As I write this I literally have a script ( https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite ) running deleting all posts and comments I made so I can delete my accounts and leave them with nothing. The last couple of days they have been prompting people to provide identification documents to access their accounts. This is going to start becoming more prevalent on platforms. I always hated the site but that’s crossed the line for me. So purpose of this post is just to give people a heads up while they still have access if they want to remove their data and / or delete the peice of shit from their life once and for all.
@noodNinja@sh.itjust.works
Hello. A former DevOps here. When you upload something to a web platform, chances are it’s going to stay there no matter how badly you try to “delete” or “edit” it.
This is due to the way database for social media platforms are engineered. When you click the “delete” button, the record is simply marked as “hidden from view” rather than effectively deleted (in order to illustrate this, picture a sheet of paper written with a pen; the so-called “post deletion” is merely that pen adding a cute “hide this” text at the bottom of that sheet; the sheet of paper still exists, and so does everything that was written to it before).
This script you’re using does nothing too special; it’s simply programmed to try and mass-“edit” (also won’t effectively edit the original records) before clicking the “delete post” button in a controlled, timely manner (so not to trigger Reddit’s bot detection algorithms). At no moment it have access to the physical data centers controlled by Reddit, so you can’t possibly edit/remove the posts from their database entries.
Whoever controls this database (Reddit admins and their automated systems) can revert the database entry and voila, the post is public again, regardless of your will.
Even if the record were effectively removed from the database entries, it wouldn’t be able to remove from the backup files. If the database were fused with the old backup, your post would be up again.
Also, chances are your posts are already part of the mathematical mashup comprising the weights of LLMs out there; in order to make the LLMs to “forget” your posts, it must be trained all over again with a training data containing none of your posts. And of course the clanker corporations won’t do that, at least not out of their goodwill.
The only way to hopefully get Reddit (and clankers) to actually forget your posts, is by invoking things such as GDPR’s “right to be forgotten”. Reddit may not respect your will when you click a decorative “delete post” button, but they have to comply with things like EU laws, or they’ll face legal consequences for not doing so. Although… you’d likely need a lawyer in order to enforce GDPR’s (or your country’s equivalent law) clauses. Needless to say, I am not a lawyer, it’s just that this matter requires a legal solution rather than a technical solution.
!reddit@lemmy.world
While all this is true, it’s still worth it to edit/delete the content, so reddit doesn’t continue getting value from showing it to other users
I think their point is that Reddit can revert edits and deletions, and they’ve been known to do so.
From what I can tell they have not done that with the posts I deleted a few years ago, so I would still recommend trying.
Exactly.
!reddit@lemmy.world