Bonum Certa Men Certa

Detecting and Undoing/Reversing Censorship of Microsoft Critics at Reddit

Assuming one wishes not to simply boycott the whole of Reddit

Some (wo)men @ work
Luddites defending same 'ol Microsoft by muzzling Microsoft critics



Summary: David from Ottawa suggests ways to track censored comments and restore them for readers to assess (in spite of overzealous and/or biased moderators)

The Rust/Reddit censorship of Microsoft critics was mentioned here the other day, both in IRC and in a short post. We lacked some background information and context, for it was removed. The censored person urged a developer to produce a "WATCHDOG WEB BROWSER PLUGIN and REDDIT-WATCHDOG WAYBACK MACHINE" for situations such as these, explaining that this developer had been "creating an app to capture video and send it to web sites to specifically help capture abuse by Police officers. Quite relevant now, but he wrote this years ago."



The person told me of the "Reddit censorship/moderation being biased and being controlled/supported by BIGTECH." Other readers previously reported the same to us; they also took screenshots, which we in turn published. A very long time ago we explained why Reddit as social control media was particularly bad if not malicious and censorious. I personally found it far too 'Microsoft-infested' (literal agents or employees of Microsoft burying stories).

"I personally found it far too 'Microsoft-infested' (literal agents or employees of Microsoft burying stories)."We now have the context of the latest incident: "To remind you of the context that brought about this idea, I will re-explain what happened this past week. I followed old.reddit.com/r/rust/. In it there was an entry posted mentioning this article. I posted some entries stating we shouldn't deem Microsoft in high regard because of their past behaviour and their history of legal suits against them. I said a few other not so nice words, but nothing inciting violence against them.

"BOTTOM LINE: My entries were at first downvoted, then deleted afterwards. I also received a follow-up mail stating my entries were breaking the rule of zealotry and were warning I was going to be banned. Afterwards I decided to de-activate my account, reason being too much censorship. I now suspect Reddit forums might be strongly influenced by Microserfs/"BIGTECH" and downvoting/deleting entries placing them in low regard.

"This kind of censorship is so subtle and difficult to identify as such. The way it is worded seems and feels as though the blame should be on the individual that posted some out-of-mainstream thought in the forum. Others would probably let it slide and follow the suggested advice. That's not in my nature having a free-spirit and a lucid mind."

The "rationale" of the technical response to such censorship was explained as follows: "As you know, there are no tools/services that track/log all entries within Reddit. When entries are posted, they may appear for a brief period of time, but once moderated, they may disappear/be deleted. We need more tools to: 1) detect and defeat censorship/corrupted moderation; 2) keep a watchful eye on those Web sites claiming to provide forums for free speech yet crushing their voices. This "WATCHDOG" tool may be an instrument for proving such events happened. 3) to store/capturing all Reddit is too costly, but could be achievable for smaller set of forums focused on Microsoft/"BIGTECH" like Linux, Golang, Rust, Zig and others one deems relevant matter."

The suggestion was put forth as follows: "The means to achieve this... "REDDIT-WATCHDOG" capability is to 1) have all Reddit users install a Reddit-watchdog Web browser plugin; 2) the Reddit-watchdog plugin would simply act like a front-end to Reddit, reading all entries to specific Teddit forum the user is interested in, then relaying all those entries to the Reddit-watchdog Wayback Machine server, recording all current entries viewed. If entries already exist within the Reddit-watchdog Wayback Machine, they simply will be ignored and not recorded."

"Resulting benefit" of this "REDDIT-WATCHDOG WAYBACK MACHINE," the person continued, "would allow: 1) searching for specific Reddit user history; 2) surfacing deleted entries; 3) surfacing extremely downvoted entries. Blocking the watchdog plugin would be unachievable because the signature of the Web client requests are the same as the Web browser itself. The unique IPs from the different Web browsers would also be difficult to block. Thank you for listening."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
 
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025