Reddit’s War on Free Speech: Bans, Bias, and Silencing Users
Reddit’s Woke Mod Problem Is Killing the Platform
Reddit used to be the “front page of the internet.”
A glorious hub of memes, mods, and mayhem. A place where free speech (and let’s be honest, a lot of stupid comments) could thrive.
But lately?
It’s looking more like the gated community from Get Out, complete with ideological HOA Karens slapping bans on anyone who so much as blinks in the wrong subreddit.
Let’s be real. Reddit moderation has always been a bit of a mess. But the political and ideological rot is now in full bloom, and the problem isn’t just annoying anymore.
It’s actively destroying discussion, chasing away logic, and turning what were once lively gaming hubs into echo chambers policed by activist mods with God complexes.
Banned for Breathing: Reddit’s Guilt by Association
You might think getting banned from a subreddit means you broke the rules in that subreddit.
Silly rabbit.
In the Reddit of 2025, you can be booted for posting somewhere else entirely. And we’re not talking about brigading or harassment here. Just being seen in the wrong place is enough to trigger the hammer.
Case in point: multiple users have reported being banned from the PC Gaming subreddit simply for participating in or commenting on posts in r/Asmongold. Yep. The crime? Interacting with a community the mods don’t like.
That’s it.
No harassment. No calls to action. Just…existing. Guilt by association is now the gold standard of moderation. You’d think this was a dystopian Netflix show, but no.
This is real Reddit, folks.
Apparently, some PC Gaming mods decided that Asmongold’s audience was problematic, probably following suit from Dragon Age: The Veilguard subreddit doing the same thing last year.
Therefore, anyone who even breathes in his direction deserves to be shadowbanned like a digital leper. Reddit used to have rules. Now it has vibes.
When Devs Get the Boot: The Lords of the Fallen Debacle
Here’s a somewhat fresh one you might remember from a few months back: Marek Tyminski, the CEO of CI Games, got banned from his own game’s subreddit (yes, his own game) for daring to ask players a simple question on X (formerly Twitter): “Would you prefer to choose Male/Female characters or Body Type A/B?”
Harmless, right? A totally fair and reasonable question for feedback. Except apparently, that set off the progressive mod sensors. The Reddit mods decided this was “fascist adjacent” behavior and banned him from the Lords of the Fallen subreddit.
You can’t make this up. The guy funds the game, oversees its development, launches it…and gets locked out by people who don’t even draw a paycheck. Why? Because he stepped outside the approved dialect and challenged the sacred cow of “inclusive language.”
This isn’t just power-tripping – it’s ideological warfare. If devs can’t even ask their player base how they’d prefer character customization options to be labeled, what’s the point of community feedback at all?
The Yasuke and Assassin’s Creed Historical Fan-Fic
Let’s talk about Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the absolutely volcanic online debate around Yasuke, the “Black samurai”.
Quick recap: Yasuke existed. He was real. He was Black. But the historical facts around him are thin at best and were made even more ambiguous when it was confirmed that a British guy, named Thomas Lockley, edited the Wikipedia information on Yasuke to cite for his own book.
Yasuke wasn’t a katana-wielding ninja warlord. And when gamers on Reddit dared to mention that maybe, just maybe, Ubisoft was taking liberties with the timeline, they were swiftly banned or shouted down.
Historical debate used to be part of the fun in these communities. Now? It’s heresy.
Reddit mods weren’t interested in nuance, context, or even truth.
They were interested in compliance. The moment someone questioned the narrative, they were branded racists and yeeted out of the thread.
You’d think a platform like Reddit (allegedly built on discussion) might allow…well, discussion.
But that’s not what the new Reddit is about. It’s not about knowledge or curiosity.
It’s about control.
Banned Links and Bad Optics: The X/Twitter Suppression
And speaking of control, don’t even think about linking to anything from X (formerly Twitter). Reddit has increasingly banned or filtered posts containing links to the platform, often flagging them as spam or removing them outright.
From r/yugioh to r/americangirl – you’ll find hundreds (if not thousands) of subreddit mods have turned their subreddits into a political battleground. This especially happens if the content challenges mainstream narratives.
Why? Because X, under Elon Musk, has become a hub for free speech. And Reddit’s leadership and mod teams are not huge fans of that concept.
Image: Subreddits Mass Ban Twitter/X Post Links | Google
It’s not a coincidence that Marek Tyminski’s “controversial” poll came from a post on X. Or that many sources Reddit users want to reference – journalists, whistleblowers, game devs, independent thinkers – use X to speak freely. But Reddit’s ideological firewall blocks that content at the gates.
If your argument links to something outside the echo chamber, it’s treated like radioactive waste.
In a medieval fantasy action-RPG experience, what do you prefer to choose between? We will follow the final result.
— Marek Tyminski (@tyminski_marek) January 12, 2025
It’s the digital equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “LA LA LA” while smashing the ban button.
A Decade of Abuse and Reddit Still Doesn’t Care
This kind of mod abuse isn’t new. It’s just louder now and harder to ignore.
Take this Quora post from eight years ago that perfectly describes today’s situation, titled “How can you report a Reddit moderator for abusing power?”:
You can but they won’t do anything about it. I had one call me names… I reported it to the admins and they literally said they didn’t violate any terms… The mods can do whatever they want. Reject your post, ban you and call you names with no repercussions whatsoever.
Sound familiar?
For years, users have been screaming into the void about Reddit’s broken moderation system. Mods can insult users, ban them for “tone,” enforce politically charged rules that have nothing to do with the sub’s theme, and face zero consequences. Reddit’s admin team is completely MIA unless someone posts a legitimate crime.
Image: Reddit Mod Fights for Autobans | r/ModNews | Reddit
And let’s not forget that most of these mods are volunteers.
That’s right! People with no professional accountability, managing major communities with hundreds of thousands (or millions) of users. Think about that. Reddit’s top-tier infrastructure is being policed by blue haired basement-dwellers with more ideology than impulse control.
Reddit’s Leadership's Rotten Core is a Problem
So why does Reddit allow this?
Simple. Reddit’s own leadership is part of the same ideological echo chamber.
Much like other tech giants in Silicon Valley, Reddit’s brass is firmly embedded in the cult of “wokeness.” That means backing mods who toe the line and quietly looking the other way when users are harassed, censored, or banned for wrongthink.
The company pretends to be about community-driven discussion, but its real values seemingly lie in corporate-sponsored progressivism. That’s why mods who nuke posts for using “male” and “female” language are celebrated instead of punished. That’s why subreddits that resist the narrative (like some Donald Trump-related subreddits) are reported by users to be buried in search or throttled by Reddit’s discovery algorithm.
And that’s why so many users are fleeing. Have you ever taken a look at Reddit’s leadership?
Like Anna Soellner of Internews (didn’t they just get exposed during the USAIDS controversy?), pictured above. She’s the Head of Communications at Reddit, the alleged “home of censorship oops conversation online” and – while Reddit may have started as some grassroots project between a couple of college kids – the current leadership in Reddit has it’s fangs in media, politics, and more toxic progressivism than an anti-Trump rally in front of a Starbucks in Seattle.
Reddit alternatives like Lemmy are growing, slowly but surely, as disillusioned Redditors seek actual freedom of discussion. They’re not perfect, and they lack Reddit’s user base and UI polish, but the trend is clear.
Reddit is no longer trusted. It’s bleeding out and it’s self-inflicted.
The Front Page of the Internet Is Now a Picket Line
Reddit isn’t a platform anymore. It’s a pulpit. And the people holding the mic aren’t developers, gamers, or hobbyists. They’re activists living in their parents’ homes with mod privileges who believe dissent is dangerous and discussion is hate speech.
Gamers who question dev decisions, game lore, or moderation choices are now branded racists, bigots, or fascists. And Reddit leadership? They couldn’t care less, as long as the advertisers stay happy and the ideological purity remains untainted.
But here’s the thing about echo chambers: They get smaller and smaller until no one’s left.
Reddit’s obsession with censorship, divisive ideological purity, and mod-driven witch hunts is driving away the very people who made the site worth using in the first place.
If Reddit wants to survive the next decade, it’s going to need to choose: open platform or activist sandbox. Right now, it’s heading straight towards garbage fire status at full speed.
And all we can do is pop some popcorn while watching the crash – and post about it on Twitter, of course.
This was a commentary article based on publicly available information and personal opinion. Readers are encouraged to form their own conclusions based on the sources cited.
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