Ars asked Reddit if the new limits are a response to power mods, and Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt responded:
This is not a judgment of any specific moderator or mod practices; it’s a structural change. Establishing limits sitewide creates a solution for both the present and the future that is not tied to any individual mods.
Reporting changes
In addition to concerns about the new mod limits, several mods I spoke to worry that Reddit will announce that it will no longer reply to reports about user behavior or removed content. Also, moderator-removed comments will automatically disappear from user profiles. Currently, “that content continues to appear on the user profile until it’s reported and additionally removed by Reddit,” per Go_JasonWaterfalls. They noted that Reddit will still review all mod reports.
“[M]ost violative content is already caught by our automated and human review systems,” the admin said. “And in the event we make a mistake and miss something, mods are empowered to remove it.”
There’s concern among mods that these changes will result in users not being actioned against when they should be, and Reddit missing things that warrant alerting authorities.
In response, Rathschmidt told Ars via email:
Keeping Reddit safe and healthy is our highest priority, and a goal we share with mods. This will not change how we action users who break Reddit Rules.
However, there remains concern about Reddit overlooking bad content.
“They are claiming that… they correctly action the vast majority of reports they get, but experience from our mod team suggests that isn’t the case,” a mod who requested to be referred to by their username, Gregory_K_Zhukov, for privacy, told Ars. They said that they’ve seen problems with Holocaust denial and “clearly aggressive and racist” use of the n-word persisting on subreddits.
The second mod, who requested anonymity, shared a similar view and perceives Reddit’s recent policy changes as attempts to “eschew responsibility.”
“Xenophobia, slurs, transphobia, outright death threats and hate speech, calls for violence, disinformation, and spam are let to run amok because of these policy decisions,” they said.
Gregory_K_Zhukov also questioned whether Reddit automatically deletes mod-removed comments from profiles. They argued that this makes modding harder by limiting the amount of information available, including whether or not Reddit has previously punished a user for similar behavior.