his name in the news: https://www.reddit.com/user/Se... [reddit.com]

Re:

[SciCom Luke]

You are free to comment under another name, just not under anybody else's name.

Re:

[PompousJohn]

They don't and they don't care, this is just another tool in their censorship box.

Re:

[middlemen]

It is for advertising. So they can get people to verify their identities thus leading to being able to connect them with other data sources, and showing them more targeted ads - same as what Twitter or Facebook do.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Because you're not thinking far enough.

[BAReFO0t]

No offense. This is something where it look easy, until you truly start thinking about it.

E.g. how do you know somebody is merely an impersonator in the first place? Most of the time, if the impersonator cares at ally you don't. So you never start verifyig or reporting in the first place. (As I already said.)
And how would you know the "real" account is not an imposter himself? Unless you know that person, you can't.

If you think you can, think again. Because I can fake that account more convincingly, than th

inconsolable

[tannhaus]

I spoke to Elvis and he's heartbroken

Re:

[fuzznutz]

I heard he was all shook up

Re:

[LenKagetsu]

Depends, was that drama something petty like astroturfing a product, something corrupt like admins editing user's posts, or something like when discord staff literally tried to defend pornography of underage subjects?

Deceptive manner?

[AHuxley]

A video that shows a sick politician coughing?
Is it deceptive as it could be flu, pneumonia, an allergy, a cold?
Will the good censor block the sinful video as its deceptive to one side of US politics?

Dang

[cascadingstylesheet]

There goes my plan to be Link from Zelda ...

That's not the problem.

[LenKagetsu]

A bigger problem is that some karma whores will outright steal stories and pictures from other people, including other redditors, and repost them claiming that it's theirs. Those people get downvoted into oblivion but they NEVER get banned for it. This isn't even touching the festering cancer that is reddit's obsession with callout culture.

What about that fake town on Reddit?

[leonbev]

If I remember right, there is a semi-popular subreddit where everyone pretends that they're part of a fictional town. It really wasn't my idea of fun, but who am I to judge? Are the new rules going to prevent that subreddit from existing?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Require satire to be tagged as satire

[Aristos Mazer]

People think satire that isn’t tagged up front loses something. To me, all it loses is the ability to mock those who “fell for it.” A policy that only acknowledges satire when it is tagged as such seems reasonable and easy to enforce to me... no tag is just trolling and lies.

Meanwhile every reddit post to answer a question

[SmaryJerry]

I have a degree in mathematics from Harvard.... Then next post by the person... I have 15 years experience in trucking and.... next post... I have a degree in chemistry with a master in biology..

Clearly the death of reddit given...

[thegarbz]

All users of that platform only impersonate people who have a clue about the topic they are discussing.