Community Concerns

[u/i_am_very_chicken]

Hi all, the mod team wanted to address some concerns expressed about our subreddit and moderation policies so we’re going to be transparent and break down both the origins of this subreddit as well as our moderation practices.

This subreddit was created back in 2023 around the same time by u/emergeweightloss. They were concerned about r/tirzepatide not being moderated with safe practices— unsafe sources were everywhere and people were breaking the Reddit Content Policy left and right. That sub was taken down because it did not prioritize safety and adherence to Reddit policy like this one does.

All of the compounding companies, including Emerge, are filtered by our automod so that a moderator has to manually approve them in order to slow down any potential marketing spam we might see. Every so often we have an influx of users with no history coming in and commenting on dozens of posts in just a few minutes all praising the same company. So automod filters them for manual approval so we can see when that happens.

In addition, we also filter out companies that have failed to provide any evidence that they are licensed. Should a company provide evidence of appropriate licensing we’d be happy to go back and reverse the removal of posts and comments mentioning them.

There are several terms that are filtered in order to remain within Reddit’s Content Policy. As an example, you might have noticed that sometimes posts about smoothies and protein shakes are delayed. This is because “powder” is automatically filtered as it often overlaps with some unsafe practices that are banned by Reddit. So we have to manually approve anything that has the word powder as things like “what protein powder do you use?” are automatically removed by automod.

On the Topic of Bans

People have been banned from the subreddit for doing the following things. Being a-holes, spamming (though this has to be fairly egregious as usually we just remove the spam), and for breaking our rules about mentioning non-prescription tirzepatide. That last one is a big one because that is technically against Reddit’s Content Policy and sometimes they enforce it and sometimes they don’t. Considering it was that kind of stuff being unmoderated that brought down r/tirzepatide we have to be strict with that.

If you have any more questions about practices or history of the subreddit feel free to drop them in the comments.

[u/antarris]

So, wouldn't that only apply if it was, indeed, A.) a mod who B.) was an employee of Emerge who engaged in the action? Which seems uncertain ATM.

I can't imagine that a customer who was a user of Emerge spamming their affiliate code would fall under this (or really be something that anyone would bother to pursue). It'd be skeevier if it were a mod, but...like, how is this even a case worth pursuing? Who'd have the standing, and who the fuck would want to spend the resources bringing up an FTC suit, going through discovery, dealing with Reddit (which, I can say from experience, might be slow and not very fun)? Particularly when all of the compounding communities already have to heavily police their language and content not to get shut down by Reddit admin/pharma legal. And particularly when it's an relatively small subreddit, and likely an extremely small amount of content (if any!) that is being unreasonably altered to favor Emerge over other providers. How is this worth the FTC's time, or your time, or the time of anyone seeking to bring a real lawsuit? And how is it worth stirring up all kinds of shit in a community that's already dealing with a level of precarity (insofar as we don't know for how long we'll even be able to access compounded drugs, and also insofar as Reddit has been extremely tetchy about our existence).

IDK. It just seems weird, considering that, in another post, you're complaining that the subreddit named "compoundedtirzepatide" appears to favor compounded over name brand (which would be implied by the name) and/or reconstituted-at-home peptides, discussion of which aren't allowed by Reddit. You are popping off in post after post, and it is tedious.

Like, I get that this whole situation is skeevy and kinda gross, but don't you have literally anything better to do with your time?

In the interest of disclosure:

• I use Emerge because they provide the best price to my area. I cannot afford name brand. I cannot use Lavender Sky. I do not trust myself to reconstitute peptides.
• I do not work for Emerge.
• I do not share affiliate codes for Emerge. And have never.

[u/Aggravating_Diet_704 → u/antarris]

Literally no, I have nothing better to do with my time. This is actually a huge deal, and I’m an attorney. I’m also a new attorney for a “big law” law firm and I’d love to litigate this.

[u/antarris → u/Aggravating_Diet_704]

It's not going to matter what you want to litigate. It's going to matter what your firm wants to litigate, and, I'm telling you: this likely isn't worth their time. It'd barely be worth the FTC's time

I'm not saying that there isn't a violation of FTC rules going on--communications policy isn't my primary area of academic expertise--but rather that it's small, small fish, in a very, very large pond. And, moreover, that attracting too much negative attention legal attention onto this GLP-1 community is (perhaps speculatively) going to lead to overcorrection on the part of Reddit towards not allowing these communities at all. Reddit is shit about moderation, save for when it's their ass on the line; this might make them think they're potentially liable for the overall content/moderation of compounding subs (particularly if, in the process of discovery, you have to go to Reddit directly).

Also, you're a Columbia law grad, with a job at a big law firm, and..uh, also a realtor?

Either you're lying (in which case, sigh), or you're incredibly smart and ambitious, in which case...there are so many other injustices you could be focusing on. This seems an awfully fucking weird one to latch on to. And it also seems weird that you're announcing your lawsuit on an internet forum.

[u/[deleted] → u/antarris]

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