Reddit bans The Donald subreddit and other far right forums. Why?

By Alma Fabiani

Published Jul 1, 2020 at 01:05 PM

Reading time: 2 minutes

For those of you who’ve never heard of it, Reddit is an online forum and social news platform with an impressive network of communities based on people’s interests, which are separated into different pages called ‘subreddits’. The platform is also infamous for giving freedom of speech free reign, sometimes leading to some pretty shocking statements on there.

But on Monday, Reddit kicked off a surprising day of bans against Trump and the far right. It started by banning the subreddit r/The_Donald, a pro-Trump forum, known for repeated ‘rule-breaking’. As the platform banned more and more subreddits, many wondered why it was doing so only now. Here’s why.

Although The Donald was considered as the most important ban, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that it was just one of 2,000 subreddits banned by the site as it was on a mission to institute rule changes designed to make the platform less accommodating to hateful and abusive communities. As it later turned out, The Donald had been close to inactive for months and most of the other banned subreddits were small or inactive too.

Only a few others were notable, including the subreddit r/ChapoTrapHouse, which was associated with the left-wing podcast of the same name. Another subreddit called Gendercritical, which regularly promoted transphobic views was also banned.

This day of bans reminded many of the similar sequence of bans that took place in August 2018, when conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was banned from many social media platforms in only a few days.

Later in the day on Monday 29 June, the live-streaming video service Twitch announced that it had temporarily suspended Trump’s account for rebroadcasting comments about Mexican immigrants that broke its “hateful conduct and harassment policies.” Could these new bans be specifically aimed at Trump?

YouTube also followed by banning several far-right and racist creators from its video-sharing platform, including white supremacists David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Stefan Molyneux. While these actions should definitely be appreciated, it should also be noted that all three seemed to have been taken a bit too late.

These bans were all preceded by policy changes at Facebook and Twitter, which both shifted how the platforms handle rule-breaking behaviour by accounts linked to the president as well as the far right. The subreddit The Donald once played an important part in the pro-Trump internet community and its organisation. Over the years, it had managed to bring extremist content in front of big audiences.

In 2016, Huffman had limited the reach of the subreddit after it figured out how to get the site’s algorithms to promote pro-Trump content. Members were spreading the Pizzagate conspiracy theory while volunteer moderators had asked Huffman to do something in order to fight the abuse and harassment communities faced from The Donald members.

Some would agree that Reddit’s bans came too late; but then again, better late than never, no? These policy updates come three weeks after Black Lives Matter protests led many Reddit forums to ‘go dark’ in protest of the company’s lax policies around hosting (and therefore promoting) conservative and racist content. Reddit’s change of approach towards free expression on its platform proves that things might finally start to change.

Keep On Reading

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Is Brazilian weight loss influencer Mila De Jesus dead? Fans concerned about cause of death

By Abby Amoakuh

Watch this video of pro-Palestinian protesters raiding an airport in search of Israelis

By Charlie Sawyer

Russian scientist injects himself with 3.5-million-year-old bacteria to try and live forever

By Charlie Sawyer

Will the Supreme Court banish Trump from the presidential ballot? Social media users have their say

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Exploitation exposed: British farms accused of modern slavery amid Home Office cover-up

By Abby Amoakuh

As cities wage a war on wee, the UK public toilet crisis intensifies

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

4-year-old becomes second child to have near-death experience after drinking iced slushy

By Abby Amoakuh

Did Taylor Swift disrespect Céline Dion at the 2024 Grammys? We investigated the incident

By Abby Amoakuh

New Brandy Melville HBO documentary paints CEO Silvio Marsan as super creepy

By Jack Ramage

Is your boss tripping on acid? New research suggests so

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Inside Johnny Depp’s bizarre new bromance with Saudi Crown Prince MBS

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Christmas on the streets: Inside the UK’s heartbreaking 14% homelessness increase

By Charlie Sawyer

Who is Pookie, the wife of Jeff Puckett, aka the most complimentary man on TikTok?

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Woman born with two uteri expecting a child in both, a one in 50 million chance

By Alma Fabiani

Alicia Keys surprises London commuters with piano performance at St Pancras train station

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Tom Holland has ultimate rizz, Zendaya just confirmed it

By Charlie Sawyer

Miley Cyrus fans convinced that her bodyguard was hiding something shocking at Grammys 2024

By Charlie Sawyer

Gwyneth Goes Skiing is a campy delight, plus it’s doing wonders for Gwyneth Paltrow’s PR

By Charlie Sawyer

Who are Marvel actor Jonathan Majors’ girlfriend and ex-girlfriend, Meagan Good and Grace Jabbari?

By Abby Amoakuh

Nikki Haley pushes ahead of Ron DeSantis as Chris Christie drops out of presidential race