Reddit controversially bans The_Donald subforum and 2000 other subreddits

Reddit has banned the controversial subreddit The_Donald. 2000 other subreddits are also no longer accessible. The social network has expanded its rules around hateful content after several subreddits protested last week.

Reddit has updated its content policy. The main policy change is that sub-forums that “promote hate based on identity or vulnerability” are no longer allowed. The first line of the new policy is now “Remember the human,” which is intended to remind users that the site is not intended to harm individual users or vulnerable groups.

Reddit also added a new rule that summarizes previous rules surrounding unauthorized behavior. It is striking that ‘rogue attempts to disrupt other communities’ are no longer allowed. Other rules have been made clearer and more extensive.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says the social network has banned some 2,000 subreddits. The vast majority of them were inactive. According to Huffman, only 200 of those subreddits had more than ten daily active users.

The most notorious subreddits that have been banned are The_Donald, a major pro-Trump forum, and ChapoTrapHouse, a spinoff forum of a popular left-wing political podcast.

Both subreddits are said to have broken the new rules regularly, Huffman said. The_Donald is said to have left more than average posts that break the first line, but also harassed other users and subreddits. The moderators of the subreddits are also said to have refused to follow the rules. The same would have happened at ChapoTrapHouse.

The_Donald in particular has always been a controversial forum on the site. Several years ago, it was one of the largest online strongholds of supporters of the president, but its users often went to great lengths to glorify violence and meddle in other forums known as brigading. Despite this, Reddit never banned the forum. The site did decide to quarantine the subreddit last year. That means it was harder to read the posts. Since then, many users have moved to other sub-forums and alternative websites. There were very few active posts on The_Donald.

Other forums that have been banned focused a lot on vulnerable groups. Subreddits Soyboys, Cumtown, Gendercritical and DarkHumorandMemes have been banned, among others.

Reddit seems to be responding to recent sentiments on the platform with the new rules. Over the past few weeks, several subreddits went “black”. That happened after the death of black American George Floyd and the subsequent protests. Moderators and users complained about Reddit’s weak hate speech policy. They felt the network was taking too little action against the worst offenders, such as The_Donald.