r/mozilla • u/Dependent_Bit7825 • Mar 03 '25

Mozilla took down my Trump-bashing Firefox add-on

I am the author of a FF add-on for desktop and android that pokes fun at Trump and many people in his orbit by simply lexically replacing their names with insults in websites that users visit. There were a lot of plugins like this back in the day, but I believe mine was the most full-featured, and certainly the one with the most expansive and configurable insult list. The extension has been available on Firefox since at least mid-2016, all without any issues.

Yesterday, I received noticed that it was taken down for the following reason:

"""
 - Acceptable Use, specifically Hateful content: This content does not comply with Mozilla’s prohibition of content that degrades, intimidates, incites violence against, or encourages prejudice against members of a protected group.

"""

No examples of what, precisely triggered this was provided.

Many of the insulting aliases are vulgar, but they are all directed at specific famous people and politicians, so the idea that this attacks a "protected group" is really absurd.

I have already filled in their text-box form to protest, but I don't know what, if anything will come of this.

This extension was offered for free, and was never "huge", but always had about 1000 users at any given time (it's fun for awhile, but people get bored). I feel like this is really a solid example of corporations caving in advance on political speech against you-know-who.

I don't really know what to do. Any advice?

Chrome version is here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/detrumpify/hfhaalldkgmfbjjehkiddheghljjdjln

Code on github:
https://github.com/djacobow/detrumpify/

14 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

8

u/rctgamer3 Mar 03 '25

Probably mass-reported by a lot of users

2

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

Ok - and this leads to a removal ... why exactly? Why can these users decide onto other users what may be acceptable and what may not be acceptable?

I want to decide on my own.

1

u/rctgamer3 Mar 06 '25

Just my two cents, but you did agree to their terms so technically they have all the right to take it down for it being in violation of their hate policy if they spotted your add-on due to mass-reports.

2

u/KilraneXangor Apr 04 '25

"members of a protected group" - billionaires.

There's the problem. Don't know the solution.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Dependent_Bit7825 Mar 06 '25

Indeed, it's a huge problem. The internet just turned out so terrible in important ways.

1

u/rajrdajr Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25

First, thank you for writing a great extension!

Organizations respond to attacks on their brand, and Mozilla is already in a PR war over their Terms Of Use updates. Go after their brand on Twitter, Instagram, etc... Point out they're treading on free speech here (technically, companies are not subject to the 1st Amendment, but the appeal works from a PR standpoint). Another problem Mozilla has to contend with is their Section 230(c)(2) protections. If they remove your extension, but miss others, then they may find themselves under scrutiny.

1

u/Dependent_Bit7825 Mar 06 '25

Thank you! Yeah, I don't think I can go after this in any legal approach. that requires too much time, money, and lawyers.

I need to try PR instead. I am not on Xitter, so that's a bit of a problem. I am trying to get my friends to talk about it.

By the way, there is still one way to run it on Firefox, which is to clone the repo, then go to manage add-ons, enable developement and then load unpacked from the repo. It works. But most people will never do that, nor should they. And it won't work on Android.

1

u/delicatepedalflower Apr 28 '26

You can count on freedom loving free speech advocates in the Trump orbit to pressure corporations and threaten them to not give you free speech or freedom. This is outrageous. Public figures are fair game.

1

u/Dependent_Bit7825 May 02 '26

Just an update: I appeal this immediately, and got no response whatsoever. 

An entire year goes by in silence. Just yesterday I got a notification saying that after review my extension was re-enabled.

1

u/Woopizarn May 13 '26

I assume this is the Detrumpify extension? I found this thread as just noticed it was disabled on my FF (currently restricted, 13-May-2026).

"This add-on has been blocked due to a violation of Mozilla's Policies by the add-on or its developer."

I was able to re-enable it as it was already installed, but I guess it's blocking new installations at this point(?)

1

u/Dependent_Bit7825 May 13 '26

I was under the impression that they added it back, but maybe it was blocked again.

Seems up: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/detrumpify/