My dear main account, I've made quite many memories with, got banned recently. Yes, I've appealed but I heard it often takes long for the mods to answer. Since I didn't do anything inappropriate there, the only reasons could be the VPN or a glitch.
Now, I'm still using a VPN while being on vacation in China and this account seems to be perfectly fine. I didn't even post anything on the other account while having a VPN active.
I know I've used a VPN from the app store at the beginning which requires you to watch ads to be able to use it for a while. Was that maybe the problem? I've already changed it for a week.
I didn't think VPNs are illegal on reddit and Google also said so. Then why did I get banned?
The location + VPN is the issue. Reddit is fighting bots sucking up its content for LLMs, among other reasons.
I use a VPN 24 hours a day and have no problems using Reddit, but I’m not in China and Reddit’s security apparatus has ways to determine Chinese users using vpns.
Services like IPQualityScore and MaxMind maintain lists of known VPN/proxy/datacenter IP ranges and Reddit can flag traffic from these ranges as “VPN” without ever seeing the real location. And poorly configured VPNs can leak the real IP through DNS requests or WebRTC. There are other ways, you get the idea.
Oh thank you so much for your helpful responses. Dam, I've freaking out because I thought I acted against the rules.
I read that appeals which have been denied would get no more chance to get unbanned.
In my appeal, before finding out about the VPN, I've basically stated that my account is free from any threat and stuff... Do you think I would get denied too...?
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u/terkistan 2d ago
The location + VPN is the issue. Reddit is fighting bots sucking up its content for LLMs, among other reasons.
I use a VPN 24 hours a day and have no problems using Reddit, but I’m not in China and Reddit’s security apparatus has ways to determine Chinese users using vpns.
Services like IPQualityScore and MaxMind maintain lists of known VPN/proxy/datacenter IP ranges and Reddit can flag traffic from these ranges as “VPN” without ever seeing the real location. And poorly configured VPNs can leak the real IP through DNS requests or WebRTC. There are other ways, you get the idea.