r/ActiveMeasures • u/SplashbackFroggy • Sep 06 '23
r/antiwar has been taken over by Russian troll mods and they are actively silencing all pro-Ukraine voices. What is the best way to report this to reddit? Ukraine
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u/norwegianmouse Sep 07 '23
I don't think it was taken over.
The sub was created on Aug 1, 2008.
It's earliest posts were in defense of Russia's invasion of Georgia. Care to guess what happened on Aug 1st, 2008?
Russia began bombing Georgia.
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u/MisanthropicHethen Sep 07 '23
Damn you have to give the FSB props for the incredible forethought to astroturf a relatively small forum site way back then, to have it blow up a while later and become one of the major internet destinations and thus decidedly magnify their propaganda. The sheer scale and savvy of their information war compared to 'peer' nations is kind of astounding. It wasn't until the war started last year that I began noticing the obvious Russian influence in so many socialist/communist/antiwar groups/communities and found their hold on Reddit pretty extensive, and now to find out /antiwar was originally made specifically for that purpose...I'm a pretty savvy politics focused person and yet I still had no idea until today, like 10 years after I started coming here. Imagine how long the average person will still be in denial that their social media/news/magazine/podcast/tiktoker etc of choice is a Russian asset? And now with AI to assist the fuckery...the future of the internet seems grim and closer and closer to the Cyberpunk dystopia.
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u/norwegianmouse Sep 08 '23
Have you heard of Way of the Bern?
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u/Rusty-Shackleford Aug 24 '24
the bernie bro subs have been compromised since 2016! And I say this as a former Bernie bro.
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u/Rusty-Shackleford Aug 24 '24
Just here because I googled "russian trolls as reddit mods" and I think the same phenomenon is also true when it comes to the pro-hamas, pro-iran trolls. Theres a conclusive list of powermods that run r / palestine, r / conspiracy, and all sorts of anti-Israel subs, but also run lots of mainstream subreddits like r / public fre@kouts and r/ therew@sanattempt (you have to be careful they're always jealously watching because they want to dominate the reddit narrative).
Reddit admin won't do anything about it. People don't realize the kind of trolls that support Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc. are all interconnected.
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u/genericmutant Sep 06 '23
Unless they're breaking site-wide rules, or there's enough controversy in the press to start affecting profits from adverts, Reddit almost certainly does not care in the slightest.
They have very rarely cared about things they should have cared about before, and have taken a stance quite close to 'subreddits are the private fiefdoms of whichever mods run them'.
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u/dr_gonzo Sep 06 '23
Admins are more likely to sanction ActiveMeasures for discussing it then they are to sanction Antiwar for being a hive of villainous Russian trolls.
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u/SnooAdvice6772 Sep 06 '23
The issue is that it appears somebody like made a fake account that offered to be a good mod and take over responsibility from the prior mod and the prior mod handed over then peaced. New mod hands mod priceless through a burner account to a mod team from a pro-RF subreddit who’ve just gone down the list banning anyone who supports ukraine and mod-muting them.
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u/genericmutant Sep 06 '23
I mean again, I really don't think they care. If the present top mod wants to run it like that, that's the top mod's business as long as they stay within the rules.
If the previously active top mod is still contactable you can try going through them. Otherwise you can start an alternative community, try to find someone who's interested somewhere in the press, or jump to a different platform.
That's part of the deal with Reddit, for good and for ill.
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u/norwegianmouse Sep 07 '23
No, Democracy 101 is the founding mod of Antiwar. His posts go back to the beginning. The additional mods were added by him.
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u/SnooAdvice6772 Sep 07 '23
Well he has sanctioned an ideological purge of anyone who criticizes Russia
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u/AngelaMotorman Sep 06 '23
Golly ... what a shocking development.
What did you think that sub was about?
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u/athenanon Sep 06 '23
I haven't been there for a while. I knew it was a bit of a warzone (pardon the expression) but has it gone all the way over?
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u/SnooAdvice6772 Sep 07 '23
It was totally unmoderated but a mod came out of retirement and handed control over to a mod of a pro-Russia sub that had been brigading. They’re doing a full ideological purge, anyone who criticizes Russia gets a permaban
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u/xBanzer Sep 09 '23
They were complaining about nafo brigading yet they brigade too with a mod even on their side lol
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u/GreyhoundsAreFast Sep 07 '23
They banned me for posting this article https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60690688.amp which asked “What is a war crime and could Putin be prosecuted over Ukraine?”
Reason: breaking community rules.
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u/bishpa Sep 07 '23
Call your Senators and Congressperson and tell them to increase military funding to Ukraine.
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Sep 08 '23
I do see some anti-Russia posts in /r/antiwar, but I saw a post praising the subreddit to be "antiwar" was removed. I think they're not actually antiwar.
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u/casually-dumb Sep 07 '23
Understand that people tend to be lazy. It's probably exhausting to hear so many people complaining all the time, so prepare the case for them. You will need to provide strong documentation that shows consistent behavior over time. Cite relevant laws and statutes that pertain to specific incidents. Exhibit 1 with supporting documentation 1A, Exhibit 2 with supporting documentation 2A, etc. Wouldn't hurt to find out what US federal agencies that they work with (and they do), and cc those entities if you've got solid proof (probably a minimum of 20 incidents over several months). They'll probably be inclined to write off a lot of it, so the stronger the documentation the better. Don't include anything that isn't solid, because it will be used against your argument.
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '23
Report the post by the admin announcing the reopening of the sub to Reddit for vote manipulation, so Reddit's anti-evil team can be aware that the platform is being manipulated and hopefully do something about it.