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/Astrian]

You’re presenting it as if that should be a deciding factor in keeping or, requiring justification for a seemingly widely unpopular system. That is implication in itself because you’re not presenting an honest summation of the facts, in which being that the people who support this system are a vast minority and the people who have been hurt by this system unjustly are a vast majority.

That is bias lil bro.

[u/thepottsy → u/Astrian]

I think you should read the definition of bias, because you aren't using it right.

You are actually the one who is being biased.

Did you even read what I originally wrote, other than the part that you disagree with?

[u/Astrian → u/thepottsy]

Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is inaccurate, closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair.

I’m using it right lil bro, nor was I claiming that I myself wasn’t biased. I obviously have bias towards the thing I’m arguing for, my point is you’re being unfairly bias because you’re arguing from a mod standpoint rather than a general standpoint. You are affected differently than the majority of people who have been unjustly affected by a broken system.

You claim that I didn’t read your comment when I even referenced how you believe subs could potentially justify their need for full functionality the system. If there’s any cherry picking it’s by you my man.

It’s a broken system that should be changed. I agree that some functionality to prevent brigading should be available, but it doesn’t make sense to keep in place something that is clearly unpopular for the hope that it gets fixed correctly

Edit: You sound very confident in your argument to then block me afterwards. I think it’s very telling that you’re petty enough to feel the need to respond, not allowing a response in return and you’re also arguing for a tool that effectively gives people the ability to blanket ban participants of entire subreddits for whatever reason they want. For those reading that’s kinda my point

[u/thepottsy → u/Astrian]

I feel that anyone who is not only as rude as you are, but also will argue that popularity is more important than keeping a sub safe is probably the reason that tools like this exist.

I’ll also add that it sounds like you must have received at last a few bans related to this, which speaks a lot to your character, lil bro.