Remove a Reddit Post About You: What Works
How to remove a Reddit post about me: who decides, which rule to cite, how to report to admins and moderators, and what stays up even when it hurts.
To remove a Reddit post about you, you ask whoever has the power to act on it: the author, the moderators of the community, or Reddit's admins. The admins act only when the post breaks a sitewide Reddit Rule, such as posting personal information, sharing intimate media without consent, impersonation or harassment. A post that is merely unflattering, or even untrue, is not on that list.
That is why most requests fail: they argue that the post is unfair, when the person reading the report is checking it against a written rule. This guide gives you the order of operations. Sort the post by what it shows, pick the layer that can remove it, file one precise report with links, follow up once, and deal with the copies that remain after the thread is gone.
Everything about Reddit's rules below comes from Reddit's own help pages as we read them for this article. Reddit changes its policies, and several pages we wanted, including the rules index, the page on contacting the admins and the report page itself, could not be opened, so check them before you file. This is information, not legal advice.
- Decide what the post shows before you do anything else. Personal information, intimate media, impersonation and targeted abuse are removable under sitewide rules. Criticism and opinion usually are not.
- Moderators decide for their own community, admins decide for the whole site. Report to the admins when a sitewide rule is broken, and message the moderators when a community rule is.
- File one report per post or comment, with direct links, the usernames and the name of the rule. Do not argue with the thread.
- A removal does not remove screenshots, reposts or the search result that points to the thread. Plan that second step before the first.
- If no rule fits, the realistic options are a reply with facts, a request to the author, a legal route with your own counsel, or patience.
Remove a Reddit post about you: five routes, in the order to try them
Start with the cheapest route that can work and only escalate when it cannot. The table puts the five routes side by side. The first column is the order we usually try them in, and the last column says when a route will fail.
| Route | Works when | Speed | Fails when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask the author | The poster is reachable and reasonable, or the post was a mistake | Hours to days | The poster is hostile, or your message reads like a threat |
| Message the moderators | The post breaks a rule of that community, or shows personal information | Hours to days | The moderators wrote the rule that allows it, or ignore messages |
| Report to the admins | A sitewide rule is broken and you can name it | Days, sometimes longer | The post is criticism, opinion or accurate public information |
| Legal request | You have a lawful basis and counsel to assert it | Weeks to months | The claim is only that the post is harsh, or you cannot show it is unlawful |
| Respond or wait | No rule fits and the post is not lawful to remove | Weeks to months | A reply to an old thread revives it |
The speeds are ranges from experience, not promises. The content moderation page says only that reports are reviewed and acted on "in a timely manner".
Related readReport a Mastodon Post About Me: Who Can Remove ItWho decides: the author, the moderators or Reddit's admins
Three different parties can make a post disappear, and they answer to different rules. Reddit's content moderation page says that moderators create and enforce the rules of their own community and perform most community moderation, while admins, who are Reddit employees, are responsible for enforcing the Reddit Rules across the platform.
The author
The person who posted can delete the post or comment at any time. Reddit's public content policy page says deleted posts and comments are no longer publicly displayed on Reddit, and that licensees of Reddit's public content must stop using them. The same page says Reddit says it cannot guarantee that third parties have deleted copies.
The moderators
Each community has its own rules, and some are stricter than the sitewide ones, for example no posts about named private individuals. If the post breaks one, the moderators can often act faster than the admins. They do not owe you a reply, so give them a reason to act in one short message.
The admins
For anything covered by a sitewide rule, the report goes to Reddit's admins through the report page or the report button beside the post. Reddit's page on posting personal information points to the same report page. The content moderation page lists what admins can do, from removing content and warning the user to temporary or permanent bans. Severity and the user's history set the response: some violations lead to an immediate permanent ban, others follow a path from a warning to a 3-day ban, a 7-day ban and then a permanent ban.
Related readRemove a Tumblr Post About Me: Reblogs and ReportsWhat Reddit's own rules will remove, and what they will not
Reddit will act on the post if it falls inside one of a few written rules. Match your post to the right row before you write anything.
| What the post shows | Rule to cite | Who should file | Realistic outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your contact details or location, or a link to them | Posting personal information | You, or anyone who sees it | The page states that the poster will be banned |
| Intimate or sexual media of you, real or faked | Intimate media without consent (Rule 3) | You or your representative, stating no consent | Strongest case on the platform |
| An account posing as you | Impersonation | Report button; the page does not say who may file | Good if it is misleading, weak if it is labeled parody |
| Repeated abuse aimed at you | Harassment, part of Rule 1 | You, with links to each item | Depends on pattern; one rude comment rarely qualifies |
| A bad review, accusation or opinion about you | None sitewide | Not applicable | Usually stays up unless a community rule or the law applies |
Personal information
Reddit's page on private information says it is not okay to post someone's personal information or to post links to personal information, and that doing so will get the poster banned. The page names public Facebook pages and screenshots with names still legible as examples, and it does not define personal information beyond that. It adds that public figures can be an exception to the rule. For you, the practical test is whether the post gives someone a way to find, contact or confront you, as opposed to saying something about what you did.
Intimate media
Reddit's page on intimate media says the rule bans sharing intimate or sexually explicit media of a person created or posted without their permission, including depictions that may have been AI-generated or faked, and it applies when the person or their representative reports that they do not consent to public sharing. Reddit offers an inline report feature in the app and on the website, and a separate reporting page. Here the affected person should file, say plainly that they do not consent, and move fast. The leak removal page describes how we handle these files; the rest of this guide covers the other categories.
Impersonation
The impersonation page says Reddit prohibits impersonating individuals or entities in a misleading or deceptive manner, and gives as examples using a business's name to offer deals on its behalf without authorization and posing as a Reddit admin. It says elements such as the name, description, profile picture and activity can indicate impersonation, and that a fan account using a celebrity's name does not violate the policy if it does not assume that identity in interactions. Reddit encourages fan, parody and satire accounts to say they are unofficial. If the account is plainly a joke, expect the report to fail. If it is trying to be believed, list the elements that show it.
Related readRemove a Blogspot Post About Me: Blogger and WordPress.comHarassment
The harassment policy is part of Rule 1. In a policy report filed with the New York Attorney General, Reddit says Rule 1 prohibits harassment and bullying, defines harassment as conduct that works to shut someone out of the conversation through intimidation or abuse, online or off, and says that being annoying, downvoting or disagreeing, even strongly, is not harassment. It lists menacing someone, directing abuse at a person and following them from community to community among the examples, and says Reddit looks at the pattern of behavior. We could not open the Help Center page for the rule itself, so check the live page before quoting it. A pattern of abuse is a different case from one hostile reply.
How to file a report that gets read
A good report is short, specific and impossible to misunderstand. The steps below apply to the admin report and, with a change of tone, to a message to the moderators.
- Save the evidence firstTake full-page screenshots showing the username, the community, the date and the text, and copy the direct link to each post and comment. Do this before you report, because the author may delete the content.
- Choose the ruleUse the table above to pick one rule per item. If a thread breaks two, report it under the stronger one and mention the other in one line.
- Report each item separatelyFile a report on the post and on every comment that repeats the problem. Removing the thread does not remove replies posted elsewhere, and a report with direct links and usernames is easier to act on.
- Write three sentencesSay what the content is, which rule it breaks and who you are in relation to it. Do not describe how upset you are, and do not accuse the poster of motives you cannot show.
- Do not reply in the threadA reply bumps the thread, draws more readers and gives screenshots a second life. Stay out until the report is resolved.
- Log every reportWrite down the date, the link, the rule cited and any reply. If a second attempt is needed, it should be a new report with better evidence, not a copy of the first.
Messaging the moderators
Use the community's modmail and keep it to a few lines: the link, the community rule the post breaks, and the one thing you ask for. Do not threaten legal action in a first message. A moderator who feels threatened has every reason to ignore you.
Asking the author
If the poster is reachable and the post is a misunderstanding, a short private message can work faster than any report. Say what is wrong and what you want changed. Never offer money, never imply a threat, and never pressure someone to delete a thread about accurate wrongdoing: that can look like intimidation.
A realistic timeline, and what to expect after removal
The timeline below reflects our experience on files like this, as ranges. It assumes a post that breaks a sitewide rule and that you report it correctly.
Related readRemove a Medium Post About Me: What Works| Stage | What happens | Usually |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Evidence saved, reports filed, moderators messaged | Same day |
| Days 1 to 3 | Moderators act, or the admin report is reviewed | Often within a few days when a clear rule is broken |
| Days 4 to 14 | No reply: send one follow-up with the same links, or file a better-evidenced second report | Rarely needs more than one follow-up |
| Weeks 2 to 6 | Search engines drop the removed thread | Varies by engine and page |
| Month 2 onward | Monitor for reposts, screenshots and new threads | Ongoing, light |
The poster is told, and can appeal
The content moderation page says that when content is removed, the poster is notified of the reason and given appeal instructions, and may appeal within six months of the notification. Reddit says it reverses the decision if its initial assessment was incorrect. Report under the clearest rule, because a post close to the line is likeliest to return.
Search results and copies outlive the post
When a thread is removed, search engines may still show its title and snippet until they re-crawl the page. Google's page on its Remove Outdated Content tool says the problem occurs when the page description or cache is outdated, and that the tool lets you request a refresh for a page, by URL, after the page has changed. Google's separate help page on removing private information says Google can only remove things from Google Search results, and that content may remain reachable through links, social media or other search engines.
Screenshots are the other leak. Reddit's Reddiquette guide asks users not to repost removed content, but it calls itself an informal expression of users' values, and it does not reach other sites. Search for the exact text and the username once the thread is gone, and report any reposts under the same rule.
When the post breaks no rule: criticism, opinion and accurate facts
If a post says you are bad at your job, or describes a real event that reflects badly on you, Reddit's sitewide rules usually do not apply, and reporting it as something else will not help.
Do not misreport, and reply at most once
It is tempting to call a harsh but accurate post harassment. A pattern of reports that do not match the rules makes later, valid reports easier to dismiss. If you reply at all, keep it to three sentences: what is inaccurate, what is accurate, and where the reader can verify. Then stop.
Related readRemove a Substack Post About You: Rules and RoutesThe legal route is narrow and needs counsel
Reddit's legal request portal says that its legal requests channel is for authorized government or law enforcement officials, and that any non-legal request should go through the Help Center. The portal page does not describe a private-party process for a defamation claim, and we could not find a Reddit page that does for this guide. A lawyer would usually start with a letter to the author or a court process, and the result depends on your country.
In the United States, 47 U.S.C. 230(c)(1) says no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of information provided by another, which is why platforms rely on their own rules. Section 230(e) says the section does not impair enforcement of federal criminal statutes and does not limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property, so a copyright claim over your own photo is a separate route. We did not read Reddit's copyright process page for this guide.
A worked scenario with stated assumptions
This is an invented scenario with generic parties. A self-employed consultant finds two things on Reddit. In a large community thread, an anonymous commenter has posted the consultant's mobile number and workplace and urged readers to call. Separately, in a smaller community, a thread titled with the consultant's full name describes a failed project and calls the consultant incompetent. Both have a few hundred views.
The assumptions: the consultant is a private person, the number is real, the failed project did happen, and the criticism is opinion about work.
Related readReport a Threads Post About Me: What Meta RemovesThe two items need opposite handling. The first is personal information and an invitation to harass, so the consultant saves screenshots and links, reports the comment to the admins under the personal information rule, messages the moderators with the same link, and does not reply in the thread. Once it comes down, the consultant checks whether the number appears elsewhere.
The second breaks no sitewide rule, so the consultant does not report it as harassment. A short message to the moderators asking whether the community allows threads naming private individuals is reasonable. If they say yes, the consultant writes one factual reply and, if the thread ranks for their name, treats it as a search problem, not a Reddit problem.
If this is happening to you now
If the post shows your address, phone number, workplace or intimate media, treat it as urgent: save the evidence, file one report per item with direct links, and name the rule it breaks. If the post is criticism and not a rule violation, Reputation Partners can tell you which route is realistic before you spend time on the wrong one. Start with the private audit.
Questions people ask
Can I remove a Reddit post if I do not know who posted it?
Yes. You do not need the poster's identity to report a post to the admins or to message the moderators. You need the direct link, the name of the community and the username shown on the post. Reddit's own rules, not the poster's identity, decide whether it comes down.
Will Reddit tell the poster that I reported them?
The content moderation page says that when content is removed, the poster is told the reason and given appeal instructions. The page we read does not say whether the poster is told who reported. Write every report as if the poster might read it.
How long does a Reddit post removal take?
Reddit publishes no turnaround we could read. The page says reports are reviewed and acted on in a timely manner. In our experience, a clear violation such as posted personal information is often handled within days, while a borderline report can take longer or be refused. Send one follow-up if you hear nothing for a week or two.
Does deleting my own Reddit account remove posts about me?
No. Posts about you were written by someone else, so deleting your account does not touch them. The public content policy page says deleting an account disassociates it from the content you posted, which concerns your own posts. To remove posts by others you need the author, the moderators or the admins, in the way this guide describes.
What if the post comes back after Reddit removed it?
A poster who was told their content was removed can appeal within six months, and Reddit reverses its decision if it finds the first assessment was wrong. If the post returns, or a copy appears, file a new report under the same rule, include the link to the earlier report and say the content is a repeat.
Can I get a Reddit thread out of search results without removing the thread?
Only in narrow cases. Google can remove results that expose certain private information, such as contact details, and says it removes things from Search only. A thread that is merely critical does not qualify. The more reliable fixes are removing the thread at the source or, if it must stay, publishing accurate pages of your own that search engines rank above it.
