/r/EuropeMeta
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For the metadiscussion about r/Europe
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Graffiti and throw-up's in Århus, Denmark.
©Villy Fink Isaksen, Wikimedia Commons, License cc-by-sa-3.0
/r/EuropeMeta
I'd like to know if it is allowed. It seems a pretty relevant subject as it's such a big political issue. I do understand that it might get some people upset.
Note that I've been talking about this subject over the last 2 years on the sub without getting a ban, I got a permaban last week for "agenda pushing" (no further explanation, no warning, no reply to my reply asking for clarification, that's it) referring to a post and some comments I made about migration.
The ban also mentioned a post I made about the unfairness of the British first-past-the-post-system in the most recent election which seems unrelated to migration.
So I'm confused, what topic is and isn't allowed?
My post was removed: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1fxgn93/sue_gray_quits_as_sir_keir_starmers_chief_of_staff/
The reason given for removal : thank you for your contribution, but this post has been removed because it is local news.
Reading through the guidelines link there is no rule against 'local news', only a rule against 'local crime', unless I have missed something.
And the news story I posted has been front page of the BBC website all day and could in no way be deemed as 'local news' anyway. The governments chief of staff quitting is clearly national news so why would such a submission be removed under a rule that doesn't seem to exist? The post complied with all the rules in my opinion.
The one about the trans woman being murdered in Georgia
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1fl4p0g/georgia_trans_influencer_killed_by_boyfriend_who/
So much really fucking disgusting transphobia.
I reported a bunch but its too much and I just don't want to fucking see it.
Please mods go through that thread personally with a fine tooth comb and ban all these motherfuckers.
What's in the title. Why was this post locked, no reason has been given and I received no message about the lock or reason for locking it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1f5pmgx/woman_arrested_after_six_hurt_in_knife_attack_on/
There is no real reason to allow links to Twitter but automatically remove links to Instagram. Many politicians have official Instagram pages.
Both platforms are disgusting. But still, I don't understand this decision
I get that it's a hard one to solve and I'm sure there has been an effort, but the sub is completely overrun by racists, homophobes, transphobes, genocide denialists, islamophobes, ableists, and probably a few things to hate normal people haven't even thought it is possible to hate quite that much. And this has been going on, and importantly I'm not seeing anything that would indicate this behavior is not cool. (Again, not saying there isn't an effort, just that it feels more like the hate is getting worse despite any efforts.)
There's no discussion, there's no exchange of differing opinions, there's no value to this, it's an absolutely deliberate effort to push posts and comments that advocate hate and downvote everything else. And though the same vibe is there in every post, it's clearly a directed effort on specific posts (see for example the Olympics Opening Ceremony post or any post about trans issues that also act as proxy for homophobia and misogyny because many platforms share the same lack of protection.)
We can report the egregious comments, or the post, but by the time mods clean up it's way too late, the garbage has been there for hours, or the thread's been buried or useless for hours.
I get that mods may be hesitant to crack down on hot-button comments even when they are quite clearly hateful, and why that is, but maybe at least getting the brigading under control would balance things enough that there's a little less hate comments or that other redditors can provide views that don't get buried.
I personally don't think we as a society need to platform "just discussing" clearly hateful motivations quite as much as the last few years (it has and will lead to real harm), but since it seems to be a lost cause to suggest the base level of discussion should be how to solve specific problems instead of whether group X or Z has the right to live, at least you could say it's a discussion.
At this point, unless something drastically changes, I don't really want to read the sub, I don't want to take the time to contribute constructively or to try to build anything, and I certainly can't recommend it to others. Might not be a great loss if I go, but I suspect I'm not the only one who is on the verge of leaving entirely, or has left.
The bar analogy applies. If you let one member of a nationalist-authoritarian organization stay, other patrons will just stop coming or get driven out, and then whatever bar you had — you now have a nationalist-authoritarian organization clubhouse.
So. What can we do here?
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1ddbkoj/857_poles_belives_that_soldiers_should_have_the/
Hi, I created a post about poll concerning recent events(that were discussed in other European countries) from a factual source. I've also translated the whole article. It has spend a day waiting to be review and then was deleted without any reason.
It's a shame because I'm long-time user of r/europe and wanted to more active. And unclear moderation makes me regret even trying.
The subreddit in question is r/bulgariaeu and it was up until yesterday I think. Yesterday we also had our eu and parliamentary elections so this is really weird.
How is it 'low quality'? If the issue is that the article was published on the 14th of March, does a week outside the '30 days' guide line matter when Indians fighting for/being scammed by Russia is an ongoing issue which hasn't stopped since then?
https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1cb2i6c/indians_die_fighting_for_russia_in_ukraine/
I'm not sure if it's just buggy Reddit mobile site, or the post just disappeared. But when I have refreshed the site because the page got didn't work for me, I could no longer find it. I don't have a link as due to the issue with browser it didn't get saved into history.
I didn't see any problem or breaking of rules with it. Feels like mods are trying to censor anything that might cast negative sentiment to trans people.
Lately the amount of comments and posts, related to local crimes, terrorism, islamic extremism, are being removed by europe. For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1c0oafi/suspected_belgian_terrorist_arrested_in_spain/
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1bw9fnl/girl_14_left_in_coma_after_attack_by_teenagers/
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1bysp13/honourbased_abuse_in_england_increases_60_in_two/
Based on these links, that sub remove comments critical of islam, terrorism, islamic extremism. Why does keep happening? Wouldn't be surprised if they mass remove comments and posts critical of Russia, (especially) Russians and even Putin.
Edit: I recently went to check my post here, and I already seeing "comment removed by moderator" here. Just shows that comments and posts being removed are become more common.
Why this https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1btzvmc/israel_warns_ireland_over_calls_to_break_trade/ was removed?
I'm sorry but:
Hi, thank you for your contribution, but this submission has been removed because it is not on-topic for this subreddit.
For real? It's from Irish news media, it's from/about Ireland and Israel so how on earth it's on "on-topic"? o_O
EDIT: Ding ding ding, another one bites the dust: https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1bwbjn7/poland_summons_israeli_ambassador_over_gaza_aid/
It's just getting pathetic...
I posted an article titled "Macron faces EU backlash after suggesting sending troops to Ukraine" from The Guardian that was removed as a duplicate by u/BkkGrl.
This is relevant for what is happening in Europe right now. Countless posts from dubious sources get through and important info as this one gets axed. This reeks of censorship.
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1b28rfq/macron_faces_eu_backlash_after_suggesting_sending/
It's not the first time this has happened.
If the idea is to have an eco chamber keep going, you're doing great.
On paper, r/europe has very strict rules on posting, further strengthened when it comes to those concerning the war in Ukraine. However, for some reason as soon as a post with only a picture gains popularity it is not removed, or it happens after quite some time. And these titles are often heavily biased, imposing interpretations of events, devoid of context. Moreover, they can easily be replaced by articles.
(Lately, a lot of them have been about events in Poland, but that may be my personal bias, because I am Polish and I notice them. However, the problem is undoubtedly broader)
Recent example: https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1avlr1k/maybe_its_not_about_grain/
Post with photo of USSR flag and Putin-friendly banner at farmers' protest in Poland. Clearly cut out of the larger article. Clearly cut from a larger article, with a provocative title added: "Maybe it's not about grain?".
The post clearly aims to cause negativity towards the protesting farmers by suggesting that this banner is representative of the entire protest movement. However, one only has to refer to the article in which it first appeared in the local edition wyborcza.pl to learn that:
the photo was taken at a protest in Gorzyczki, on the Polish-Czech border, hundreds of kilometres from the border with Ukraine
you can read what the farmers are really about, you can read that their situation is difficult and their farms are making losses
that there were dozens of banners at the protest (There was no shortage of banners on farm tractors. Here is what could be read on them: ''The Union orders Polish land to fallow and toxic food to be imported'', ''You will feel hunger, you will respect the farmer'', ''We apologise for the obstruction, we have a green deal to overturn'', ''Let's not let corrupt politicians destroy agriculture and Poland'', ''They finish the farmer, food disappears'', ''Commissioners' policies ruin farmers''. There was also a coffin symbolising the death of Polish agriculture. There were also many red and white flags.)
that the organisers have dissociated themselves from the scandalous banner
that the banner had been removed by the police, that a report would be issued against this protest participant for propagating a totalitarian state system.
All of this is missing from these types of posts. I don't understand how a sub, who can delete a post of an article for a slightly altered title or lack of translation, tolerates this type of post.
Another similiar cases from this week:
https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1avij2e/the_protesters_in_poland_have_spilled_ukranian/
https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1au1kry/polish_farmers_on_strike_with_hospitability_is/
I posted something similar in the main sub, but later realized that meta questions were not allowed, so I am asking again here.
I have noticed many extremely racist comments/posts, and also noticed that the community either seems to not notice/care, or actively agrees with the racists. Specifically I have seen a lot of bigotry towards Arabic and Romani people. This is very confusing, for one, reddit tends to be a fairly liberal place when it comes to human rights/decency, and also I have lots of European friends, and none of them are racist. I am wondering if this is mabye a community in-joke that I'm not getting? And if not is there a less hateful/regressive European sub? Because I like to stay up to date on news and the like, but wading through rural America levels of racism is really not appealing.
The blocking feature is heavily abused on the main subreddit, where I had multiple people reply then block, to stop the conversation and make it seem like they won.
This should be an instant bannable offence, as it is outright comment and discussion manipulation, especially as you can do it at a top comment level.
Someone should not be able to make a case for terrorism, then block you so it seem like they won.
Every now and then I submit something to r/Europe only to have it be stealthily removed some time later, with no notification, for example explaining what rule has it broken, which is in contrast to how things are usually done around the sub. In my experience those quiet removals are also left without recourse, as modmail queries about them are ignored (this by the way also happens when a removal was clearly performed in error, as when the given reason is cited to be lack of translation, when translation is the most upvoted comment under the article, but I digress). I could somewhat understand if the subject of the removed post was in a way controversial and/or inflammatory. But the most recent example that prompted me to write this post doesn't seem to be. It's on topic, it fits into the debate on rule of law in Europe (a popular thing to discuss in the past few years), the media outlet isn't weird to the best of my knowledge - leaving me at a loss what exactly did I do wrong. So my question is why is this happening, why are those quiet removals a thing in the first place and why they are so different from your run-of-the-mill removals of duplicate, off-topic and otherwise rule breaking posts?
Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I read the guidelines and didn't understand if posts about like national holidays and such are allowed or not
In the recent thread about AfD being a threat to democracy, there were hundreds of comments downplaying the actual fascist platforms of AfD. This was coupled with many bigoted statements, including even transphobic comments out of nowhere. There are many outright lies being thrown around as well. This has been going on for a long while, and it is unacceptable that fascism finds a voice in this community.
Why was this post removed?
This post goes into the writings of Hannah Arendt by someone who wrote a biography on her.
It appears to me it was censorsed because it's critical of Israel.
What the heck is going on with europe? Over the last few months, weeks and days europe removed almost all of posts, comments and locked comments section -- majority of those are related to immigration, terrorism, islamic extremism, antisemitism in Europe, mainly in Western European countries. For example: this, this, this, and recently this and this. I notice is that comments criticizing terrorism, islamic extremism, antisemitism are being removed -- I heard that even comments criticizing Russia and China are being removed. But comments criticizing christianity, Jews/Israel, Ukraine and Eastern Europeans are not removed and kept up. I'm getting more frustrated with that sub and their mods.
There is literally no productive discussion on any post relating to immigrants, just increasingly blatant racism. There are ~month old accounts advocating for mass deportations with hundreds of upvotes on every one of these posts. If this continues, the sub will be overtaken by these bigots, like has happened to several other subs (e.g. r/canada).
This is the post
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/180c5vu/bloodbath_at_french_village_fete_as_youths_from/
OP is a well known fascist in the UK related subs, he and a bunch of others from 4chan started brigading the UK politics sub back in 2017, who finally managed to take over the sub a year or so ago and started mass banning left and Liberal posters, along with regularly stickying right wing propaganda posts.
His username, caravanofdeath is a reference to Pinochet aligned far right death squads.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_of_Death
I reported the post by messaging the mods when it was only a couple of hours old and at 700 or so upvotes. Since then it reached over 7000 upvotes and is the top post on the sub for today. It is still up now.
The only thing I've noticed being removed was the chain I started in the thread pointing out the OPs alignment.
What is going on? Mods here stated they were aware of problems, since the mod protest it seems all the r-European far right types are back and the sub has been dominated by anti immigrant and islamophobic content since, and only grew further since the Israel Palestine conflict.
Mods said they would be hiring new mods and tackling the issue, but it's been months now and nothing has happened.
Is this sub just lost to far right agenda posting permanently, liike So many National and regional subs?
You speak against terrorism, you are banned. You speak against Jews/Israel or Ukraine, your posts and comments are kept up. Just look here for 1 of many examples. https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/QknjtSF1dd And as always, if you ask the mods to show you which rule you broke, they don't answer you and mute you with some childish attack response. Europe's mods are a disease, they've proven this too many times in the past. They should be stripped of all their powers and be permabanned. Give control of r/Europe to people who are not douchebags who abuse their power, but actually have brain in their skulls and are able to moderate the sub, protecting it from false narratives and nationalism.
A lot of my comments on threads overrun by far-right brigades are getting QUIETLY deleted. I can still see them in my profile, but when I log out and look at my comment history half of my comments are '[removed]'.
It was already bad, but since the Oct. 7 attacks the comments and upvoted articles on the sub have become downright vile. Comments advocating for mass deportations of immigrants with several hundred upvotes, the front page being filled with posts of extremely biased/questionable sources, etc. Any dissenting or even nuanced opinions are downvoted to oblivion.
Partly this is just a reflection of the discourse in European countries at the moment, but I don't understand where the moderation is in all this? Reported comments/posts with hateful content hardly ever get removed by the mods, even though reporting the same comment to Reddit directly results in a removal and ban. It almost seems like the mods agree with this content.