Reddit's automated moderation system is apparently flagging the word "Luigi" as potentially violent, The Verge reported.
On Friday, a post appeared on the r/FreeLuigi subreddit stating, "PSA: the word 'luigi' is now flagged by reddit for violence." A screenshot of a comment about the video game Luigi's Mansion 3 on the r/popculture subject shows a highlight of the word "Luigi" and a tag, "Check for Violence - [Luigi]."
r/FreeLuigi is a community dedicated to Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Since Mangione's arrest in December, he has received a flood of support online, both because of his status as a "folk hero" amid outrage at the U.S. healthcare system, and because of his physical attractiveness. His legal defense team recently created a website as supporters donate to his defense fund and follow his case. Mangione is currently being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, according to the website.
A Reddit spokesperson told Mashable there is "no sitewide filter for the word 'Luigi' or expectation that users stop talking about Luigi Mangione." Despite this, however, the same user posted a second example of Reddit "flagging" Luigi, telling the user to check for violence. The spokesperson added that "there are clearly many people talking about Luigi Mangione, including in r/popculture and in r/freeluigi."
So, why is this happening? "As part of our Mod Code of Conduct, one of the mods of r/popculture was suspended for approving a large number (at least 20) of comments containing direct calls for violence, including images celebrating Thomas Matthew Crooks and content calling to assassinate the president," the spokesperson continued. "In this specific instance, because r/popculture only had one remaining mod, we added Automod filters in that one community to help the remaining mod better review content that may contain calls for violence. This included several rules, some focused on filtering reported content and some that included keywords that could – but don’t necessarily – indicate violating content."
"This action is specific to r/popculture, temporary, and mods can still approve the flagged content if it isn’t violating. We did this because there was only one mod and a high volume of content. The goal is to keep the community healthy and active."
The spokesperson added that this action is not applicable to the r/FreeLuigi subreddit. "It’s also worth noting that many mod teams proactively institute a similar Automod flag for the word “Luigi” in their communities," the spokesperson added.
UPDATE: Mar. 12, 2025, 11:10 a.m. Updated with statement from Reddit spokesperson explaining the reason behind 'Luigi' being flagged as potentially violent.
Topics Reddit
