In the ongoing dispute between Reddit and its volunteer moderators, the company has made a power-play move and suspended subreddit moderators for not following the rules. The social networking site claims that mislabeling subreddits is grounds for suspension.
Moderators Have Been Locked Out
Moderators have been finding ways to technically fulfill the requests that Reddit CEO Steve Huffman claims users want. However, this has been done in an admittedly amusing but patronizing manner, and it appears that executives did not appreciate it.
Subreddit r/MildlyInteresting has been labeled NSFW after the moderators let the users vote to determine what they prefer, as Huffman has been insisting, and this resulted in the moderators of the forum being logged and locked out, as reported by The Verge.
The suspension happened immediately after the subreddit switched labels. When another moderator was tasked to post about the update, they were also suspended, along with the post being removed and the subreddit going back to restricted mode.
A former moderator stated that all of the volunteer moderators were eventually kicked out of the group, which meant that one of the biggest subreddits with more than 22 million members is currently unmoderated, other than those who work for Reddit.
Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt stated that moderators who incorrectly mark a community NSFW is a violation of the Content Policy and Moderator Code of Conduct. The latest response shows that it was enough grounds to get suspended for seven days.
Other than the violation of mislabeling subreddits, there's also the issue of Reddit bot being able to monetize forums if they were marked Not Safe For Work, which is an issue since the API pricing is a way to make Reddit profitable in the first place.
It wasn't a surprise since Reddit already informed moderators that they would be removed from their positions if they did not reopen the subreddits. Although this isn't the same circumstance, it was already hinted at what Reddit could do if mods did not abide by its rules.
Read Also: Redditors are Protesting Against the App's New API Pricing
The CEO vs The Moderators
The two sides have been taking shots at each other since the new API pricing was announced. In response to the new policy, moderators decided to turn the subreddits private, with some doing so for 48 hours and others indefinitely.
Although the moderators did not intend to, Reddit experienced a three-hour outage due to the increased activity, specifically, forums going dark simultaneously. Subreddits eventually became public again, but some decided to only post specific topics.
As a way of taking Huffman's statement to heart, moderators let users vote on whether the group should return to normal or post John Oliver-related posts. The conclusion led to the latter being followed.
The Reddit CEO was right about subreddits opening soon, as reported by NBC News, although it was not in the way that he had hoped. As a way of enforcing the rules, it eventually led to protesting moderators being suspended for seven days as well as losing their position as moderators.
