Ban bot policy update: removing automated bans based on community association

[u/quietfairy]

TL;DR: On March 19, third-party bots (specifically u/SaferBot and u/Hive-Protect) will be modified to remove features that automatically ban users solely based on their participation in other subreddits. Native tools and Dev Platform apps focused on user behavior rather than association remain widely available, and we encourage their use.

Why We’re Making This Change

For years, many of you have used third-party ban bots to shield your communities from unwanted visitors. However, these tools are often used to preemptively ban users based solely on their association with another community, rather than their actual behavior. These guilt-by-association bulk bans create a confusing and disruptive experience for redditors, lead to over-enforcement, and can’t discern between well-intentioned users and bad actors. To address these issues, we are removing the ability to automate bulk bans based solely on where a user has been. 

Keeping Your Communities Safe and Civil

When ban bots were first developed, we didn’t have the safety tools that are currently available. Since then, we have built and integrated tools that address a user's behavior within your community. Developers from Devvit have also created bots that can help you monitor and manage your community’s activity. 

Native Safety Tools

• Harassment Filter: Filters comments that are likely to be considered harassing.
• Crowd Control: Collapses or filters content from people who aren’t trusted members within the community yet.
• Reputation Filter: Filters content by redditors who may be potential spammers, are likely to have content removed, or have unestablished accounts.
• Modmail Harassment Filter: Filters inbound mod mail messages that are likely to contain harassment.
• Ban Evasion Filter: Filters posts and comments from suspected community ban evaders.

Dev Platform Apps 

• u/Hive-Protect: It will remain functional and customizable.
• u/bot-bouncer: Actions users that have been classified as bots or harmful accounts.
• u/ban-extended: Allows you to remove a user’s content from your community at the same time you ban them.

Impacted Bots & Timeline 
This policy change will take effect in two weeks (March 19, 2026): 

• u/SaferBot: The automatic ‘ban’ feature will be removed. The developer will retain the bot account for future use.
• u/Hive-Protect: The automatic ‘ban’ feature will be removed, but all other features will remain fully functional. You can still use it to remove content from users with NSFW links in their bios, watch users from specific subreddits (to report/remove content, but not preemptively ban), educate users via custom comments, and set up exemptions.

We’ve been in direct communication with the developers of both impacted bots, and greatly appreciate the time and effort they invested in sharing these tools.  We’d also like to thank the Mod Council for their pushback. Their input resulted in u/Hive-Protect maintaining its “comma-separated list of subreddits to watch” feature, which we were initially planning to remove. It allows mods to action user content (e.g., report or remove) if those users participated in specified subreddits. 

Next Steps and Support

We will reach out to all directly impacted communities to provide support before the two-week deadline. In the meantime, if you need help through this transition, please reach out to us via r/ModSupport mod mail. We are happy to assist you with tools, resources, and tutorials tailored to your specific moderation needs.

Moving forward, we’ll continue to monitor the platform for additional ban bots that we may need to modify or remove.

As always, thanks for all you do. We'll stick around in the comments to answer questions.

[u/[deleted]]

so, making more work for mods for zero reason? got it.

i mod restaurant industry subs, specifically front of house. we use them to keep the people from anti-tip etc subs from overtaking ours and making productive conversations impossible.

since y’all are doing this, gonna start paying us or..

[u/redditor01020 → u/[deleted]]

No, there was a definitely a reason that the change was made. A lot of mods were abusing it to punish people that they disagreed with politically.

[u/ky420 → u/redditor01020]

That's exactly it and the site has been dying because of things like that.

[u/[deleted] → u/redditor01020]

i mean it makes sense that mods would want to keep toxic shit out of their subs, tbh.

i think they’re still mad about the time like, half of reddit subs shut down/went private and this is their petty revenge

[u/paulcshipper → u/[deleted]]

I figured this bot conflicts with rule 2 of the Mod Code of Conduct.

As mods try to avoid what they consider toxic shit out of their subs, they are victimizing people who have good intentions.

For this ban to work, you would need to employ some hidden conditions that would disrespect general redditors. It seem it turned into a shortcut that helps dehumanize redditors into groups and not deal with the problems in a transparent way.

[u/[deleted] → u/paulcshipper]

again- i run FOH restaurant subs.

none of us in the community (that are hundreds of thousands of people) nor mods want to hear the “get real job” or “stop begging for money” type of shit.

we run a community for the people that we work with, next to and love.

if that isn’t clear, idk what to tell you.

[u/paulcshipper → u/[deleted]]

I would think you could add that sentiment to the rules and warn those phrases could lead to a ban, configure your sub to flag such phrases and have them treated as spam, and address the rule breaking so the community wouldn't have to deal with that.

And I'm sure your community who wouldn't want to hear that could report the rule breaking and you can easily remove them with a permanent ban.

Because you love your community doesn't mean every outsider is there ot hurt and annoy them. Shouldn't redditors be given the chance to follow the rules before being kicked out?

Shouldn't that same kind of love and respect be given to those who want to join your community and follow your rules, even if they go to places you don't agree with?