Reddit’s Secret Agenda: A Confession from a Former Mod
I write this under a pseudonym to protect my identity as I come clean about what I witnessed—and, regretfully, participated in—during my time as a moderator and employee of Reddit. You won’t believe the depths to which this platform has sunk, but I promise you, every word here is true.
When I started at Reddit, I thought I was joining a bastion of free speech, a true digital town square. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Over the years, Reddit has become something entirely different—a propaganda machine with an agenda that would make Orwell roll in his grave.
Under explicit direction from higher-ups, I was tasked with ensuring that Reddit became the hub for hyper-left-wing ideology. Speech that didn’t align with this narrative was quietly suppressed, sometimes even when it adhered perfectly to the rules. We were told, “It’s not about breaking the rules—it’s about breaking the wrong narrative.”
The manipulation didn’t stop at mere censorship. Entire teams were devoted to creating fake accounts that looked real, engaging in endless cycles of upvoting and downvoting to steer the discourse. Posts that promoted views we wanted to amplify were artificially pushed to the front page, while dissenting opinions were downvoted into oblivion, often with the help of bot armies.
But it gets worse. We didn’t just let our own political bias run wild; we manufactured it. Fake posts were written in-house, including ones advocating for incredibly polarizing ideas. The goal was to make these concepts look like organic, grassroots movements. One example? Normalizing hormone therapy for transgender children. We’d create posts from “concerned parents” talking about their 10-year-old starting HRT, flood them with upvotes, and plaster them all over popular subreddits like r/news, r/television, and even r/pics.
Moderation? Oh, that was just a weapon. I personally banned countless users who posted things that didn’t violate the rules but simply didn’t align with “The Agenda.” You could write a thoughtful, rule-abiding post explaining why you disagreed with Reddit’s approach to social issues, and boom—banned. No explanation, no appeal. And for those brave enough to start their own communities? We nuked them with brigading and shadowbans.
You think your Joe Rogan subreddits are safe? Think again. That’s a playground for our agenda. We manipulated r/JoeRogan like puppeteers, seeding it with posts that promoted fringe ideas or cast Rogan himself in a bad light whenever his views diverged from ours. Every time Joe said something even slightly critical of Reddit’s ideological stance, we flooded the sub with posts calling him “outdated,” “bigoted,” or worse.
One of the most insidious things we did was weaponize Reddit’s “community-driven” appearance. Everything you see is carefully controlled. Subreddits that seemed like genuine communities were infiltrated by accounts we created and controlled. When a real user would call us out, we’d downvote and remove their comments until they gave up.
The irony is, we were actively suppressing X (formerly Twitter) users while working hand-in-hand with other platforms to discredit their efforts at free speech. Reddit leadership made it clear: Elon Musk’s vision for X was dangerous to “our mission.” We coordinated with other platforms, burying X-positive content, censoring discussions, and spreading fake stories about the company.
I don’t write this for pity. I’m not looking for forgiveness—I’m just trying to sleep at night. Reddit is no longer the platform you think it is. It’s not a community; it’s a machine for ideological control.
If you don’t believe me, just look at the posts that hit the front page. Ask yourself: do these look like the voices of 50,000 individuals, or the echo of a single, well-oiled agenda? The truth is in plain sight if you’re willing to see it.
Yours regretfully,
A former upvoter with no karma left.
https://subv.substack.com/p/reddits-secret-agenda-a-confession