The Front Lines Need You: Why We’re Doubling Down on Reddit (Despite Reddit)
Join Us www.reddit.com/r/EyesOnICE Act Now And Get Your Limited Edition FBI Agent While Supplies Last!
Hey Eyes on ICE family.
You’re reading this on Substack, which is where we do our deep dives, publish the Starve The Beast wiki entries, and break down the systemic issues. But the front lines of our real-time reporting - the raw, fast-moving, on-the-ground reality - lives over on our subreddit, r/EyesOnICE.
Today, we’re asking you to join us there. And we have some major updates about how that space is changing, the security concerns you need to know about, and why the work happening there is literally changing the narrative in Washington.
🔓 THE GATES ARE OPEN - NO MORE TITLE REQUIREMENTS
If you’ve tried to post on our subreddit before and got frustrated by the strict title formatting rules, we hear you. We have removed the mandatory post title requirement. Effective immediately. We built those rules with good intentions for structure and easy scanning. But we realized that when someone is witnessing a raid, reporting a detention, or posting critical information in their second or third language, the last thing they should navigate is a formatting hoop.
Information moves faster than templates. We chose information. If your post title is just a news link, a location, a name, or four words typed fast on a phone - that is enough. Get it up. We’ll sort the rest.
🗣️ WE NEED YOUR BRAINS - SHAPING THE SUBREDDIT
We’re building out the Reddit community in public, and we want our Substack readers to help shape it. Head over to r/EyesOnICE and tell us what you want to see. Some things we are already exploring:
Weekly Threads: A pinned “What did ICE do this week” roundup thread.
Legal Resource Flair: Posts tagged specifically for know-your-rights info, lawyer contacts, and bail funds.
Language Support: We want posts in any language. If you can translate for someone in the comments, please jump in.
Witness Reports: A dedicated flair for direct, on-the-ground accounts.
Community AMAs: Immigration attorneys, advocates, journalists, researchers. Who do you want to hear from?
🗑️ REDDIT DELETED OUR MOD POST - AND THAT TELLS EVERYTHING
You might be wondering: Why build on Reddit if the platform is hostile? Here is the reality of what we are dealing with.
Recently, we submitted a mod support post through official channels asking legitimate questions about moderation tools and community protections. They deleted it. Not removed for a rule violation. Not answered and archived. Deleted.
A platform that deletes moderation support requests from a community monitoring immigration enforcement - while simultaneously doing what is outlined below - is a platform that has made its values visible. We see them. We’re writing them down.
But we are not going anywhere. Ban us and we’ll be back. Delete our posts and we’ll repost. We will use their infrastructure to document the truth until they unplug the servers.
⚠️ CRITICAL SAFETY NOTICE - PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY
If you do join us on Reddit, we need you to be smart about your security.
There is a documented Reddit post circulating that strongly suggests Reddit has been providing user data access to DHS. Alarming reports indicate this access included users’ alt account names - the exact accounts people use for a layer of separation.
Let that sit for a second.
We are not in a position to tell you exactly how this access works, but we can tell you how we operate. This community will never, under any circumstances:
Ask for personal information via DM or Modmail.
Ask you to identify yourself, your location, your family, or anyone you’re helping.
Collect, store, or share any identifying information about any user.
🚨 If anyone reaches out to you claiming to be a mod from r/EyesOnICE and asks for personal information - that is not us. Report it immediately.
Protect yourself. Use a throwaway email. Use a VPN. Don’t use your primary handle. We don’t need to know who you are to let your information matter.
👁️ WHY IT MATTERS - LOOK AT THE TILLIS HEARING
If you want to know why we endure the friction of platforms like Reddit, look at the recent Senate Judiciary hearing.
Senator Thom Tillis - a Republican - sat in front of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and told her, on the record, to resign.
Why did that happen? Because communities like ours kept the receipts visible. The OIG letter documenting her stonewalling. The FEMA bottleneck. The Minneapolis detentions. The citizens who were murdered. The names - Renee Good, Alex Pretti - that the agency desperately wanted to keep as anonymous statistics.
You made them people.
Noem - who once shot her own dog for being hard to train and called it “decisive leadership” - labeled operations successful before the facts were established. She deflected. She stonewalled. The dog did nothing wrong. The community did everything right.
🧭 JOIN THE RESISTANCE
We want to be on the right side of history. That means documenting what is happening, being accurate when we’re angry, and protecting each other.
The machine is loud right now. It is counting on us getting tired, isolated, and overwhelmed. We are none of those things. Omnipresent resistance is not a strategy; it’s what is already happening.
Come bring your voice, your research, and your eyes to the subreddit. Say hello. Help someone find their footing.
- The Eyes On ICE Team
Find us everywhere: 📌 Join the Subreddit 🎵 TikTok 🧵 Threads 🦋 Bluesky 🖼️ Imgur
Decentralized alternatives to Reddit:
- https://join.piefed.social/
- https://join-lemmy.org/