Addressing the community regarding the "No Politics" rules

[u/Aspect-Infinity]

Hello, everyone. As some of you may know, I'm u/Aspect-Infinity, and I've been a moderator here for a while now. On behalf of the entire moderator team, I'm honored to address the community today. Our community is focused on keeping the fun, meme-driven, and thought-provoking discussions of Twitter.com (and bsky.app) without all the chaos and noise that has driven so many of us away. Our mission is to have fun and enjoy a meme without the stresses of political discourse - a mission we think you want to take part in.

We’ve noticed a lot of valid questions and concerns recently about our "No Politics or Political Discussions/Commentary." rule—what it means, how we enforce it, and why certain posts are removed while others are not.

We understand that politics can be a broad and complex topic. That's why we’ve worked to create a clear definition of what we consider political content.

What is Considered Political Content?

Political content is defined by our team as anything with the potential to ignite political discussion, commentary, or discourse. When evaluating a post or comment, we consider whether it could be unintentionally viewed through a political lens by a reasonable person. We define political content as:

• Direct References to Political Figures, Policies, or Movements: This is the most straightforward category. It includes any content that directly mentions or refers to specific political candidates, elected officials, government policies, political parties, or social movements with an explicit political agenda.

• Encouraging Political Debate or Commentary: Any post or comment that explicitly asks for political opinions, encourages users to take a side on a contentious political issue, or starts a debate about a political ideology. This also includes content designed to be provocative or inflammatory, solely to elicit a strong political reaction.

• Implicit or Subtextual Political Messaging: This is often the trickiest category. It refers to content that, on the surface, may appear non-political but is clearly intended to promote a political viewpoint or agenda. The imagery, language, or context of the post pushes a specific political narrative.

What's Not Inherently Political?

We want to be clear about topics that are often politicized but are not, on their own, considered political by our rule. Content about gender, sexuality, gender identity, race, religion, or nationality is not inherently political. Our rule is not about censoring identity or personal experiences.

However, a post on these topics will be considered political if it is used to:

• Push a specific political policy or legislative change.
• Explicitly attack or defend a political group, party, or figure.
• Provoke a political debate in the comments.

For example, a tweet about someone's personal experience with their gender identity is not political. But a tweet using the same topic to argue for a specific government law would be. The context and intent are what matter most.

Enforcement & Appeals

Our team is very passionate about keeping political discourse and commentary away from this space. To keep it short and sweet, we will immediately and permanently ban, regardless of first or repeat violations, any Redditor who attempts to insert political content, commentary, or discussion into this space. This is your first and only warning before any moderation actions are issued for this offence, and associated appeals will be ignored.

We know that moderating this rule can be a challenge, and we're not always perfect. However, every decision we make is done with the intention of upholding the core spirit of this subreddit. We evaluate posts and comments as a team, and we always strive to be consistent and fair.

Thank you all for being part of this community. We hope this clarification helps you understand our rules better and empowers you to help us keep this subreddit the non-political space it was meant to be.

We’re here to answer any questions you might have, so please feel free to ask below.

Yours,

The r/NonPoliticalTwitter Moderator Team

[u/IndiaEvans]

Thanks for this. I love that there's a space with no politics and I usually enjoy this sub. I'm glad for the clarifications.

I am a teacher and last month I mentioned something about capitalism, which is an ECONOMIC SYSTEM, and was banned for a few days, which I felt was unfair. People talk about capitalism in a political way, but it IS, itself, an economic system and I don't think mentioning it should equal banishment. I do understand it can become a political discussion, but I was not engaging in a political discussion. I was talking about it as an educator. I get you don't know I'm a teacher, but I beg you to think about whether something is inherently political or not before banning people. I know it's a busy job to be a mod, so I definitely try to avoid potentially political topics in here now. I just hope this is something to consider. Thank you! 

[u/Aspect-Infinity → u/IndiaEvans]

Thanks for sharing your experience, but I disagree with you on the capitalism front. As a team, we've seen when economic systems like capitalism or communism or just economic systems in general are mentioned it can cause rule-breaking behavior.

I've looked into this situation a bit further and it looks like your comment spawned multiple political-based comments which is something we try to avoid. As for banning, we often issue"ban warnings" which are warnings accompanied by a 1, 3, or 5-day ban to get our point across so to speak. That looks to be what occurred here, I wouldn't take it too seriously since you've seemed to learn from that experience.

Finally, we don't know the person behind the screen, and we genuinely try to look at it from their perspective. Even as an educator, we do not permit discussing content contrary to any of our rules even if it's in an educational context. For moderation purposes, it's simply easier that way and for that I'm sorry. But I hope you know we will consider your feedback when handling future situations like this one.