I see you guys have mentioned this API that TardFinn uses.
Yes, Bardfinn trawls entire subreddits by means of his his access to the API. I went and read the rules for gaining access to Reddit's API, and apparently if you want to use access to the API for research, have to disclose the specific research reason you want access to the API before being granted access to use the API for conducting research. I am willing to bet that when Bardfinn first requested access to the API, he lied about the true intentions of his "research", then abused his access to the API to start trawling and politically profiling Redditors. I finally had to the time to play around with the Reddit API in Python myself to get a feel for the kind of data that he is data-mining from Reddit users. It's incredible that he's allowed to make endless API calls knowing what his intentions are. Reddit need to put a cap on his calls or preferably ban him outright from accessing the API.
I also want to highlight this part from Reddit's user agreement:
6. Things You Cannot Do
When using or accessing Reddit, you must comply with these Terms and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Please review the Content Policy (and for RPAN, the Broadcasting Content Policy), which are part of these Terms and contain Reddit’s rules about prohibited content and conduct. In addition to what is prohibited in the Content Policy, you may not do any of the following:
Access, search, or collect data from the Services by any means (automated or otherwise) except as permitted in these Terms or in a separate agreement with Reddit. We conditionally grant permission to crawl the Services in accordance with the parameters set forth in our robots.txt file, but scraping the Services without Reddit’s prior consent is prohibited.
We encourage you to report content or conduct that you believe violates these Terms or our Content Policy. We also support the responsible reporting of security vulnerabilities. To report a security issue, please email security@reddit.com.
I highlight this part:
scraping the Services without Reddit’s prior consent is prohibited
This is effectively what Bardfinn is doing by downloading the contents of entire subreddits (like he did with /r/The_Donald) and their associated ecosystems through the API. He is not search engine but he is effectively acting like one by scraping Reddit to create his own cache of Reddit mirrors he can use for his supposed "research" into groups of users he wants to get banned.
Also have a look at this Google Doc with the "API Restrictions on Use", cos this also applies:
3. Fees; Restrictions on Use.
a. Fees. Reddit reserves the right to charge fees for future use or access to the Reddit APIs, rates to be determined in Reddit’s sole discretion.
b. Restrictions. You must not, and must not allow those acting on your behalf to:
i. use the Reddit APIs to encourage or promote illegal activity or violation of third party rights.
ii. reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or translate the Reddit APIs or otherwise derive the source code from any Reddit API or any part thereof, except to the extent that this restriction is expressly prohibited by applicable law.
iii. circumvent or exceed limitations on calls and use of the Reddit APIs as outlined in the API Documentation, or otherwise use the Reddit APIs in a manner that would constitute excessive or abusive usage or would disrupt or unreasonably interfere with the Reddit APIs or the servers or networks that provide the Reddit APIs. If Reddit believes that you are in breach of this section, Reddit reserves the right to permanently block your access to the Reddit APIs.
iv. interfere with, modify, disrupt or disable features or functionality of the Reddit APIs, including but not limited to, any mechanism used to restrict or control functionality, or defeat, avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate or otherwise circumvent any software protection or monitoring mechanism of the Reddit APIs.
v. use the Reddit APIs with the intent of introducing any viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses, malware or any other items of a destructive nature.
vi. sell, lease or sublicense the Reddit APIs or access thereto or derive revenues from the use or provision of the Reddit APIs, whether for direct commercial or monetary gain unless there is express written approval from Reddit.
vii. use the Reddit APIs to spam, incentivize, or harass users.
API Terms of Use Effective Date: May 25, 2016 Thanks for inquiring about the Reddit application programming interfaces and the related data, code, and other materials provided by Reddit with the API (the “Reddit APIs”). Collectively, we refer to the terms below, any additional terms, terms...
docs.google.com
Tell me, is Bardfinn not in blatant breach of I, III, VI and V? He has repeatedly indictated that he has been looking into monetizing his loot from the API. He never says outright "I want to sell my loot", but he will post something more vague like
"and I know of several academically published / commercially available models of toxicity". (Why would he be looking into
"commercial/academic models of toxicity", since he's neither an academic or a commercial entity?
Perhaps because he really does want to make money his blacklist database of wrongthink Redditors? Just to show you why people are so alarmed by what he's been doing.)
Secondarily, in the EU, sharing this data with anyone without the permission of the individual user whose web activity data is being stored for analytical purposes is highly illegal and can result in massive fines
Not just in the EU, the GDPR is an international law. US sites that cater to EU users have to be GDPR compliant, or they too can be sanctioned in the EU for violating EU users' privacy rights. When someone signs into Reddit, they agree to give Reddit permission to conduct their own research using their data. That permission given to Reddit themselves obviously does not extend to whatever the hell Bardfinn thinks he is doing with his "research". Not a single Redditor would agree to give Bardfinn any permission to trawl their account if they knew what he was up to - which most of them don't know, until they suddenly get cornered by Bardfinn saying "I see you've been posting in". That's usually their first "gender reveal" that this asshole has been secretly profiling them.
I have seen Tard tell people “You’re brigading, I can see that you reached this post from [Wherever they came from].”
Yes, Bardfinn does this literally all the time. He corners a hapless user in the reply comments and letting them know that he's been watching them: "I see you've been posting a lot on /r/WhateverDude and /r/SFWdude"
Such comments are not the result of Bardfinn browsing the user's profile in the browser like a regular person would. It's Bardfinn using his cyberstalking loot as karmic "ransom" against a user. This is Bardfinn's classic modus operandi all over Reddit. Look at his timeline and you will find countless examples of him cornering and personally intimidating users by holding up their network map to their faces like a fucking Stasi officer. These posts always start with Bardfinn telling a user:
"I see you've been posting on", "I see you're very active on", "I see you've been participating on", etc. It's a means of coercive control, letting users know they are being watched and secretly catalogued, and that Reddit allows him to coercively control users in this way.
The purpose of the API-abuse/data-mining and the Masstagging is to "discourage a reasonable person from participating on Reddit". No one is going a participate on Reddit if they know that /u/Bardfinn and /u/morpen are secretly using their library cards against them:
"Oh look, such and such took a dirty/forbidden book from the library, that means you can't even let them look at your sub.".
Once /u/Bardfinn has declared you a target and has data-mined your whole Reddit use history through the API, there is no way for you to continue using Reddit as before, unless you open a separate sockpuppet account for every sub you want to follow, which defeats the whole purpose of Reddit.
On top of this, Bardfinn is going to tag you in Masstagger to punish you by painting a swastika-target on your back, and if you are a moderator of any public sub he's going to petition /u/morpen to include your sub as a "far right Natsee hate-sub" in Masstagger.
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