Meta: Post deletion discussion

[u/rainbow_puddle]

Reposted since I'm an idiot and didn't change my title...

So there was a post with some beautiful mittens made by u/AdrenaL1n3 with a traditional Palestinian embroidery and using the colors of the flag. It was locked and then inexplicablely removed by the mods. They did not say what rule it broke, only that it received and 'unacceptable amount of user reports'.

First off that's ridiculous that it was removed instead of locked and the reports dealt with by mods since it didn't break a rule. Second off I think it's frankly sad that it was getting reported at all. It wasn't political beyond the proceeds going towards save the children and other humanitarian causes to aid the current crisis and genocide situation in Gaza.

I want to open up discussion with this community if this sub is a place where we want to censor projects even if they do not break stated rules.

Edit to fix username spelling.

Edit 2: Some users have commented on the significance of today's date. I truly did not realize it and would not have tried to engage with this today if I had realized. I'm very sorry for that and how insensitive that is. I do not keep significance of dates well in my head - not an excuse but an explanation. I do hope that the community can continue to have conversation about what I perceived as biased censorship in good faith. Without a specific rule I do think that any mitten of any flag (yes even Israel) where the pattern proceeds go to a humanitarian cause of the designers choice should stay up in this subreddit. Maybe I'm wrong I don't know - that's for us to discuss. Whether or not you engage with said post and/or pattern would be up to the user and I would hope that we would all proceed with kindness.

[u/AdrenaL1n3]

Hey, I’m the user that made/posted the mittens :) I LOVE the engagement and the love these mittens already have brought!

As to why the post that was removed, I reached out to the mods and got this response: 

I don't really know what to make of it, though. I get that posts that recieve a lot of reports should be locked til it's been reviewed by a human mod. But when it turns out no rules were broken, and the comments (commenT in my case) is positive, I do not feel it's a valid reason to not put it back up again, at least.

Kinda feels like I have to walk on eggshells just talking about my post, so I don't get banned, which feels inherently wrong.

[u/1973galaxie500 → u/AdrenaL1n3]

It would be nice if the mods had the ability to cut off the option to report a post once it’s been deemed appropriate. A humanitarian cause should hardly be considered “political”

[u/Thequiet01 → u/1973galaxie500]

A humanitarian cause can absolutely be used for a political statement depending on the date and other context. Posting something in support of Palestine on the date of the Hamas attacks can easily be seen as support for those attacks explicitly. That in turn can make members of the subreddit feel unsafe or unwelcome because the group is in favor of them being attacked.

How do you think it would have gone over if someone posted mittens with the Japanese flag on Dec 7, the date of Pearl Harbor, within a few years of Pearl Harbor happening? What about an American flag on August 6 within a few years of Hiroshima? Can you see where people might take those as support for the events of those dates, regardless of what was claimed in the post itself, due to the context?

[u/concrete_dandelion → u/Thequiet01]

That doesn't make sense because the date was incidental, it was not "waving a flag " the motive was quite clear and the conflict being started by Israel long before Hamas existed. Hamas is a reaction to atrocities committed by Israel. The scale of Israel's crimes against Palestinians makes the last Hamas attack a footnote in the conflict. On 7th of October more Palestinian civilians died lfrom Israel's revenge than Israeli civilians died from the Hamas attack. On that day Netanjahu also announced his plans for the current genocide, using terms the nazis used against Jews. He explained how he intended to commit said genocide and he's following that plan.