12 mo. ago • 99%

Reddit appears to be blocking VPNs (unverified)

I’m on iOS 17.1.1 using Safari. I also have Proton VPN enabled in the states but if I try to visit any page on the website I see this:

If I disable it, the page will load.

Edit: as per a comment, this may not be a VPN only issue.

Additional edit: Reddit has written an official post stating it was an issue after production code deployment and was reverted

43 comments

Just another reason to not be on reddit

78
- fuck reddit
  
  27
  
  No thanks. She is all yours.
  
  20
Oh no! Anyway…. -Lemmy User

56
- https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=6pc0u-iqIDw
  
  5
  
  Meta, for anyone trying to resist clicking: it's a Top Gear clip featuring James May and Jeremy Clarkson, possibly the origin of "Oh no! Anyway..."
  
  It's quite good ❤️
  
  4
  
  thanks!
  
  2
Permanently Deleted

45
- If you encountered it without a VPN, it would appear to not be based purely on VPN usage - which at the very least is good news for the privacy oriented.
  
  10
Apparently it was a bug:

https://reddit.com/r/help/comments/17vbxz8/whoa_there_pardner_error_message/

43
- It's not a bug. It's them running A/B tests to completely block mobile users that aren't on the app. They've been implementing different versions of this for over a year now. They always lie about what it was. Actually they pretty much habitually lie about all of their tests and changes.
  
  45
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
  
  I got this bug on desktop, running chrome, with no VPN.
  
  This was, as most things like this are, just a pure dumb fuck-up by some guy putting things on prod without properly testing and staging. No need to put on any more tin foil hats than we already have, the incompetence is plenty reason enough to point and laugh.
  
  31
- Thank you for sharing some clarification.
  
  5
It appears as if reddit is trying so hard to fuck everyone off the site. And yet so many people aren't paying attention and just visit it every time.

They should just make a new landing page: "We don't want you here! Go somewhere else!"

40
- Reddit has so many users now, that they can filter out everyone who is in the very least problematic or not fully profitable, and still sell ads to millions.
  
  13
  
  That's not how greed works, nor how reddit works.
  
  The only time they'll do something that reduces profits is when they're confident it will mean more profits in the near future (and they can't figure out a way to have both).
  
  That's why they were happy to platform mask off neo-nazis, the dangerously stupid and communities dedicated to getting as close to child pornography as possible without technically breaking any laws and why they waited until the last possible moment to pull the plug on them.
  
  5
- Momentum is hard to change
  
  6
  
  Reddit has high inertia 👍
  
  1
- I wouldn’t be surprised if they are doing it to block AI from hoovering up all of their data.
  
  4
  
  To block AI from hoovering up all our data, without paying them.
  
  5
  
  Are AI using VPNs now?
  
  Those little buggers!
  
  2
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/17vbyr8/whoa_there_pardner_error_message/

Text:

Hey all!

It looks like most of you had difficulty reaching the site for about 5 minutes, but those issues should have subsided.

During that time, you may have been shown an incorrect error message that read:

Whoa there, pardner! reddit's awesome and all, but you may have a bit of a problem. Make sure your User-Agent is not empty, is something unique and descriptive and try again. if you're supplying an alternate User-Agent string, try changing back to default as that can sometimes result in a block.

To share some additional context on what happened - we pushed a bad code change in our tooling that resulted in a significant amount of users getting blocked without doing anything wrong. So if you happened to see that error message within the last hour, don't fret! We've reverted the code change that caused this error and things should be back to normal very soon if they aren't already.
18
"whoa there, pardner! reddit's awesome and all, but you may have a bit of a problem."

----------------V---------------

17
- Not sure if I should upvote for accuracy or downvote out of disgust.
  
  7
I had been getting these for years already. “Had” because you know…

10
Also started seeing this today while browsing on my work computer, which I believe utilizes a VPN.

10
Additional edit: Reddit has written an official post stating it was an issue after production code deployment and was reverted

In their mind the issue was not the blocking of users, but that the users have started complaining. I bet they just reverted it so that they can bring it back slowly, after just checking whether it is effective at all

9
Which site again?

8
Looks like I can get to reddit pages via Libreddit with Mullvad up and running, if that helps at all.

EDIT: And reddit via reddit too!

7
it's a bug, i got the same ban screen without a vpn

7
I don't have a VPN and I got this error too. It resolved itself after about an hour

7
Your VPN doesn't have the ability to strip user agent strings on HTTPS requests, this doesn't seem VPN related imo.

5
- Assuming the error message is accurate.
  
  2
I had this when using my corporate VPN. Disconnected and still got it. I thought maybe it was a bug that had to do with Firefox.

A few minutes later I refreshed and it was all fine.

4
Seriously doubt this is an API issue. The error itself would make it seem like it's a problem with your browser, but unless you have some overzealous privacy extensions installed that are hiding your user agent, it's more likely to be a temporary problem on their side.

3
- Nah, this is an anti scraper mechanism.
  
  They've lost this fight before it's even begun lol.
  
  4
I had it earlier as well, no VPN at the time, went away after VPN was connected

2

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