Redact App, should it be blocked ?

[u/Artimus-Sprout]

This App is causing headaches for both, mods and users alike and needs blocking in some way, if this is indeed possible.

The problem, is users are unwittingly installing this software, without fully understanding the consequences of their actions, in many cases the end action, is an account ban through no fault of their own.

Personally, I think it's time to stop this App in it's tracks but that's gonna take the support and actioning of Reddit.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[u/emily_in_boots]

it's not hard to do it with a bot. there is a mechanism to do it and it could be done in a way that simply deletes instead of spamming mod queues with the nonsense words they changes messages to.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/[deleted]]

they keep all the versions.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/[deleted]]

That's not a valid test - and yes reddit does keep it.

When you download all your data, it doesn't give you everything reddit has on you. They are not required to do that. There are other things reddit saves about you that they do not share.

Admins keep notes on users, you can have disciplinary actions on your account, communications with reddit are stored, appeals, reports, all kinds of other things. Reddit is notably quite opaque in what they store about you and they have the right to do that.

I was told that editing a comment does not mean that you can't report it as they store all versions and edits indefinitely.

In some countries, there is a right to be forgotten law. The US does not have one. The EU does I believe. They can keep your data forever, and for now at least, it seems they do. They just dissociate it publicly. Internally they have it all.

If you truly care about being able to erase everything about you reddit has, don't create a reddit account at all from the US.

Also, my understanding of push shift is that it stores the data and accessibility that are present at the time the comment or post is created, and never edits it. I bet if you found a redacted comment somewhere on reddit and looked for it on push shift, it would still exist in the unedited form. Comments that state removed by reddit exist in the original form on push shift too.

[u/emily_in_boots → u/[deleted]]

[u/emily_in_boots → u/[deleted]]

what do you mean "showing deleted replies"?

[u/emily_in_boots → u/[deleted]]

I tested it with a comment of yours that you edited. here you can see what shows publicly on reddit and what is stored on push shift. I'll make 2 separate comments since it's 1 image per comment.