I suppose it could be true, it might just be me being a little cynical, but I can’t help wondering if it’s because I was using my vpn all afternoon. Oh well, one less website to worry about. Slightly annoyed because I’d saved a few posts I wanted to read later but ignorance is bliss.
It’s probably because some spammer spammed on it from that VPN IP address and they trying to corporate speak that it’s good you got banned “for your safety” basically.
We have them from time to time even try to spam these forums with their bs.
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This is exactly what happen to me a couple of months ago. My account was locked for security reasons even though I have 2FA on and use a long unique passphrase for it. I was asked to reset my password, only I wasn’t able to because I never received the confirmation email.
I’ve been using a VPN 24/7 for years now, and I have used an email alias for my Reddit account since the very beginning. My suspicion is that they have blocked my email alias provider. I’ve tried numerous times, and I never received the email.
I have tried contacting staff, but they don’t do email support anymore and because my account is locked I can’t comment on the support sub to ask for help. I tried PM’in mods directly, but I always get an auto-response asking me to follow this and that instruction that doesn’t work.
What is really weird is that if I PM the mosts, I get an email notification for their auto-response. But I don’t get an email notification if I were to reset my password. It’s possible that Reddit has a different domain for password reset, and that it has blocked my alias domain.
To this day, I have no idea why my Reddit account is locked, and I haven’t been able to get it re-activated. My last recourse is to create a new account to ask support about my current account. I haven’t done that yet because I’m lazy, but it’s frustrating not to be able to follow any new sub or even upvote or comment on a post. It’s extremely frustrating.
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Probably and Amazon will do the same thing because they all want the data.
Support probably all got fired for AI bots.
They won’t respond to that because, there actually is no support, they only care about what revenue they can get from advertising and for reddit the value there is lower than other social media. You can see it with the “must be logged in” policy which good old twitter (x) started when Elong took over. Notice when he did that a whole lot of other companies put in similar restrictions.
I’ve noticed pretty much all the good subs that I was on never came back after the last reddit enshitification protest - which gave me even less reason to use the platform let alone post a comment.
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Do you know someone who got their alias rejected by Amazon?
I hear you. But given that a locked account has fewer privileges even when it comes to seeking support, I suspect it might make a difference. Even if I never get my account reinstated, my hope is that I will get a clear answer as to why it was locked.
What is this policy? Are tweets no longer viewable if one doesn’t have an account?
It’s really sad. I hope there comes an FOSS and privacy respecting alternative to Reddit because it’s a really useful website.
Yes, me.
It won’t, and I had the same thing happen with Google, a VOIP number. Ironically the only reason I added a number to that account was because I wanted to add TOTP 2FA.
None of the replies are.
It was a really good website probably in the early days 2005-2015, but I think it has been on life support for a long time now, around the time the “new reddit” came around.
What I am surprised is they still haven’t gotten rid of old.reddit.com, which is the only way I can even bear to look at that website.
Which alias provider did you use with Amazon? Is it that you were never successful with your alias, or you were at first, but after some time it got rejected?
I am planning to create a pseudonymous Google account with not ties to my personal identity with the help of SMPool. One my phone number is verified, I will add TOTP 2FA, and hopefully, I will never be bothered again.
This is going to sound terrible to you, but I am among the people who prefers the current Reddit in terms of UI. It’s what compelled me to create an account. A lot of people will not use an app or website simply because they don’t like the UI, even if they can reconize the content is great. I suspect most people are like that, just not necessarily for the same apps/website.
Byeond the UI, I recognize that Reddit like Twitter and so many other services has been enshittified. Despite things being worse, I still manage to find value those two. I wish users and sub mods could have been more united when it came to Reddit’s new API policy. Too many people are no willing to go through a little bit of discomfort to protest a bad policy.
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Never and amazon wanted bank statements too which i was not going to give unredacted, and even that did not work.
Make sure the number is accessible in the future, they can throw a verification screen at you any time they wish that will prevent further logins.
Its slow, and bugger all fits on the screen, its also terrible for making archive copies of. It also has way more large adverts on it that take up even more screen real estate.
It’s an example of what I said in my other post about captive audience. The majority of people simply cannot be changed in meaningful numbers and companies that run these turd websites only care about 
so it will get a lot worse until finally it becomes MySpace or Digg.
These companies aren’t run by people who care about the longevity of the company because they will have cashed out long before that’s an issue for them. “Make Hay While The Sun Shines” is the universal business directive. Probably more so if there’s VC funding involved.
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To be fair they’ve probably done me a favour. I ditched FB, Insta and Twitter ages ago, and Blue Sky more recently because it turned out to be only slightly different to Twitter. Left(ish) wing, but still people telling you what to think. I’ll stick to the aforementioned ignorance and isolation, underrated traits imo 
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Reality is they were poor substitutes for social interaction anyway, I find more meaningful discussions occur on smaller communities like this or communication platforms like matrix these days. As soon as an algorithm is deciding what you see, is the moment there is incentive to distribute some content over other.
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I swear, Reddit is trying to speedrun dead internet theory.
The only people they’re blocking seem to be actual humans.
Please consider Lemmy.
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Lemmy is a cool platform in theory, but I don’t think their moderation tools have really improved. Unfortunately spam is a part of like things, and that becomes really unmanageable for moderators at any scale without proper tools.
I’ve never heard of Amazon requesting bank statements. That is insane.
TOTP 2FA should be enough for Google
I will definitely lose access to my number because it will only be used for verification once. Although you are probably correct, it is my experience that if you have TOTP 2FA, for most services, it is highly unlikely that they will ask to verify your number. From time to time they will definitely ask you to confirm if your number is still the same, but they will not ask you to confirm it by texting. Although that could change, I am confident about it when it comes to Google.
I have quite a few friends who have never updated their Google accounts when they changed numbers out of lazyness or forgetfullness. Meaning that their old number was likely assigned to someone new, but still associated to their account, and they never had any issues.
I also know for a fact that even after you change numbers, Google remembers all your old numbers, and may ask you about them for verification when you run into certain issues.
By archive, do you mean the Internet Archive? The Verge recently reported that apparently Reddit will block the Internet Archive, which I’m not happy about either.
Are ads visible on desktop if you had ad block?
Changing minds is Hard but possible
That’s not entirely true. For good or for ill, a significant minority can propel change, but it’s super hard to reach that significant minority in the first place. Most people who are passionate about a political candidate simply vote for them and at best advocate for them in their personal lives to friends and family.
They don’t do volunteer work. They don’t knock on doors. They don’t go to rallies. This is where the critical minority are IMO. In a recent video, Louis Rossmann argued that you have to change minds before you can change the law. I think there’s a lot of truth to that. You have to educate and inform people about issues long before it’s time to vote for it.
I think the privacy community has done a great job of sensitizing people to privacy issues, enough to build a small economy around privacy services, but not enough to fully take on Big Tech, especially in court. And not enough to change laws.
IMO, all privacy companies should advocate for banning data mining, even if it could hurt their business. I’ve seen non-profit organizations and activists do it, but not companies. I think some of them foolishly believe that they can beat Big Tech through capitalistic competition, but even if I believed that, we still need to pass laws. We just need to reach critical mass, and we need to do it long before Draconian laws are proposed.
There’s still a ton of work to be done. One thing I worry about is that they are not enough privacy advocates online in the non-English speaking world. And many, who are not from English-speaking countries, promote and do their work in English. I want to see non-English Louis Rossmanns, Naomi Brockwells, and privacy advocates all over the world.
And to be clear, I don’t mean people who will occasionally do a video about privacy and consumer rights. I’m talking about people who are dedicated to those issues and informing the public about them.
I hate that every business founder/CEO always professes to starting their business because they wanted to help people. Mask Zuckerberg just wanted to connect people. It might have started that way for some of them, as in they were trying to solve a problem people genuinely had, but it often doesn’t last. It’s hogwash. Hence, enshittification.
That’s 100% what they will do if the account is locked by their “fraud systems” and in my case I was using real IP address (no VPN), but simply anonaddy mail alias.
If you add a 2FA to a google account it certainly will ask you for an SMS number. There is entirely a chance you may be asked for a follow up SMS code if you ever want to disable 2FA or change to some other mechanism. It may even ask you if you flag some system too. So associating once-use numbers with Google accounts is a bad idea.
Older accounts are given more leniency.
Yes, or the screen where it says “to proceed with login you must enter security code from xxxx number”. If xxxx number is not able to give you a code, then you’re you’re out of luck. Their “support” will simply not answer you. I had this happen, launched several support tickets and none of them got a response.
Yes
Oh mostly just those garbage previews that are way oversized and mean only like 3 things fit on your screen as upposed to like maybe 20? It creates an experience where instead of simply reading down a page I have to use my scroll wheel like a mad thing to see anything.
I think it’s possible with the close people around you, but i think on the scale of many thousands you need to have significant social media following.
What I have found here though is in a lot of “safe seats” rusted on voters simply don’t even have time to consider their candidate’s policy and vote for a “team” or “color” that results in all sorts of irregular policies. Some places might be better than others, it really just depends on where you live. I think apathy is a huge problem for people who are currently living comfortable lives.
It would be good, as we’ve seen Facebook used for all sorts of non-english misinformation campaigns.
I also think it comes from demands by the board, and the fact that when a company is publicly traded people want more dividends on their shares.
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Using an alias with Amazon
Wow. Did you create a new Amazon account with an alias, or simply update an old account with an alias?
I’ve had an Amazon account for years, and I distinctly remember updating my email to a Proton Pass alias a couple of months ago. Weeks later, I tried logging in with my alias, and it didn’t work. It said the account didn’t exist, which really scared me. Then I tried logging in with my old Gmail address and to my shock it worked. My theory is that I forgot to confirm my alias address when I made the update. I intend to do it again, but your story definitely worries me.
TOTP 2FA with Google
I understand that. But I don’t intend to disable TOTP 2FA. With my current Google account, which is over a decade old and tied to my personal identity, I have been asked many times to confirm if my number is still the same. All I do is click yes. I’m never actually asked to verify my number.
On older Google accounts and lieniency
That’s probably true. But I have an old pseudonymous Google account that I lost access to via web because years ago Google stated requiring users to provide their number, and I refused to provide mine.
If I log in via web it will work, but I won’t be able to access my emails, because it will ask me to provide a phone number to continue, and I don’t want to. I still have access to my emails through Mozilla Thunderbird, but if my computer ever dies, I’m screwed. None of my internet accounts are associated to that email address anymore.
I still intend to create a pseudonymous Google account with an SMSPool number that I will eventually lose. My goal for that account is simply for YouTube. I will never use for email. If I lose access to it later, I accept my fate.
On Google Support
It depends on the scenario. Since Google Drive rebranded itself into Google one, they’ve had phone support for paying users and I have successfully used it, and it wasn’t even for my self.
My cousin got locked out of her Google account because she forgot her password and also had never updated Google with her new number, which she changed years before. Since I have a paid Google Drive account, I requested a call from Google and explained the situation about my cousin. Keep in my mind, my cousin didn’t live in the same city as me. Google put us in a three-way call, with three different times zones, and eventually confirmed that my cousin was the owner of her account, and she was granted access. She didn’t have to share copies of her personal ID, either.
This was years ago, Google One was still new, but it could still work today. The only difference is, if I lose access to a pseudonymous account, I don’t want to identify myself in order to be able to reclaim it as it’s meant to not have any personal info about me attached to it.
On political apathy
That might be a factor, but another one is that millions of people are so too busy surviving, and overwhelmed with work and life stuff, that they don’t have the time to properly consider these issues that directly affect them.
True. But even with private companies, I’m skeptical of the “wanting to help” schtick. I don’t buy it easily.
Was a new account for a family member, wanted to use the free amazon prime promo.
If it’s an old account with history youy might have luck. This is one of the reasons I don’t like things like e-books tired up with DRM, if you lose the account for whatever reason you lose all purchases. Additionally we see that with streaming services where a thing is licensed for a period of time then it’s gone.
That’s not the same message, the message you can get won’t allow you to login until you verify. It probably won’t effect an old account but it will certainly be an issue for new ones. I would not associate mobile numbers with a google account you cannot access later on. There is little privacy benefit and a lot to lose if you’re locked out. At that point you’re better off without 2FA if it’s a non-serious account, just use a strong password and don’t login from potentially compromised devices.
That will be fine, but I think you’ll be asked for phone number if you mess with the 2FA settings either enabling or disabling them. I wanted to use TOTP, it asked me for mobile number to be added. I added a number, and added the code. Was never able to login again. I think Google put the account into a flagged state because of it being from a VOIP provider.
I would not enable 2FA or mess with it, maybe set a strong password and leave it at that.
I also think that’s being exploited to some extent, for example repeated attempts by various agencies to push the same laws through regardless of if they are wanted by the wider community, eg Chat Control aka Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse.
This suggests that perhaps the best strategy is to sign up with an email address from any provider that doesn’t require a phone number, use it for a couple of purchases, and after a couple of months update the address to an alias.
I hate DRM too. I’ve only bought eBooks from Amazon once. I will never do it again. Especially since they locked computer access to your e-books. Kobo is currently my go-to. It’s also my understanding that their DRM is much easier to get around. They even sell some e-Books without DRM.
I guess there’s only one way for me to find out. I’m tired of my YouTube history being associated to my personal identity. I know there are great privacy tools like FreeTube, which I use. But I still want a pseudonymous Google account that’s not linked to my identity. FreeTube can be very buggy when you use a VPN.
Maybe that is indeed what triggered your issues. The numbers provided by SMSPool are real numbers not VOIP. I would imagine that that makes a difference.
It’s not possible. No one can sign up for a Google account in 2025 without providing a phone number. Most mainstream email providers require a phone number even if you have no intention of enabling 2FA. Remember that I lost access to an old pseudonymous account because they want me to provide my number even if my password is correct.
Exactly. I really hope it doesn’t pass. But we’ve got a few months to fight, so let’s give it our best shot.