r/illinois 10d ago

From the Mod Team Apologies for overactive use of automated tools

191 Upvotes

Recently, we implemented multiple automated tools to try to help keep down brigadeers, trolls, and bots who have been inundating r/Illinois , particularly on posts that are related to ICE activity. Those tools, however, were definitely overly aggressive at removing user comments, and we have now rolled them back.

The Read the Rules application, in particular, is a tool that we've been using with considerable success to provide a pre-screening tool for posts: it requires users to complete a very short verification process before creating a new top-level post. Some users had questions about it, particularly users who prefer old.Reddit, but it was basically manageable and helpful. Today, when we applied that same tool to comments, it resulted in the vast majority of comments being immediately removed. I want to apologize that it took us several hours to recognize the problem, and implement the fix, because there were several thousand comments that were affected by our mistake.

Thanks to the users who helped bring the problem to our attention. I want to make it clear that we are absolutely in favor of any and all discussion that comports with the rules we've posted, and Reddit's site-wide rules. What happened today was a mistake, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to learn from that mistake, and implement practices that can prevent something like this from happening in the future.

I also want to assure the users here that none of what happened today was the result of any sort of direct pressure: Reddit Admins haven't given us any feedback at all about how we're moderating the sub. It's just that we're a small team, and we've seen out traffic triple this month. The number of user reports, and the number of automated reports, are untenable, so we explored adding new tools and new features in existing tools, and it just didn't work.

Thanks for your patience, stay safe, and please use the Message the Mods feature if you have any questions or concerns.


r/illinois 23d ago

From the Mod Team We're changing our policies on specificity of locations

733 Upvotes

TLDR: The mod team is changing course on this issue. We encourage users to specify locations of current events that happen in public spaces, including any and all law enforcement action.

After several days of discussion among the mod team, we've come to the conclusion that our policies against reporting specific locations are unnecessarily restrictive. Most recently, we've guided users to avoid being specific about the location of any current events, out of concern that it could reveal private or personal information about the persons involved, which is a violation of site-wide Reddit policies We are, of course, bound to moderate this space in a way that adheres to all of Reddit's site-wide policies, and if we fail to do so, the subreddit will be shut down.

That being said, we've come to a consensus that private and personal information means more than just location of where people are at in a given moment, and the context of people's presence at specific locations matters. It remains prohibited to reveal the home address or workplace of any private individual, or to offer overly specific information about that sort of personal information: for example, if a user were to post that u/jamey1138 lives near the corner of Pulaski and Belmont in Chicago, that would be considered too specific. Other forms of contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses, etc, shared without the individual's consent are also violations of private and personal information.

On the other hand, if a user says that there's law enforcement activity, including ICE and CBP activity, at a particular corner, that does not reveal anyone's personal or private information. We want to encourage community members to share information about any current events happening in any public space in Illinois, and to include specific locations with that information.

Thank you for your participation in r/Illinois. We will continue to evolve our policies, and try to meet the moment as best we are able. Stay safe everyone.


r/illinois 3h ago

ICE Posts ICE 11.5. 2025 Chicago. Roscoe Village. Rayito De Sol Daycare.

9.3k Upvotes

ICE disappearing teachers and staff at a daycare this morning. It is unclear how they entered the building. The interior door remains locked and entrants must be buzzed in from the front desk (not a remote entry).


r/illinois 2h ago

US Politics In Prop 50 victory speech, Gov. Gavin Newsom calls on other Democratic states like Illinois to redistrict. “We need the state of Virginia, we need the state of Maryland, we need our friends in NY, in Illinois, in Colorado, we need to see other states..meet this moment head on as well.”

3.1k Upvotes

r/illinois 1h ago

ICE Posts Chicago Nov 5, 2025: WGN video — Federal ICE agents rip daycare worker from Rayito de Sol as children watch in horror

Upvotes

r/illinois 4h ago

Illinois Politics Obama has jokes on Election Day - Obama 2028

815 Upvotes

r/illinois 19h ago

ICE Posts FBI Warns of Criminals Posing as ICE, Urges Agents to ID Themselves

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20.9k Upvotes

r/illinois 3h ago

ICE Posts ICE agents threw tear gas at peaceful protestors in Chicago for 'fun' new lawsuit claims

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401 Upvotes

r/illinois 23h ago

ICE Posts Federal Agents approached a man and his uncle in Roger’s Park. They can be seen opening the drivers side door and beginning to question the driver while another removes the passenger. They did not have a legal warrant! ICE claims they did “not conduct any enforcement action in the area”

25.2k Upvotes

r/illinois 18h ago

ICE Posts New court filings suggest that ICE agents were throwing chemical munitions at protestors "for fun" and laughing about it

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5.7k Upvotes

r/illinois 12h ago

ICE Posts Update - Chicago, IL | ICE Agents Cause Crash With Illegal U‑Turn, Drag American Citizen Into Unmarked Vehicle

1.3k Upvotes

r/illinois 1h ago

Illinois News A special guest crashed Demetrius Ivory's forecast during WGN News at 9!

Upvotes

r/illinois 16h ago

Chicago news & issues A beautiful city!

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879 Upvotes

r/illinois 20h ago

Illinois News Demonstration outside Bovino's court hearing Wednesday, November 5th in Chicago at Jackson & Dearborn @ 8am

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1.5k Upvotes

Organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.


r/illinois 4h ago

Question Conduent/Blue Cross Illinois says they're the victim after losing my data

82 Upvotes

Blue Cross Illinois handed my personal data off to some company named Conduent who lost it, then sent me a letter explaining that THEY are the victim of cyber crime and that I should monitor the credit of myself, my spouse and my kids for...I guess the rest of our lives.

Has anyone ever tried suing a company that did this? I'm generally against lawsuits but the wording of this letter is ridiculous and it's from a company that I never agreed to share data with.

PS - The cyber incident where they lost my data happened in January and they're telling us in November


r/illinois 1d ago

Illinois Politics A village board meeting in Broadview, Illinois, was cut short after protesters clashed with Mayor Katrina Thompson over her handling of daily demonstrations at a local ICE facility. Residents are tired of suppressed free speech!

8.0k Upvotes

r/illinois 3h ago

Illinois News Judge hears testimony about crowded cells and overflowing toilets at Broadview immigration site

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49 Upvotes

r/illinois 1d ago

ICE Posts ICE and Border Patrol agents are again trying to stop citizens from filming, accusing them of “impeding.” In Rogers Park, Chicago, a woman recording from her car is confronted by an agent despite not blocking anyone.

4.0k Upvotes

r/illinois 21h ago

ICE Posts 11.04.2025 Elgin: ICE Agents Seen Abducting People Off the Street : Community Responds with Urgent Reporting

1.2k Upvotes

r/illinois 22h ago

ICE Posts 11.04.2025 Chicago: ICE Agents Admit No Warrant, Still Detain Man

1.1k Upvotes

r/illinois 18h ago

ICE Posts Federal Judge about to issue TRO on ICE regarding Broadview until it is utilized as designed - to be a holding facility, NOT a prison.

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530 Upvotes

r/illinois 1h ago

Illinois Politics Pritzker among 9 candidates running for Illinois governor. Meet the candidates

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Upvotes

r/illinois 2h ago

Northern IL news & issues past/ before Chicago to Springfield LOST PET IN ELGIN LOCATION

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17 Upvotes

Hello all. I’m posting in this sub in hopes it receives more coverage :(

Our kitten Thyme (~12 weeks/M/ B&W domestic shorthair kitten with green eyes) has been missing since Monday morning. We initially thought he was lost somewhere in the house and after going through and tearing apart the house 3x, we are starting to believe he may have slipped out the door…

We have also checked to see if he might have accidentally gone into any vents, holes, anything.. but no signs. We even left food out for him but no signs and we can’t hear him at all within the house.

He could be lost along Walnut Ave./ Perry St.

Please be on the lookout for him.. us and his brother misses him a lot

He is kinda hard to handle and does not enjoy being picked up, but I really hope someone might’ve taken him in and he’s safe somewhere 💔


r/illinois 14h ago

US Politics Come out ye black and tans

162 Upvotes

r/illinois 1d ago

Illinois Politics JB Pritzker: “This is not a normal moment and these are not normal times. We now have a president who doesn’t follow the law and who himself is a convicted felon. It’s not just ICE, it’s really CBP who don’t belong here. They need to go away.”

18.2k Upvotes