Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 06:31, 25 December 2024

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Controversial Reddit communities" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

On the social news site Reddit, some communities (known as "subreddits" or "subs") are devoted to explicit, violent, propagandist, or hateful material. These subreddits have been the topic of controversy, at times receiving significant media coverage. Journalists, attorneys, media researchers, and others have commented that such communities shape and promote biased views of international politics, the veracity of medical evidence, misogynistic rhetoric, and other disruptive concepts.

The founders of Reddit have claimed they did not intend the platform to be a "bastion of free speech", where even hate speech would be tolerated. However, for a period of time, Reddit allowed these controversial communities to operate largely unrestricted. The site's General Manager, Erik Martin, has argued that objectionable material is a consequence of allowing free speech on the site.

Eventually, Reddit administrators instituted usage rules to allow for the banning of groups and members who stole or exposed personal information/images or promoted illegal activity, violence, shaming, racial or gender hatred, harassment, or extremist speech. Nevertheless, there remain various active and heavily-trafficked subreddits which skirt the edges of the rules.

Critics argue that while concerned Redditors and moderators often report these subs, they often remain open until a specific incident, or the actions of an individual, forces them to come under more intense scrutiny and requires administrators to decide between allowing distasteful content or suppressing dangerous or destructive communities. Critics have also charged that the site has been inconsistent in what it bans. Some banned users and communities have created or moved to other platforms, with some even saving a duplicate of their subreddit in order to preserve it elsewhere, in the event it gets banned.

At least one controversial subreddit was started or maintained by a high-profile user, New Hampshire legislator Robert Fisher.

History

When Reddit was founded in 2005, there was only one shared space for all links, and subreddits did not exist. Subreddits were created later, but initially they could only be created by Reddit administrators. In 2008, subreddit creation was opened to all users.

Reddit rose to infamy in October 2011, when CNN reported that Reddit was harboring the r/Jailbait community, a subreddit devoted to sharing suggestive or revealing photos of underage girls. In a 2011 incident, an r/Jailbait user posted a provocative image of an underage girl. A wave of Reddit users ("Redditors") sent private messages to the poster requesting more photos of the girl. Various news sources criticized r/Jailbait, and Reddit administrators closed the forum.

In 2012, the subreddit r/Creepshots received major backlash for sharing suggestive or revealing photos of women taken without their awareness or consent. Adrian Chen wrote a Gawker exposé of one of the subreddit's moderators and identified the person behind the account, starting discussion in the media about the ethics of anonymity and outing on the Internet.

In 2020, administrators banned the subreddit r/The_Donald for harassment, having previously taken steps to lower the sub's immediate visibility (such as creating an opt-in button).

Quarantining

In 2015, Reddit introduced a quarantine policy to make it more difficult to visit certain subreddits. To visit or join a quarantined subreddit, users must bypass a warning prompt. In addition, to prevent users from viewing their content accidentally, quarantined subreddits do not appear in non-subscription based (aggregate) feeds such as r/all. Additionally, quarantined subs do not generate revenue, and their user count is not visible. Since 2018, subreddits have been allowed to appeal a quarantine.

Misinformation

Reddit is highly prone to spreading misinformation and disinformation due to its decentralized moderation, user anonymity, and lack of fact-checking systems. A 2023 NPR article suggested that Redditors should exercise caution before taking user-created unsourced content as fact. Reddit communities exhibit the echo chamber effect, in which repeated unsourced statements come to be accepted among the community as fact, leading to distorted worldviews among users.

Medical misinformation

A 2021 letter from the United States Senate to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman expressed concern about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on the platform. A study the following year revealed an abundance of unsourced and potentially harmful medical advice on Reddit for urinary tract infections, like suggesting fasting as a cure.

Foreign influence

Critics have argued that since 2019, Russian-sponsored troll accounts and bots have taken over prominent left-wing and right-wing subreddits such as r/antiwar, r/greenandpleasant, and r/aboringdystopia, "suggest a Russian-led attempt to antagonize and influence Americans online, which is still ongoing."

Drug use

Some subreddits are dedicated to discussing unapproved or illegal drugs, including meth; opioids; novel psychoactive substances; performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids and SARMs; and 2,4-Dinitrophenol, a weight loss drug which the FDA declared unfit for human use in 1938 because it can cause fatal overdoses and cataracts. However, drugs-related subreddits have also enabled research and could provide information that would be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise. Reddit also contains subreddits dedicated to addiction recovery.

Snark subreddits

In snark subreddits, members (known as "snarkers") gossip about, express frustration towards, or "snark" on public figures. Some of these subs specifically target female influencers such as YouTubers and TikTokers.

Snark subreddits have been criticized, both by critics and by their targets, as an invasive form of cyberbullying.

Banned subreddits

Banned subreddits refer to subreddits that Reddit has shut down indefinitely.

Beatingwomen

On June 9, 2014, Reddit closed a subreddit called r/beatingwomen. The community, which featured graphic depictions of violence against women, was banned after its moderators were found to be sharing users' personal information online. These moderators were also collaborating to protect one another from site-wide bans. After r/beatingwomen was banned, the community's founder rebooted the subreddit under the name r/beatingwomen2 in an attempt to circumvent the ban; in response, Reddit banned his user account.

Braincels

After r/Incels was banned in November of 2017 (see below), r/Braincels took its place as the most popular subreddit for incels, or "involuntary celibates". Within five months 16,900 users had joined the sub, which promoted rape and suicide. It was banned in 2019 for violating Reddit's content policy with respect to bullying and harassment.

ChapoTrapHouse

r/ChapoTrapHouse was a subreddit dedicated to the leftist podcast Chapo Trap House. It is associated with the term dirtbag left. The community had 160,000 regulars before being banned on June 29, 2020 because they "consistently host rule-breaking content and their mods ... demonstrated no intention of reining in their community." Previously, the community had been quarantined for content that promoted violence. The community of the subreddit later migrated to an instance of Lemmy, a Reddit alternative.

The "Chimpire"

The term "Chimpire" refers to a collection of subreddits and affiliated websites that promoted anti-black racism and frequently used racial slurs.

In June 2013, Reddit banned the subreddit r/niggers for engaging in vote manipulation, inciting violence, and disrupting other communities with racist content. Reddit general manager Erik Martin noted that the sub was given multiple chances to comply with site rules: "users can tell from the amount of warnings we extended to a subreddit as clearly awful as r/niggers that we go into the decision to ban subreddits with a lot of scrutiny".

Following the ban of r/niggers, the subreddit r/Coontown grew to become the most popular "Chimpire" site, with over 15,000 members at its peak. Many of the posters on these subreddits were formerly involved with r/niggers.

Chodi

r/Chodi, whose name is derived from a crude Hindi sexual slang term, was a right-wing Indian subreddit that claimed to be a "free speech sub for memes, jokes, satire, sarcasm and fun". By January 2022, the sub had over 90,000 subscribers, who called open for genocide against Muslims and frequently propagated Islamophobic, anti-Christian, homophobic, and misogynistic content. According to a Time article, subscribers used intentional misspellings and slang to circumvent Reddit's anti-hate speech software. The Quint noted that Reddit is used as a haven for hate speech in India, citing r/Chodi's popularity as an example. The sub was banned on March 23, 2022 for promoting hate, causing its users to move to Telegram.

ChongLangTV

r/ChongLangTV, whose name is derived from the Great Wave off Kanagawa, was a Chinese-language subreddit that espoused extreme anti-Chinese sentiment. On March 2, 2022, when it had over 53,000 subscribers, Reddit administrators banned the sub for "exposing privacy of others". One subscriber told Radio Free Asia that the Reddit ban was due to Chinese long-arm internet censorship. The community's founder rebooted the subreddit under the name r/CLTV in an attempt to circumvent the ban, but Reddit banned his user account in response.

CreepShots

A year after r/jailbait was closed, another subreddit called r/CreepShots drew controversy in the press for hosting sexualized images of women taken without their knowledge. In the wake of this media attention, the user u/violentacrez was added to r/CreepShots as a moderator. This user moderated dozens of controversial subreddits as well as a few hundred general-interest communities.

In late 2012, reports emerged that Adrian Chen of Gawker was planning an exposé which would reveal u/violentacrez's real-life identity. In response to the impending article, the account u/violentacrez was deleted and several major subreddits banned links to Gawker. Moderators defended this decision, arguing that the impending article would constitute "doxxing", and that such exposure threatened the site's structural integrity.

When Chen informed u/violentacrez about the impending exposé, the user pleaded with Chen not to publish it. He expressed concern about its potential impact on his employment and finances, noting that his wife was disabled and that he had a mortgage to pay. He also worried that he would be falsely labeled a child pornographer or antisemite due to some of the subreddits he had created. Despite u/violentacrez's offer to delete his postings and leave Reddit, Chen insisted he would still publish the piece.

Gawker exposé

Chen published his exposé on October 12, 2012, revealing that u/violentacrez was a middle-aged programmer from Arlington, Texas named Michael Brutsch. By the next day, Brutsch had been fired by his employer, and Reddit briefly banned the link to the exposé. Brutsch wrote on Reddit that he received numerous death threats after the article was published.

Reddit CEO Yishan Wong defended the content Brutsch contributed to the site, arguing that it constituted free speech, while criticizing efforts to ban the Gawker link on the same basis. Wong stated that Reddit staff had considered a site-wide ban on the link, but rejected the idea for fear that it would be ineffective while also creating a negative impression of the site. Later, Brutsch briefly returned to Reddit on a different account, criticizing what he stated were numerous factual inaccuracies in the Gawker exposé.

A week after the exposé, Brutsch did an interview with CNN journalist Drew Griffin. In the interview, which aired on Anderson Cooper 360°, Brutsch was apologetic about his activity on Reddit. He explained that he enjoyed the appreciation he got from other Redditors, and that Reddit helped him relieve stress. Brutsch also described the support he had from administrators, stating that he had received an award for his contributions. Reddit responded that they regretted sending this award (for being named "Worst Subreddit" via a community vote); they also claimed that u/violentacrez had been banned on several occasions. Brutsch subsequently noted on Reddit that he regretted doing the interview, and he criticized the accuracy of Reddit's statement to CNN.

Chris Slowe, who was a lead Reddit programmer until 2010, said of the relationship between Brutsch and the Reddit staff: "We just stayed out of there and let him do his thing and we knew at least he was getting rid of a lot of stuff that wasn't particularly legal."

Ethics of outing

Gawker's outing of Brutsch as u/violentacrez led to contentious discussion about privacy and anonymity on the Internet. Some argued that that outing, or "doxing", was necessary to draw attention to objectionable content so it could be removed. Others claimed that fear of doxing and public retribution impeded people from exercising their right to legal free speech online.

Writing for The Guardian, Jude Doyle (then known as Sady Doyle) argued that certain doxings may be justified, comparing Gawker's article to the outing of Amanda Todd's alleged blackmailer. On the other hand, he argued that by engaging in "sensationalism" at the expense of cultural reform, doxings may unduly focus attention on individuals without confronting the underlying problems. In PC Magazine, Damon Poeter stated that while he had defended protecting anonymity on the Internet, he supported Brutsch being outed and felt the doxing was justifiable, as he thought the various subreddits that u/violentacrez contributed to were serious invasions of privacy regardless of legality.

The public outpouring of hostility towards Brutsch following the exposé prompted commentators such as Danah Boyd of Wired and Michelle Star of CNET to question the morality of outing as a way to enforce societal standards online. Several commentators expressed concern that the public shaming of Brutsch to serve as an example to others legitimizes Internet vigilantism and exposes individuals such as Brutsch to mass retribution.

CringeAnarchy

r/CringeAnarchy was a subreddit themed around "cringe", "edgy", politically incorrect content. Originally an uncensored (hence "anarchy") spinoff of r/cringe, its content later shifted to the far right, with anti-transgender and anti-"SJW" content taking over. The subreddit was quarantined in September of 2018, at which point it had over 400,000 subscribers.

Following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, anti-Muslim posts on r/CringeAnarchy increased. The sub was banned on April 25, 2019, for violating Reddit's content policy regarding violent content.

DarkNetMarkets

In 2015, federal agents requested Reddit employees to turn over the personal information of several users active in r/DarkNetMarkets, a darknet market discussion forum. The federal investigation's focus was illegal sales of drugs, weapons, and stolen financial details.

This subreddit was banned on March 21, 2018.

Deepfakes

r/Deepfakes was a controversial subreddit where subscribers used FakeApp to superimpose the faces of famous female actresses onto pornographic videos without their consent. These actresses included Emma Watson and Daisy Ridley. After the subreddit received notoriety from the press, Gfycat and Discord banned its videos. Pornhub followed suit on February 6, 2018, and a day later the subreddit was banned.

European

r/European was a far-right white nationalist subreddit focused on news relating to Europe. It was founded in 2013 after r/europe banned hate speech. Its users often promoted anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and racist content, and an informal survey showed that 17% of the sub's users openly identified as Nazis. The sub was set to private by its moderators, and in 2016 it was quarantined by the sitewide administrative staff in response to a post where a user bragged about assaulting a Muslim refugee. The users subsequently migrated to r/The_Donald, and then to r/Mr_Trump following a dispute with r/The_Donald's moderators. Reddit banned r/European on March 12, 2018, for violating its content policies.

FatPeopleHate

On June 10, 2015, citing an anti-harassment policy, Reddit banned five subreddits: r/FatPeopleHate, r/hamplanethatred, r/neofag, r/transfags, and r/shitniggerssay.

The largest of the five, r/FatPeopleHate, had an estimated 151,000 subscribers at the time. The sub hosted photos of overweight people for the purpose of mocking them. A Reddit admin said: "We will ban subreddits that allow their communities to use the subreddit as a platform to harass individuals when moderators don't take action".

Following the ban, Reddit users flooded the site with pictures of overweight people, as well as photos of Reddit's interim CEO Ellen Pao. Some users moved to Voat, a social aggregation website similar to Reddit, although other fat-shaming forums continued to exist on Reddit.

FindBostonBombers

Following the Boston Marathon bombing in April of 2013, members of the subreddit r/FindBostonBombers wrongly identified several people as suspects, including a 17-year-old track athlete and a 22-year-old Brown University student who had been missing since March. The missing student's body was found in the Providence River in Rhode Island on April 25, 2013, as reported by the Rhode Island Health Department. The cause of death was found to be suicide. The subreddit was later made private.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin later issued an apology for this behavior, criticizing the "online witch hunts and dangerous speculation" that took place in these investigation-oriented communities. In September 2013, Reddit admins banned a similar subreddit dedicated to finding the Navy Yard shooter(s). These events were dramatized in TV shows The Newsroom and The Good Wife.

frenworld

r/frenworld, whose title is derived from the alt-right meme "Clown World", attracted controversy over its use of Pepe the Frog edits and clown imagery to promote anti-Semitic and racist dog whistles. The Times of Israel and The Daily Dot found numerous references in the subreddit to Holocaust denialism, the USS Liberty incident, and alleged racial crime statistics.

A major aspect of the sub was users' use of slang and childish diction, such as "nose-fren" and "longnose" for Jews, "bop" for committing violence or genocide, and "Honk honk" as a euphemism for "Heil Hitler". On June 20, 2019, after it had accumulated around 60,346 subscribers, the sub was banned for glorifying violence. r/Honkler, which hosted similar content, was banned on July 2, 2019.

GasTheKikes

r/GasTheKikes was an antisemitic subreddit, the name of which alluded to the gas chambers used in the Holocaust. New York magazine described it as a "massive online Jew-hating community" among "the worst of the worst" subreddits. The community was banned from Reddit, after which a successor subreddit named r/KikeTown took its place. In 2015, r/KikeTown was first quarantined, then banned.

GenderCritical

The subreddit r/GenderCritical, which had 64,400 users, described itself as "Reddit's most active feminist community" for "women-centred, radical feminists" to discuss "gender from a gender-critical perspective". Described by Jillian York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as "a subreddit where transphobic commentary has thrived", the subreddit frequently hosted posts asserting that transgender women are not women. On June 29, 2020, the subreddit was "banned for violating Reddit's rule against promoting hate". After r/GenderCritical was banned, several of its users migrated to Ovarit, a trans-exclusionary radical feminism-centered website similar to Reddit.

GunsForSale

In January 2014, Mother Jones published a story about gun sales on Reddit, suggesting that sellers were using the platform to exploit a loophole in U.S. federal law. Nearly 100 AR-15s were engraved with the Reddit logo as part of a licensing deal made with the sub in 2011. It was banned on March 21, 2018, after Reddit updated its content policies to forbid subreddits that facilitate transactions involving certain goods and services.

Incels

A subreddit founded for "involuntary celibates", r/Incels was a forum wherein members discussed their lack of romantic success. The sub defined an "incel" as a person over age 20 who has unintentionally gone at least six months without a romantic partner. Self-described incels are largely heterosexual men.

Many members of r/incels adhered to the "black pill" ideology, which espouses despondency often coupled with misogynistic views that condone, downplay, or advocate rape. Notable black pill posts were titled "Reasons why women are the embodiment of evil" and "Proof that girls are nothing but trash that use men". Posts often referred to women as "femoids," "foids", "cunts", "cum dumpsters", and "sluts". Moderators banned users who were deemed too female-friendly or claimed that women experienced inceldom to the same extent as men. The subreddit's users intermittently revered or hated "normies" and "Chads" for their courtship abilities, while some admired murderers such as Elliot Rodger, a self-identified "incel" who committed the 2014 Isla Vista killings.

In the summer of 2017, a petition on Change.org called for r/Incels to be banned for inciting violence against women. Following the October implementation of a new Reddit policy that prohibited the incitement of violence, the subreddit was banned on November 7, 2017. At that time, r/incels had around 40,000 subscribers.

r/Braincels subsequently became the most popular subreddit for incels, gaining 16,900 followers by April 2018. After the 2018 Toronto van attack, posts appeared on this subreddit praising the actions of Alek Minassian, the alleged perpetrator. Later, the subreddit's leaders disavowed the attack and deleted some of the posts that praised Minassian. r/Braincels was banned in September 2019.

Jailbait

Reddit's staff was initially opposed to the addition of obscene material to the site, but they eventually became more lenient when prolific moderators, such as a user named u/violentacrez, proved capable of identifying and removing illegal content at a time when Reddit had insufficient paid staff to do so.

Communities devoted to explicit material saw rising popularity, and in a 2008 "Best of Reddit" user poll, users chose r/Jailbait (a sub featuring provocative photos of underage teenagers) as "subreddit of the year". At one point, "jailbait" was the second most common search term on Reddit. Erik Martin, Reddit's general manager, defended r/Jailbait, arguing that such controversial pages were a consequence of allowing free speech on the site.

r/Jailbait came to wider attention outside Reddit when Anderson Cooper of CNN devoted a segment of his program to condemning the subreddit and criticizing Reddit for hosting it. Initially, this caused a spike in Internet traffic to the subreddit, causing the page to peak at 1.73 million views on the day of the report.

In the wake of these news reports, a Reddit user posted an image of an underage girl to r/Jailbait and subsequently claimed to have nude images of her. In response, dozens of Reddit users posted requests for the nude photos to be shared with them via private message. Other Reddit users drew attention to this discussion, and Reddit administrators closed the r/Jailbait forum on October 11, 2011. Critics of the ban, such as r/Jailbait's creator, charged that Reddit administrators used the thread as an excuse to close down a controversial subreddit following the negative media coverage it had attracted. Others claimed that members of the Something Awful forum, not r/Jailbait's regulars, had created the thread in an attempt to get the sub shut down.

Following the closure of r/Jailbait, The Daily Dot declared the community's creator, u/violentacrez, "The Most Important Person on Reddit in 2011", calling the r/Jailbait controversy "the first major challenge to the site's voluntary doctrine of absolute free speech".

Jakolandia

In January 2019, a Philippine-based subreddit, r/Jakolandia, was accused of "distributing" posts with photos of women (including celebrities) that were apparently taken without their consent. "A number" of secret Facebook groups had been taking similar actions, engaging in illegal activity by sharing "obscene" photos of women and possibly child pornography. r/jakolandia was later banned as a result.

MGTOW

r/MGTOW was a subreddit for Men Going Their Own Way, an anti-feminist, misogynistic, mostly online community advocating for men to separate themselves from women. It also advocates separation from society, which they believe feminism has corrupted. In January 2020, a group of researchers published a preprint of an analysis of the manosphere, which listed r/MGTOW among a group of growing online communities involved in "online harassment and real-world violence". Reddit quarantined the subreddit shortly afterward. In August 2021, Reddit banned the subreddit for violating its policies prohibiting content that "incites violence or promotes hate based on identity or vulnerability".

MillionDollarExtreme

r/MillionDollarExtreme was dedicated to the comedy group Million Dollar Extreme, who were accused of having connections with the alt-right. Its users propagated various anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and heavily promoted racist, homophobic, and transphobic content. On September 10, 2018, when the sub had around 43,000 subscribers, it was banned for violating Reddit's content policy regarding violent content. Million Dollar Extreme's YouTube channel and Instagram account had already been terminated earlier that year.

Associated subreddits r/BillionShekelSupreme, r/milliondollarextreme2, r/ChadRight, and several others were subsequently banned.

NoNewNormal

r/NoNewNormal was a subreddit critical of the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It propagated various conspiracies about the pandemic and measures to control it, including lockdowns, masking, vaccines, and the implementation of a "new normal". It was quarantined for misinformation on August 12, 2021, when it had accumulated over 112,000 subscribers. Subreddits r/rejectnewnormal and r/refusenewnormal were subsequently banned for trying to circumvent the quarantine, and r/PandemicHoax and r/truthseekers, which hosted similar content, set themselves to private.

In a thread on r/vaxxhappened, a community opposing vaccine misinformation, a Redditor called upon administrators to ban subreddits that primarily spread medical misinformation. Admins responded that Reddit is a platform for free speech and discussion, and would continue to allow subreddits that challenge the consensus views on the pandemic. In protest of Reddit's response, the moderators of 135 subreddits (including r/florida, r/futurology, r/pokemongo, r/startrek, and r/tifu) made their subreddits private.

On September 1, 2021, Reddit banned r/NoNewNormal for brigading subreddits that criticized it, and quarantined 54 other subreddits associated with COVID-19 denial.

Physical_Removal

Members of r/Physical_Removal advocated for the forced deportation or physical removal of political leftists from the United States. Its name references a quote by right-wing libertarian philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who wrote: "There can be no tolerance toward democrats and communists in a libertarian social order. They will have to be physically separated and removed from society".

The sub was controversial for its promotion of violence against leftists and other groups. For instance, users would refer to throwing people from helicopters, an extrajudicial execution method used by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. After the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, r/Physical_Removal drew criticism after mocking the death of Heather Heyer, who was struck and killed by a car driven by a far-right terrorist at the rally.

Pizzagate

"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that emerged from social media and fake news websites in early November 2016. It falsely alleged that a child trafficking ring existed which involved Democratic Party officials and restaurants such as Comet Ping Pong.

Over 20,000 subscribers joined r/pizzagate (a spinoff from r/The_Donald) to discuss this conspiracy theory. Because users would post the personal details of people allegedly connected to Pizzagate, Reddit banned the sub on November 23, 2016 for violating its anti-doxing policy.

QAnon-related subs

Reddit attracted attention from mainstream publications in 2018 for the role it played in spreading the QAnon conspiracy theory from 4chan and 8chan to the wider internet. At QAnon's peak, tens of thousands of users were subscribed to various subreddits promoting the conspiracy theory. In response, Reddit began to ban these subreddits for breaking sitewide rules.

In March 2018, the original QAnon sub r/CBTS_stream was banned for inciting violence and sharing confidential personal information. The sub (whose name refers to the "calm before the storm") had accumulated over 20,000 subscribers. r/GreatAwakening, which had a more active userbase with over 71,000 subscribers and an average of 10,000 comments per day, was banned in September that year for repeated content violations, such as harassing a user they misidentified as the suspect of the Jacksonville Landing shooting. Around 17 other subreddits, such as r/BiblicalQ, r/Quincels, and backup sub r/The_GreatAwakening, were also banned. By 2020, these bans had significantly decreased QAnon-related discussions on Reddit, and the remaining discussions focused on criticisms of the conspiracy theory.

SanctionedSuicide

r/SanctionedSuicide was a subreddit that approached the topic of suicide from a pro-choice perspective. It included discussions surrounding the ethics of suicide as well as posts containing rants from Reddit users. Reddit banned the subreddit on March 14, 2018, for violating its guidelines; this prompted the creation of its own website, Sanctioned Suicide, where many of the subreddit's users migrated to thereafter.

SonyGOP

On December 15, 2014, Reddit took the unusual step of banning a subreddit, r/SonyGOP, which was being used to distribute hacked Sony files.

Shoplifting

The subreddit r/Shoplifting was devoted to stories, tips, and questions for the purpose of shoplifting at large commercial retail chain stores. It dissuaded people from shoplifting from smaller stores, which were presumed to suffer greater losses from theft. Users often posted pictures of items they had supposedly "lifted".

Near the end of its existence, over 77,000 people were subscribed to the subreddit. It was banned on March 21, 2018, because it violated an amendment to the Reddit User Agreement – added that same day – which states: "Users may not use Reddit to solicit or facilitate any transaction or gift involving certain goods and services, including: ... Stolen goods".

The_Donald

r/The_Donald was a community created for supporters of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In November 2016 Reddit banned many of the sub's "toxic" users, alleging that they harassed Reddit administrators and manipulated the site's algorithms in order to push content to Reddit's front page. Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman (known as u/spez on Reddit) had recently admitted to silently editing comments in r/The_Donald which attacked him. Subsequently, the term "spez" entered The_Donald's terminology as a synonym for "edit".

In response, Reddit modified the site's algorithms to specifically prevent the sub's moderators from gaming them. Additionally, Reddit introduced a filtering feature which allowed individual users to block content from any sub. While Reddit had been developing this feature before problems with r/The_Donald arose, critics suggested that it was introduced specifically to allow users to block that community. Huffman referred to r/The_Donald's users' complaints of harassment "hypocritical" because they had harassed others.

After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, many posts filled with anti-Muslim hate appeared in the subreddit arguing that the shootings were justified.

The subreddit was quarantined by Reddit admins in June 2019 for "threats of violence against police and public officials". On June 29, 2020, Reddit banned the subreddit for frequent rule-breaking, for antagonizing the company and other communities, and for failing to "meet our most basic expectations".

TheFappening

In August 2014, Reddit users began sharing a large number of naked pictures of celebrities stolen via phishing from their private Apple iCloud accounts. r/TheFappening was created as a hub to share and discuss these stolen photos. Most of the stolen images were posted within the subreddit.

Victims of the scandal (called "CelebGate" by the media) included Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and other high-profile individuals. Several leaked photos of Liz Lee and McKayla Maroney may have been taken when the women were underage, which would constitute child pornography, though this remains controversial.

Reddit administrators closed the subreddit in September 2014. The scandal led to wider criticisms from The Verge and The Daily Dot concerning the website's moderation.

TruFemcels

In January 2021, Reddit banned r/TruFemcels, a subreddit for female incels ("femcels"), for promoting hate. Critics accused the sub of lookism, racism, transphobia, spreading alt-right conspiracy theories, and using incel terminology, . After the ban, the community migrated to a dedicated website, ThePinkPill.co.

TumblrInAction

In June 2022, Reddit banned r/TumblrInAction (TiA) for promoting hate. TiA was an anti-gender movement subreddit created to mock Tumblr "gender ideology" and "social justice warriors (SJWs)". At the time, the subreddit had over 470,000 members, including some who joined after r/GenderCritical was banned. r/SocialJusticeInAction, a sister subreddit to TumblrInAction, was also banned.

Reddit user Hatman, a former moderator of both communities, alleged that Reddit banned both subreddits because of their discussions about transgender politics. Months prior, in December 2021, Slate had referred to TumblrInAction as "a breeding ground for online hate... to Gamergate and all sorts of online harassment tactics".

UncensoredNews

r/UncensoredNews was a far-right subreddit that claimed to be the "free speech" alternative to the more popular news-related subs. Founded by users who moderated several white nationalist subreddits before June 2016, it saw a massive increase in subscribers following the Orlando nightclub shooting, as the moderators of r/news were accused of censoring the name, religion, and motive of perpetrator Omar Mateen.

r/UncensoredNews primarily promoted stories about crimes committed by minorities or left-wing people, such as attacks on white farmers in South Africa. Their stories often had a xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist bent. For example, a post stickied by one of the sub's moderators was titled "Here at uncensored news we love racism, bigotry, misogyny, hatred, xenophobia, transphobia, homo phobia etc." while another user compared miscegenation to bestiality.

r/UncensoredNews and its moderators were banned on March 12, 2018 for inciting violence, possibly in response to a thread where users debated whether Jews or Muslims were more dangerous.

WatchPeopleDie and Gore

The subreddit r/WatchPeopleDie featured media depicting real-life human deaths, such as workplace accidents, vehicular manslaughter, gun violence, suicides, and various forms of homicide. After it disseminated links to video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the sub was banned. The similar subreddit r/Gore was banned at the same time, as was r/WPDTalk, a subreddit for discussion on what went on in r/WatchPeopleDie.

The sub had previously been quarantined for over half a year, but less than a day after the Christchurch shootings, Reddit banned it completely for violating Reddit's policy against "glorifying or encouraging violence". Moderators of the subreddit had initially allowed the video to be shared.

Active subreddits

Active subreddits refer to subreddits that have been, or are presently, contentious yet not removed.

Antiwork

The subreddit r/antiwork was established in 2013. The subreddit was intended for supporters of a society in which people did not have to work at all, or at least had a much smaller obligation to work, according to a longtime moderator. During the COVID-19 pandemic, new posters who were unhappy with working conditions joined.

In 2019, the number of subscribers was 13,000, which increased to 100,000 in early 2020. The subreddit's popularity rose after people began posting text messages of employees giving notice to their employers that they no longer wanted their jobs. In November 2021, the subscriber number exceeded one million. By December 2021, that number had grown to 1.4 million, and in January 2022, it had reached over 1.7 million. On 26 January, r/antiwork was the subreddit with the highest increase of traffic that was not one of Reddit's "default" front page subreddits.

In January 2022, a longtime r/antiwork moderator agreed to be interviewed by Fox News host Jesse Watters, whom The Independent described as "openly contemptuous about the movement". Members of the subreddit criticized the moderator, and the other moderators in turn temporarily made the subreddit private. Ultimately, the interviewee was asked to give up her moderation duties. Noah Berlatsky, writing for The Independent, stated that the Fox News segment became "a publicity disaster for r/antiwork", and that r/antiwork became "widely ridiculed".

Following this "publicity disaster", a similar subreddit called r/workreform was formed around similar ideas and content as r/antiwork.

aznidentity and AsianMasculinity

r/aznidentity and r/AsianMasculinity are communities targeted towards members of the Asian diaspora, in particular Asian-American men. They discuss various topics related to lifestyle, dating, fitness, and world events from the perspective of the Asian diaspora.

Several articles have focused on the subreddits having had a strong presence of members from the "Men's Rights Asians" community, or "MRAsians" (a pun on "men's rights activists"). Many members are said to blame Asian-American women for the emasculation of Asian men in American culture and believe they uphold white supremacy if they date white men. However, it has been stated that support for interracial relationships between Asian men and White women was common within those subreddits. A 2021 article in Slate reported that some members on r/aznidentity claimed anti-Asian racism was disproportionately committed by Black people and gets little attention, and that increased attention towards anti-Black racism in recent years had been responsible for a lack of attention towards anti-Asian racism.

BlackPeopleTwitter

On April 1, 2019, r/BlackPeopleTwitter began requiring users to prove they were Black—by sending a photo with their forearm and their Reddit username—before allowing them to post comments. The moderators described this action as an April Fools' Day prank, albeit one with a "very real reason". The April Fools' prank lasted only a few days, but the moderators now limit some contentious threads to a "country club" consisting of verified people of color and white people who complete an application process that includes writing "about what white privilege means to them". Additionally, verified Black commenters (but not other people of color) receive a check mark next to their username.

FemaleDatingStrategy

r/FemaleDatingStrategy (FDS) was created in 2019. It has been accused by r/AgainstHateSubreddits of promoting homophobia, transphobia, misandry, and discrimination against sex workers. The Verge described the advice given to women in the sub as socially conservative, sexually conservative, and oppressive to women. FDS posters must follow strict rules to avoid being banned, with support for consensual BDSM, pornography consumption, or casual sex being bannable offenses. As of August 2021, FDS had about 179,000 members who were described as mostly heterosexual women.

The group has a strict hierarchy, with moderators called "Ruthless Strategists" on top. Community is prioritized over the individual, and members are advised against speaking with journalists, practices which have been described as cult-like. The subreddit advises against dating men with mental illnesses, and has banned members for believing men can be victims of sexual assault. The members oppose liberal feminism, or "libfems", and endorse TERF-like views; transgender women are prohibited from posting. The sub has also been criticized for contradictory advice, such as encouraging independence from men while expecting them to pay for dates and be the primary breadwinners.

Critics have compared r/FemaleDatingStrategy to the manosphere subreddits it was created to oppose. Quoted in a 2022 Guardian article, a co-host for FDS's podcast said: " isn't about trying to manipulate men into trying to behave a certain way ... it's more about finding a man who is comfortable with you having boundaries and standards, and who understands how to treat a woman."

The subreddit historically made extensive use of female-incel ("femcel") language, but when the femcel jargon interfered with the recruitment of new members, users gradually adopted new terminology. It includes terms like "scrotes" for men and "pickmeisha" for women, who FDS claims degrade themselves for men. "Pickmeisha" has been used to label members that criticize the moderators or claim to enjoy banned behavior such as casual sex, and it has been targeted at women in other subreddits for issues such as seeking advice on their partner's erectile dysfunction.

GenZedong

Time identified r/GenZedong, a self-described "Dengist" subreddit focused on China, as a haven for anti-Uyghur racism and denial of oppression against Uyghurs.

In 2022, the hacker group Anonymous hacked a server hosting Chinese government websites. The group uploaded a meme mocking r/GenZedong on a government site promoting tourism in China.

The subreddit was quarantined on 23 March 2022 for spreading disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the time of its quarantine, the subreddit had over 57,000 subscribers.

HermanCainAward

r/HermanCainAward awards the "Herman Cain Freedom Award" to people who "made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or COVID-hoax views", but were later infected with COVID-19 and were hospitalized or died from it.

According to Le Monde, "In its early days, HCA was primarily fueled by articles found in the press, in recent months, the examples have been drawn directly from a Facebook page of COVID-19 victims. Publication after publication, the pattern invariably repeats itself: one person (anonymized to respect Reddit rules) says all the bad things they think about vaccines, masks, or sometimes even doubts the existence of the pandemic. Often the memes (humorous diversions) used to illustrate mistrust of the vaccine are the same. The following screenshot tells us that the person has just fallen ill, and sometimes that the illness does not really give them a break. Calls to pray for help may follow, before a loved one finally announces the death."

F. Diane Bart, a psychotherapist writing for NBC News, described the subreddit as "a dark and sardonic corner of the internet" that "captures the rage and outrage of presumably vaccinated, mask-wearing individuals, many of whom have either been infected with COVID-19 in the past or have watched friends and family become ill—and even die."

KotakuInAction

r/KotakuInAction was one of the main online hubs for participants in the misogynistic harassment campaign known as Gamergate. When they join r/KotakuInAction, users are warned that they will be banned from other subreddits, including r/OffMyChest (where users express opinions and share personal thoughts); r/NaturalHair; and r/Rape (a support forum for rape survivors that was brigaded by r/KotakuInAction users).

BuzzFeed's Joseph Bernstein reported that many of r/KotakuInAction's moderators also moderate other subreddits "devoted to either the physical and emotional degradation and humiliation of women, or in subreddits devoted to mocking and delegitimizing the arguments and appearances of feminists and 'social justice warriors'".

In 2016, three scholars from the Georgia Institute of Technology wrote an academic paper analyzing r/KotakuInAction and "the border between controversial speech and harassment".

On July 12, 2018, r/KotakuInAction's creator and head moderator removed all of the sub's other moderators and set the forum to private, alleging that the sub had become "infested with racism and sexism". A Reddit employee restored the forum and its moderators an hour later.

A 2020 review analyzing ten discussion boards on r/KotakuInAction suggested a connection between Gamergate and right-wing extremism (RWE). According to the review, the three main themes in these discussion boards were "RWE bigotry", "always anti-left" and "hate speech is free speech".

MensRights

The antifeminist subreddit r/MensRights was created in 2008. It had over 300,000 members as of April 2021.

Media studies researcher Debbie Ging described the "extreme misogyny and proclivity for personal attacks" of several men's rights subreddits, including r/MensRights, as "the most striking features of the new antifeminist politics".

SPLC listing

In the spring 2012 issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) Intelligence Report (titled "The Year in Hate and Extremism"), r/MensRights was included in a section called "Misogyny: The Sites" along with 11 other websites. The SPLC reported that "although some of the sites make an attempt at civility and try to back their arguments with facts, they are almost all thick with misogynistic attacks that can be astounding for the guttural hatred they express". Using a moderator's statements as an example, the SPLC feature charged that r/MensRights in particular "trafficks in various conspiracy theories" and shows anger "toward any program designed to help women".

In a March 2012 interview, the issue's editor, Mark Potok, noted that while the SPLC "wrote about the subreddit Mens Rights ... we did not list it as a hate group" and probably never would. He added: "it's a diverse group, which certainly does include some misogynists—but I don't think that's purpose".

Later that year, the SPLC noted that the report "provoked a tremendous response among men's rights activists (MRAs) and their sympathizers". They added: "it should be mentioned that the SPLC did not label MRAs as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the grievances they air on their websites – false rape accusations, ruinous divorce settlements and the like – are all without merit. But we did call out specific examples of misogyny and the threat, overt or implicit, of violence."

Doxing incident

In April 2013, Reddit administrators threatened to shut down r/MensRights after subscribers gathered personal information on the purported author of a blog about feminist issues. The subreddit's moderators advised users on how to dox the blogger without running afoul of site rules. In fact, the sub's users had identified the wrong woman, who subsequently received numerous death threats at her school and workplace. After Georgetown University received threatening messages, it confirmed that the woman named in the threats was not the blog's author.

Rape report spam

In mid-December 2013, users from r/MensRights and 4chan spammed the Occidental College Online Rape Report Form with hundreds of false rape reports. A user had recently complained that because the form could be submitted anonymously, it was vulnerable to abuse. Men's rights activists made around 400 false rape accusations against members of the college, feminists, and fictional people.

NoFap

r/NoFap is a subreddit dedicated to supporting those who wish to give up pornography or masturbation.

Some journalists have described NoFap's forums as filled with misogyny: "there is a darker side to NoFap. Among the reams of Reddit discussions and YouTube videos, a 'fundamentally misogynistic rhetoric' regularly emerges".

According to critics, r/NoFap idolizes testosterone and inherently masculine qualities, and "the NoFap community has become linked to wider sexism and misogyny, reducing women to sexual objects to be attained or abstained from, and shaming sexually active women".

Piracy and PiratedGames

In 2019, Reddit threatened to ban r/piracy after receiving dozens of DMCA takedown notices. The moderators responded that Reddit did not investigate the infringement claims to find if they actually infringed copyright law. Often, they argued, users had actually been sharing URLs for streaming sites, asking if such sites were working, and posting guides about installing programs. Ultimately r/Piracy's users voted to delete all content older than six months, as it was not feasible to investigate all past content.

On August 17, 2022, Reddit banned r/PiratedGames, which focused specifically on pirated video games and was among the largest piracy-related subreddits with over 300,000 subscribers. Though the subreddit explicitly prohibited sharing pirated content, it was banned for excessive DMCA claims. Following an appeal from the moderators, it was restored the next day. In several articles, TorrentFreak said the ban was part of Reddit's increasing crackdown on copyright infringement, noting that the year prior around 2,625 subreddits had been banned for similar reasons, and that DMCA takedowns on Reddit had increased by over 15,000% in the past five years.

Portugueses

The subreddit r/Portugueses is often home to Portuguese nationalist and nativist rhetoric. It also contains racism, homophobia, sexism, and other Reddit policy violations. Moderators from other subreddits have received threats after removing or reporting policy violations like hate speech in r/Portugueses.

Russia

On March 1, 2022, Reddit administrators quarantined Russia's national subreddit, r/Russia, and removed one of its moderators for spreading "disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine". The sub's moderators had promoted various pieces of disinformation, including claims that the Ukrainian military was controlled by Nazis; that Ukraine was using human shields to raise the conflict's death toll; and that the Ukrainian leadership was refusing calls for peace negotiations. When it was quarantined, r/Russia had over 265,000 subscribers. Its sister sub, r/RussiaPolitics, was also quarantined for similar reasons.

Sino

r/Sino is a subreddit focused on China which features pro-CCP propaganda. As in r/GenZedong, users often express anti-Uyghur racism and denial of oppression against Uyghurs.

Technology

In April 2014, a Daily Dot article revealed that moderators of r/Technology were using automatic filters to remove submissions that contained certain keywords, including "Aaron Swartz", "Tesla", "Comcast", "NSA", and "Snowden". At the time, the subreddit had 5 million subscribers.

The article engendered protest among Redditors, who raised concerns about censorship, and r/technology lost its default subreddit status.

TheRedPill

Alluding to the symbol of the "red pill" from the film The Matrix, r/TheRedPill is devoted to discussions of male sexual strategy in which participants are ranked as "alpha" or "beta" males. The subreddit promotes antifeminism, rape culture, hegemonic masculinity, and traditional gender roles. Users discuss diet and physical fitness; share "pick-up" techniques for seducing women; and display varying levels of misogyny, ranging from virulent hatred of women to simple frustration with contemporary male experience.

In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center described r/TheRedPill as one of several male supremacist subreddits featuring xenophobic discourse. One critic compared the ideology expressed in r/TheRedPill to alt-right philosophy, highlighting attacks on feminism and mockery of rape as common threads. The New Statesman described it as one of the most misogynistic subreddits on Reddit, intended to radicalize men.

In 2017, The Daily Beast revealed that New Hampshire legislator Robert Fisher created r/TheRedPill and had posted demeaning comments about women there. Fisher resigned.

As of 2018, the subreddit is quarantined.

WhitePeopleTwitter

r/WhitePeopleTwitter is a popular Reddit community that has attracted controversy following several posts which portrayed satirical or hoax tweets as legitimate, then went viral on social media. One such tweet joked that Twitter CEO Elon Musk was introducing a "special verification for users of the Jewish faith". Another purported to be written by conservative commentator Matt Walsh and claimed he engaged in sexual assault multiple times. A third feigned support for then-recently arrested social media personality Andrew Tate.

Free speech rationale

In 2011, the site's general manager, Erik Martin, stated that Reddit would not ban communities solely for featuring controversial content. He noted that "having to stomach occasional troll reddits like r/picsofdeadkids or morally questionable reddits like r/jailbait are part of the price of free speech on a site like this." He argued that it is not Reddit's place to censor its users.

Similarly, the site's former CEO, Yishan Wong, argued that Reddit should not ban distasteful subreddits because, as a platform, it should serve the ideals of free speech. Critics responded that Reddit had not been consistent in following its free speech philosophy. In a 2015 discussion on the site's content policy, founder Steve Huffman stated that "neither Alexis nor I created Reddit to be a bastion of free speech".

When it banned r/The_Donald in 2020, Reddit expanded upon the kinds of content it was willing to ban, implementing new rules that directly prohibit hate speech. The following year, despite moderator criticism, Reddit vowed to allow conversations that "question or disagree with popular consensus" regarding the COVID-19 pandemic: "dissent is a part of Reddit and the foundation of democracy." Reddit did eventually ban r/NoNewNormal after moderator protests, but the ban was leveled for unduly influencing other communities, not for promoting misinformation.

References

1. ^ Robertson, Adi (June 15, 2015). "Was Reddit always about free speech? Yes, and no". The Verge. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
2. kethryvis (February 15, 2022). "Why is Subreddit? Or, a Brief History of the Subreddit". r/reddit. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
3. ^ Morris, Kevin (October 11, 2011). "What r/jailbait's closure really means". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 29, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
4. ^ Chen, Adrian (October 12, 2012). "Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web". Gawker. Archived from the original on October 12, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
5. "r/announcements - "Revamping the Quarantine Function"". reddit. September 27, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
6. "Quarantined Subreddits". Reddit Help. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
7. Stephen, Bijan (September 28, 2018). "Reddit updates its quarantine policy with an appeals process". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
8. "How Internet Platforms Are Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in the Age of COVID-19". New America. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023.
9. Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (December 8, 2019). "Managing Misinformation On Reddit". NPR. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023.
10. Cinnelli, Matteo; De Francisci Morales, Gianmarco; Galeazzi, Alessandro; Starnini, Michele (February 23, 2021). "The echo chamber effect on social media". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 118 (9): e2023301118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11823301C. doi:10.1073/pnas.2023301118. PMC 7936330. PMID 33622786.
11. "Luján, Klobuchar, Heinrich Urge Reddit to Combat Health Misinformation". United States Senate. October 6, 2021. Archived from the original on September 12, 2023.
12. Hart, Janelle (February 8, 2022). "Reddit study shows abundance of misinformation on recurrent UTIs". Urology Times. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023.
13. Naylor, Aliide (December 12, 2023). "Pro-Putin Disinformation Warriors Take War of Aggression to Reddit". CEPA.
14. "In a meth underground on Facebook and Zoom, users find drugs and endless parties". NBC News. March 11, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
15. Bunting, Amanda M.; Krawczyk, Noa; Lippincott, Thomas; Gu, Yuanqi; Arya, Simran; Nagappala, Suhas; Meacham, Meredith C. (June 9, 2023). "Trends in Fentanyl Content on Reddit Substance Use Forums, 2013–2021". Journal of General Internal Medicine. 38 (15): 3283–3287. doi:10.1007/s11606-023-08256-7. ISSN 1525-1497. PMC 10255938. PMID 37296360.
16. Garg, Sanjana; Taylor, Jordan; El Sherief, Mai; Kasson, Erin; Aledavood, Talayeh; Riordan, Raven; Kaiser, Nina; Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia; De Choudhury, Munmun (December 1, 2021). "Detecting risk level in individuals misusing fentanyl utilizing posts from an online community on Reddit". Internet Interventions. 26: 100467. doi:10.1016/j.invent.2021.100467. ISSN 2214-7829. PMC 8581502. PMID 34804810.
17. Balsamo, Duilio; Bajardi, Paolo; Salomone, Alberto; Schifanella, Rossano (January 4, 2021). "Patterns of Routes of Administration and Drug Tampering for Nonmedical Opioid Consumption: Data Mining and Content Analysis of Reddit Discussions". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 23 (1): e21212. doi:10.2196/21212. PMC 7813634. PMID 33393910.
18. ^ Barenholtz, Elan; Krotulski, Alex J.; Morris, Paul; Fitzgerald, Nicole D.; Le, Austin; Papsun, Donna M.; Logan, Barry K.; Hahn, William E.; Goldberger, Bruce A.; Cottler, Linda B.; Palamar, Joseph J. (December 2021). "Online surveillance of novel psychoactive substances (NPS): Monitoring Reddit discussions as a predictor of increased NPS-related exposures". International Journal of Drug Policy. 98: 103393. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103393. PMC 8671170. PMID 34365124.
19. Pestana, Jani; Beccaria, Franca; Petrilli, Enrico (January 1, 2020). "Psychedelic substance use in the Reddit psychonaut community. A qualitative study on motives and modalities". Drugs and Alcohol Today. 21 (2): 112–123. doi:10.1108/DAT-03-2020-0016. ISSN 1745-9265.
20. Efimenko, Iakov V.; Valancy, David; Dubin, Justin M.; Ramasamy, Ranjith (December 2022). "Adverse effects and potential benefits among selective androgen receptor modulators users: a cross-sectional survey". International Journal of Impotence Research. 34 (8): 757–761. doi:10.1038/s41443-021-00465-0. ISSN 1476-5489. PMID 34471228. S2CID 237378326.
21. ^ Abdelati, Ali; Burns, Michele M.; Chary, Michael (2023). "Sublethal toxicities of 2,4-dinitrophenol as inferred from online self-reports". PLOS ONE. 18 (9): e0290630. Bibcode:2023PLoSO..1890630A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290630. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 10499234. PMID 37703241.
22. Valdez, Danny; Patterson, Megan S. (November 9, 2022). "Computational analyses identify addiction help-seeking behaviors on the social networking website Reddit: Insights into online social interactions and addiction support communities". PLOS Digital Health. 1 (11): e0000143. doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000143. ISSN 2767-3170. PMC 9931264. PMID 36812569.
23. Weiss, Geoff (May 8, 2023). "A van-life influencer has released the real names of Reddit users that made her life a living hell. But her quest for vengeance has made her a target once again". Business Insider. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
24. Lorenz, Taylor (December 1, 2023). "News outlets turn to Reddit as Musk's X descends into chaos". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
25. Merid, Feven (March 25, 2024). "The Reddit pages that investigate influencers". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
26. Mendez II, Moises (June 6, 2023). "How the New Duggar Family Docuseries Amplifies the World of Online Snark Communities". Time. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
27. Alfonso, Fernando (June 10, 2014). "Reddit bans infamous forum about beating women". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 21, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
28. Ongley, Hannah. "Gross Reddit Forum Glorifying Beaten Women Finally Gets Shut Down". Styleite. Styleite LLC. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
29. Binder, Matt (September 30, 2019). "Reddit changes its harassment policy and bans major incel community". Mashable.
30. Basu, Tanya (February 7, 2020). "The "manosphere" is getting more toxic as angry men join the incels". MIT Technology Review.
31. "r/braincels". reddit. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019.
32. Isaac, Mike (June 29, 2020). "Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans 'The_Donald' Subreddit". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020.
33. ^ Martinez, Ignacio (August 7, 2019). "Chapo Trap House subreddit quarantined for allegedly encouraging violence". Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
34. Reinstein, Julia (June 29, 2020). "Reddit Banned A Ton Of Subreddits Including r/The_Donald And r/ChapoTrapHouset". Buzzfeed News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
35. ^ Tiffany, Kaitlyn (December 8, 2020). "The Secret Internet of TERFs". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
36. Todd, Bridget (July 16, 2013). "Does Anything Go? The Rise and Fall of a Racist Corner of Reddit". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 23, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
37. Wall, Brandon (June 21, 2015). "Racist Reddit Group Embraces Alleged Charleston Shooting Manifesto". Buzzfeed. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
38. Hankes, Keegan (March 10, 2015). "How Reddit Became a Worse Black Hole of Violent Racism than Stormfront". Archived from the original on June 12, 2015.
39. Kaplan, Sarah (March 11, 2015). "The state of hate in America: A new home on the Internet". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 30, 2017.
40. Cush, Andy (August 20, 2014). "Reddit's Ferguson Board Is Run by White Supremacists". Gawker. Archived from the original on June 13, 2015.
41. ^ Chow, Andrew R. (January 10, 2022). "Reddit Allows Hate Speech to Flourish in Its Global Forums, Moderators Say". Time. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
42. Sharma, Anushka (January 13, 2022). "Right Online: Hateful, extremist content on Reddit, Discord pose worrying trend for young adults in India". News 9. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
43. Saraswat, Raunaq (January 25, 2022). "Out of Sight: How Reddit Became a 'Safe Space' for Hate in India". The Quint. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
44. ^ Chow, Andrew (March 24, 2022). "Reddit Moves to Control Hate Speech and Misinformation in Two Forums". Time. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
45. "聲援烏克蘭Reddit中文社區 「衝浪TV」遭封殺 疑涉中共長臂審查" [In solidarity with the Ukrainian Reddit Chinese community, "Chonglang TV" was blocked, suspected of being involved in the CCP's long-arm censorship]. Radio Free Asia. March 4, 2022. Archived from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
46. Gray, Justin (September 26, 2012). "Teacher allegedly posts pictures of students on 'CreepShot' website". Fox Atlanta. Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
47. "/r/Creepshots – Moderation History". Stattit.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013. -09-27 – Promoted violentacrez
48. Alfonso III, Fernando (October 11, 2012). "Redditors declare war on Gawker Media". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
49. Roy, Jessica (October 11, 2012). "Reddit Readies for Brewing 'Inter-Website War'; Major Subreddits Ban Links to Gawker Media". BetaBeat. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
50. ^ Morris, Kevin (October 12, 2012). "Clearing up rumors and hearsay as the Internet eagerly awaits the Gawker Reddit story". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
51. Klein, Alex (October 18, 2012). "Why Gawker Should Lose Its War With Reddit". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
52. "Reddit's Biggest Troll Loses Job After Identity is Exposed by Gawker". Huffington Post. October 15, 2012. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
53. Alfonso III, Fernando (October 15, 2012). "Reddit's most notorious troll loses job after Gawker profile". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
54. Marcus, Stephanie (October 15, 2012). "Violentacrez Fired: Michael Brutsch Loses Job After Reddit Troll Identity Exposed By Gawker". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
55. Levy, Megan (October 16, 2012). "Internet troll sacked from job after identity revealed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
56. "Reddit CEO defends free speech – even for creeps like Violentacrez". Fox News. October 17, 2012. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
57. Albanesius, Chloe (October 17, 2012). "Reddit CEO Defends Free Speech, Talks Violentacrez Scandal". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
58. Roy, Jessica (October 15, 2012). "Violentacrez Takes to Reddit to Solicit Sympathy, PayPal Donations". BeatBeat. Archived from the original on December 21, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
59. Alfonso III, Fernando (October 18, 2012). "Infamous Reddit troll Violentacrez apologizes on CNN". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
60. Fitzpatrick, David (October 19, 2012). "Man behind 'Jailbait' posts exposed, loses job". CNN. Archived from the original on October 28, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
61. Roy, Jessica (October 19, 2012). "Violentacrez Admits Doing CNN Interview Was a 'Huge Mistake'". BetaBeat. Archived from the original on February 11, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
62. Hill, Kashmir (October 15, 2012). "Why The Internet Cool Kids Think Gawker Outing Reddit's Violentacrez Is The 'Best Story About The Web' This Year". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
63. Ngak, Chenda (October 17, 2012). "Reddit, Gawker clash raises questions over inappropriate content and privacy". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
64. ^ Poeter, Damon (October 15, 2012). "Shed No Tears for Violentacrez". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
65. Doyle, Sady (October 17, 2012). "Outing online sexual predators is a sensationalist stopgap". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
66. ^ Boyd, Danah (October 29, 2012). "Truth, Lies, and 'Doxing': The Real Moral of the Gawker/Reddit Story". Wired. Archived from the original on November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
67. ^ Starr, Michelle (October 17, 2012). "Gawker, Reddit's Violentacrez and the internet vigilantes". CNET. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
68. Eördögh, Fruzsina (October 29, 2012). "What's Behind The Public Shaming of Reddit's King Troll Violentacrez?". ReadWriteWeb. Archived from the original on November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
69. Bazelon, Emily (October 16, 2012). "Sympathy for Violentacrez". Slate. Archived from the original on November 1, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
70. Dahl, Melissa (2018). Cringeworthy: How to Make the Most of Uncomfortable Situations. Transworld. ISBN 978-0-593-07746-7 – via Google Books.
71. Fosco, Molly (February 3, 2019). "Can She Make Brands Say Yes to Reddit?". OZY. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
72. Sonnad, Nikhil; Squirrell, Tim (October 30, 2017). "The alt-right is creating its own dialect. Here's the dictionary". Quartz. Archived from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
73. ^ Caffier, Justin; Taete, Jamie Lee Curtis; Trykowski, Tyler (September 11, 2017). "Here Are Reddit's Whiniest, Most Low-Key Toxic Subreddits". Vice. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
74. Asarch, Steven (September 28, 2018). "Reddit has placed more than 20 controversial subs in quarantine". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
75. ^ Johnson, Billy. "After 9 months, Reddit finally bans group spreading thinly veiled anti-Semitism". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
76. ^ Breland, Ali. "Anti-Muslim hate has been rampant on Reddit since the New Zealand shooting". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
77. Tiffany, Kaitlyn (January 15, 2022). "How Did We Get So 'Cringe'?". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 5, 2022. Banned users made a spin-off forum called r/CringeAnarchy, which later became a far-right cesspool and then was kicked off Reddit for encouraging violence.
78. Swearingen, Jake (October 2, 2014). "A Year After Death of Silk Road, Darknet Markets Are Booming". Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
79. ^ Knibbs, Kate (March 30, 2015). "Feds Want Reddit to Give Up Personal Info of Darknet Market Redditors". Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
80. Brackett, Eric (March 25, 2018). "Reddit bans its DarkNetMarkets subreddit". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
81. Branwen, Gwern. "gwern comments on Several subs banned – Megathread". reddit. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018.
82. ^ Cole, Samantha (January 24, 2018). "We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now". Motherboard. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
83. Romano, Aja (January 30, 2018). "Why Reddit's face-swapping celebrity porn craze is a harbinger of dystopia". Vox. Archived from the original on February 8, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
84. Hawkins, Derek (February 8, 2018). "Reddit bans 'deepfakes,' pornography using the faces of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Gal Gadot". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 8, 2018.
85. ^ Martin, Trevor (March 23, 2017). "Dissecting Trump's Most Rabid Online Following". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
86. ^ Romano, Aja (May 21, 2016). "Reddit's biggest Trump community is fracturing over right-wing extremism". Vox. Archived from the original on September 20, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
87. ^ "Reddit Bans Racist and Islamophobic Subreddits". Al Bawaba. March 13, 2018. Archived from the original on October 4, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
88. ^ Robertson, Adi (June 10, 2015). "Reddit bans 'Fat People Hate' and other subreddits under new harassment rules". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015.
89. "Reddit Removes 5 Groups After Creating Harassment Policy". Business Day. The New York Times. Associated Press. June 10, 2015. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015.
90. Milner (2016), p. 119.
91. Van Dyke, Michelle Broder (June 11, 2015). "Reddit Users Revolt After Site Bans 'Fat People Hate' And Other Communities". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015.
92. Hern, Alex (June 15, 2015). "Reddit users flee to Swiss copy Voat after harassment clampdown". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
93. Dewey, Caitlin (June 12, 2015). "Censorship, fat-shaming and the 'Reddit revolt': How Reddit became the Alamo of the Internet's ongoing culture war". The Washington Post.
94. "Innocents accused in online manhunt". 3 News NZ. 22 April 2013. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
95. Bidgood, Jess (25 April 2013). "Missing Student at Brown is Found Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 June 2017.
96. Kim, Pauline; Hanna, Jason (25 April 2013). "Body in river that of Brown student, police say". CNN. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
97. Nark, Jason. "The Boston bombing's forgotten victim". Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014. Akhil spent the most time with Sunny before his suicide, weekends at Brown where he tried to help his youngest child foresee a future.
98. Wade, Chris (April 15, 2014). "The Reddit Reckoning". Slate. Archived from the original on May 28, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
99. Martin, Erik. "Reflections on the Recent Boston Crisis". Reddit.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
100. Peterson, Andrea (September 16, 2013). "Reddit bans subreddit dedicated to finding the Navy Yard shooters". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 17, 2013.
101. Hathaway, Jay (November 11, 2014). "Here's How The Newsroom Covered Reddit's Failed Boston Bombing Manhunt". Gawker. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
102. Fallon, Kevin. "'Newsroom' Premiere: Aaron Sorkin Puts CNN on Blast Over the Boston Bombing". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on June 29, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
103. Harnick, Chris (November 21, 2014). "'The Good Wife' Recap: Alicia Florrick vs. Anonymous Commenters In 'Whack-a-Mole'". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on November 26, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
104. Martinez, Ignacio (July 2, 2019). "Alt-right subreddit that used clowns to promote white nationalism has been banned". The Daily Dot. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
105. Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy (June 26, 2019). "Reddit restricts pro-Trump community over violent threats". NBCNews. Retrieved March 27, 2022. The site banned r/frenworld last week, a subreddit for white nationalist, neo-Nazi and alt-right memes. The subreddit had evaded a ban for months by using codewords, like replacing the word "murder" with "bop" in conversations about genocide.
106. ^ Stangel, Jake (October 6, 2015). "Can Steve Huffman Save Reddit From Itself?". New York. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
107. Clifton, Derrick (August 5, 2015). "Killing Reddit's most hateful subreddits won't exterminate its troll problem". The Daily Dot. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
108. Sankin, Aaron (August 5, 2015). "Reddit bans racist communities as site updates content policy". The Daily Dot. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
109. Kulwin, Noah (August 5, 2015). "Can't Have It Both Ways: The Trouble With Reddit's Content Policy Update". Vox. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
110. Lawson, Robert (2023). Language and Mediated Masculinities: Cultures, Contexts, Constraints. Oxford University Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-19-008104-1. His findings showed that /r/The_Donald was more similar to /r/kiketown, /r/fatpeoplehate, r/TheRedPill, and /r/coontown, all controversial subreddits which promoted misogyny, racism, and hate speech (and all of which, bar /r/TheRedPill, have since been banned).
111. "Reddit just banned its viciously transphobic 'gender critical' page amid vigorous crackdown on hate speech". PinkNews. June 29, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
112. "Opinion | Reddit just banned a pro-Trump subreddit. Why users shouldn't be worried (yet)". NBC News. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
113. "How Reddit kicked off a day of bans for Trump and the far right". MIT Technology Review. June 29, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
114. "Reddit - Dive into anything".
115. Follman, Mark (January 8, 2014). "How Reddit Became a Gun Market—and Authorized Its Logo on Assault Rifles". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
116. Nocera, Joe (January 9, 2014). "The Gun Report: January 9, 2014". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 10, 2014.
117. Musil, Steven (March 21, 2018). "Reddit removes several firearms-related forums". CNET. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
118. Liberman, Alida (2017). "Disability, sex rights and the scope of sexual exclusion". Journal of Medical Ethics. 44 (4): 253–256. doi:10.1136/medethics-2017-104411. PMID 29101302. S2CID 4159542.
119. ^ "Subcultures and Sociology: Incels". haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017.
120. ^ Hathaway, Jay (November 10, 2017). "Why Reddit finally banned one of its most misogynistic forums". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017.
121. Sonnad, Nikhil; Squirrell, Tim (October 30, 2017). "The alt-right is creating its own dialect. Here's the dictionary". Quartz. Archived from the original on March 7, 2018.
122. ^ Solon, Olivia (November 8, 2017). "'Incel': Reddit bans misogynist men's group blaming women for their celibacy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017.
123. ^ Hauser, Christine (November 9, 2017). "Reddit Bans 'Incel' Group for Inciting Violence Against Women". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017.
124. ^ Tait, Amelia (February 28, 2017). "Spitting out the Red Pill: Former misogynists reveal how they were radicalised online". New Statesman. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017.
125. Fingas, Jon (November 8, 2017). "Reddit bans misogynist community as part of anti-violence crackdown". Engadget. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017.
126. Lamoureaux, Mack (April 24, 2018). "A Brief History of 'Incel,' the Misogynistic Group Allegedly Cited By Toronto Van Attacker". Vice. Archived from the original on November 23, 2018.
127. Robertson, Adi (September 30, 2019). "Reddit has broadened its anti-harassment rules and banned a major incel forum". The Verge. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
128. Alfonso III, Fernando (August 11, 2011). "A free-speech haven wrestles with violent images". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
129. Morris, Kevin (October 3, 2011). "Anderson Cooper boosts visibility of teen-girl pics". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
130. Tufekci, Zeynep (2017). Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Yale University Press. pp. 164–169.
131. "r/TheoryOfReddit – Traffic statistics for /r/jailbait". reddit. October 3, 2011. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
132. ^ Morris, Kevin (October 11, 2011). "Reddit shuts down r/jailbait". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
133. Morris, Kevin (October 13, 2011). "Did SomethingAwful raid jailbait forum?". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
134. Morris, Kevin (December 16, 2011). "The 10 most important people on Reddit in 2011". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
135. Sy Cua, Aric John (January 14, 2019). "Netizens slam 'disturbing' photos of PH subsite on Reddit". The Manila Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2019.
136. Madarang, Catalina Ricci S. (January 16, 2019). "Reddit forum closed over inappropriate content against women". Interaksyon. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
137. Wright, Scott; Trott, Verity; Jones, Callum (2020). "'The pussy ain't worth it, bro': assessing the discourse and structure of MGTOW". Information, Communication & Society. 23 (6): 908–925. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2020.1751867. ISSN 1369-118X. S2CID 219023052.
138. Lin, Jie Liang (2017). "Antifeminism Online: MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way)". In Frömming, Urte Undine; Köhn, Steffen; Fox, Samantha; Terry, Mike (eds.). Digital Environments: Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global Online and Offline Spaces. Edition Medienwissenschaft. Transcript Verlag. pp. 77–96. ISBN 978-3-8376-3497-6. JSTOR j.ctv1xxrxw.9.
139. Ribeiro, Manoel Horta; Blackburn, Jeremy; Bradlyn, Barry; et al. (2021). "The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Vol. 15. Palo Alto, Calif.: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. pp. 196–207. arXiv:2001.07600v5. doi:10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18053. ISBN 978-1-57735-869-5. ISSN 2334-0770.
140. Basu, Tanya (February 7, 2020). "The 'manosphere' is getting more toxic as angry men join the incels". MIT Technology Review.
141. Thalen, Mikael (August 3, 2021). "Reddit bans notorious anti-feminist subreddit 'Men Going Their Own Way'". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
142. ^ Ishmael, Daro (September 11, 2018). "Reddit Banned A Page That Trafficked In White Supremacist Content, But The Problem Is Much Bigger". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
143. ^ Stephen, Bijan (September 12, 2018). "Reddit's QAnon ban points to how it's tracking toxic communities". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
144. Cole, Samantha (August 12, 2021). "Reddit Quarantines AntiMask Antivax Subreddit". Vice. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
145. Thalen, Mikael (August 12, 2021). "Anti-vax, anti-mask forum NoNewNormal quarantined by Reddit". The Daily Dot. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
146. Haroun, Azmi. "Popular pro-vaccine Reddit page calls on founders to do more to combat COVID-19 disinformation". Business Insider.
147. Bonifacic, Igor (August 26, 2021). "Reddit CEO rejects call for a crackdown on coronavirus misinformation". Engadget. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
148. Schlitz, Heather (September 1, 2021). "135 subreddits are 'going dark' to protest Reddit's refusal to ban COVID disinformation". Business Insider. Archived from the original on September 1, 2021. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
149. Goforth, Claire (August 30, 2021). "After Reddit refuses demands for crackdown, dozens of subreddits go dark to protest COVID disinformation". The Daily Dot.
150. Kan, Michael. "Pokémon Go Forum Goes Dark to Protest Reddit's COVID-19 Misinformation Problem". PCMAG.
151. u/Femilip (August 30, 2021). "Subs going dark". r/N8theGr8. Reddit. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
152. Gonzalez, Oscar (September 1, 2021). "Reddit bans active COVID misinformation subreddit NoNewNormal". CNET. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
153. ^ Milmo, Dan (September 1, 2021). "Reddit bans Covid misinformation forum after 'go dark' protest". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 1, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
154. Clark, Mitchell (September 1, 2021). "Reddit bans anti-vaccine subreddit r/NoNewNormal after site-wide protest". The Verge. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
155. Reddit Bans Forum Inciting 'Physical Removal' of Democrats From Society Archived August 16, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Beast, August 15, 2017
156. "What we know about accused Charlottesville driver James Alex Fields Jr". cbsnews.com. August 14, 2017. Archived from the original on November 21, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
157. Kang, Cecilia (November 21, 2016). "Fake News Onslaught Targets Pizzeria as Nest of Child-Trafficking". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2016.
158. Ohlheiser, Abby (November 24, 2016). "Fearing yet another witch hunt, Reddit bans 'Pizzagate'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016.
159. Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy (August 14, 2018). "How three conspiracy theorists took 'Q' and sparked Qanon". NBC News. Archived from the original on September 1, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
160. ^ Tiffany, Kaitlyn (September 23, 2020). "Reddit Squashed QAnon by Accident". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
161. Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy (September 12, 2018). "Reddit bans Qanon subreddits after months of violent threats". NBC News. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
162. Covucci, David (September 12, 2018). "Reddit bans popular QAnon forum Great Awakening". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
163. Brown, Jennings (December 5, 2016). "The Strange Legacy Of The First Sanctioned Suicide Forum". Vocativ. Archived from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
164. "Reddit - Dive into anything".
165. Dance, Gabriel J.X.; Twohey, Megan (December 9, 2021). "Where the Despairing Log On, and Learn Ways to Die". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2022. It came online after Reddit shut down a group where people had been sharing suicide methods and encouraging self-harm. Reddit prohibited such discussion, as did Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Serge wrote days after the new site opened that the two men had started working on it because they 'hated to see the community disperse and disappear.'
166. Goldman, David (December 29, 2014). "Reddit takes down Sony hack forum". Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
167. Koerber, Brian (August 30, 2017). "There's a shoplifting subreddit. Morals not welcome". Mashable. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
168. "r/Shoplifting: Let's talk about stealing shit, but never actually steal shit, bcos illegal". March 10, 2018. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018.
169. Menegus, Bryan (March 21, 2018). "Reddit Bans Slew of Communities Amid New Rule Targeting Sales, Trades, and Giveaways". Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
170. Lee, Dave (November 30, 2016). "Reddit moves against 'toxic' Trump fans – BBC News". BBC News. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
171. Huffman, Steve (January 1, 1970). "Reddit CEO Steve Huffman admits changing posts made by Donald Trump supporters – BBC Newsbeat". Bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
172. ^ Ohlheiser, Abby. "Reddit will limit the reach of a pro-Trump board and crack down on its 'most toxic users' | The Salt Lake Tribune". Sltrib.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
173. "Reddit Will Crack Down On Its 'Most Toxic' Trolls; CEO Still Apologizing For Editing Comments". SFist. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
174. Shamsian, Jacob. "Reddit is allowing a major Trump-supporting community to flourish despite members defending the New Zealand mosque shooter". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
175. Davis, Caitlin (June 26, 2019). "Pro-Trump subreddit quarantined over violent threats in support of Oregon Republicans". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
176. Sommer, Will (June 26, 2019). "Reddit 'Quarantines' Pro-Trump Forum Over Anti-Police Threats". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via www.thedailybeast.com.
177. Lima, Cristiano (June 29, 2020). "Reddit bans pro-Trump forum in crackdown on hate speech". Politico. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
178. Sottek, T.C. (September 1, 2014). "Say hello to men who hate NSA spying but blame women for being spied on". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
179. Vincent, James (September 1, 2014). "Is Apple's iCloud safe after leak of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities' nude photos?". Indy/Life. The Independent. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
180. Kosur, James (September 1, 2014). "The Fappening Is Being Broadcast Live On Reddit With 100,000+ Viewers". Business 2 Community. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
181. Johnston, Anthony (October 10, 2014). "Security expert weighs in on 'The Fappening' and the iCloud". Metro New York. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
182. "Celebgate hack: Collins sentenced over nude photos theft". BBC News. October 28, 2016.
183. "Hunt begins for hacker behind Jennifer Lawrence nude photo theft". The Sydney Morning Herald. September 2, 2014.
184. "Jennifer Lawrence nude photos leaked: Hacker posts explicit pics". News.com.au. September 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
185. Price, Rob (September 2, 2014). "There's child porn in the massive celebrity nudes hack". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014.
186. Sottek, T.C. (September 8, 2014). "Reddit is a failed state". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014.
187. Sankin, Aaron (November 2, 2014). "Is Reddit broken beyond repair?". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on November 3, 2014.
188. Jones, Alexandra (March 10, 2022). "The rise of femcels — meet the women who refuse to have sex". Evening Standard. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
189. "Inside the online 'safe space' for female incels". Huck Magazine. March 29, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
190. Parker, Tom (June 22, 2022). "Reddit bans r/TumblrInAction and r/SocialJusticeInAction". Reclaim the Net. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
191. Frank, Allegra; Hampton, Rachelle (December 2021). "The Subreddits That Ruined the Internet". Slate Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
192. Collins, Ben (June 13, 2016). "Reddit Turns to 'The Donald' for News—In Record Numbers". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
193. Squirrell, Tim (August 18, 2017). "Linguistic data analysis of 3 billion Reddit comments shows the alt-right is getting stronger". Quartz. Archived from the original on July 8, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022. Elsewhere, they can be seen on /r/uncensorednews (primarily news about bad things perpetrated by members of minority groups and left-wing people), and /r/conspiracy.
194. Newcomb, Alyssa (March 15, 2019). "Reddit Bans 'Watch People Die' Subreddit After New Zealand Mosque Video Is Posted to the Site". Fortune. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
195. Lawler, Richard (March 15, 2019). "Reddit bans gore-, death-focused channels following NZ mosque attack". Engadget. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
196. Hatmaker, Taylor (March 15, 2019). "After Christchurch, Reddit bans communities infamous for sharing graphic videos of death". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 17, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
197. Shamsian, Jacob. "Reddit shut down a 400,000-person community devoted to videos of people dying after users posted footage of the New Zealand mosque massacre". Insider. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
198. Griffin, Andrew (March 15, 2019). "New Zealand attack video spreads across Twitter, YouTube and Reddit despite pleas from police not to share it". The Independent. Archived from the original on March 15, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
199. ^ Codrea-Rado, Anna (December 22, 2021). "Inside the Online Movement to End Work". Vice. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
200. ^ Daro, Ishmael N. (November 18, 2021). "The Real Point of Reddit's Antiwork Sub". Slate. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
201. ^ O'Connell, Oliver; Flynn, Sheila (January 28, 2022). "Moderator fired from anti-work subreddit after disastrous Fox News interview". The Independent. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
202. Ballentine, Claire (January 27, 2022). "How a Fox News Interview Threw the Antiwork Subreddit Into Chaos". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
203. Berlatsky, Noah (January 28, 2022). "What everyone's still missing in the antiwork subreddit drama". The Independent. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
204. ^ Mak, Aaron (September 15, 2021). "'Men's Rights Asians' Think This Is Their Moment". Slate. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
205. Ng, Celeste (October 12, 2018). "When Asian Women Are Harassed for Marrying Non-Asian Men". The Cut. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
206. "Opinion – Why the Men's Rights Asians subculture is so toxic – and dangerous". NBC News. January 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
207. "/r/BlackPeopleTwitter is open to everyone again". /r/BlackPeopleTwitter. April 3, 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
208. Harmon, Amy (October 8, 2019). "Discussing Blackness on Reddit? Photograph Your Forearm First". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 8, 2021.
209. Harmon, Amy (November 5, 2019). "Prove You're Not White: For an Article About Race-Verification on Reddit, I Had an Unusual Request". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019.
210. ^ Cunningham, Katie (August 7, 2021). "'Sales funnels' and high-value men: the rise of strategic dating". The Guardian. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
211. ^ Taylor, Erin (February 14, 2020). "Reddit's Female Dating Strategy offers women advice—and a strict rulebook for how to act". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 17, 2020. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
212. ^ Holden, Madeleine (December 9, 2020). "In Reddit's 'Female Dating Strategy', Women level up and make men the prey". MEL. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
213. ^ Sisley, Dominique (March 10, 2021). "Brutal Relationship Advice for Women from the Internet's Most Ruthless Dating Site". Vice. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
214. Everington, Keoni (October 4, 2021). "Round 3 of Anonymous hack of China site uses image of Taiwan president". Taiwan News. Retrieved April 3, 2022. Another meme pokes fun at the Marxist-Leninist subreddit Genzedong and the vexed reaction of members to the hack.
215. Loofbourow, Lili (September 21, 2021). "The Unbelievable Grimness of HermanCainAward, the Subreddit That Catalogs Anti-Vaxxer COVID Deaths". Slate. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021.
216. West, Phil (September 8, 2021). "'He was so dumb': Redditors from HermanCainAward sub called out for 'doxing, harassing' families of deceased COVID patients". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on September 8, 2021.
217. ^ Barth, F. Diane (October 2, 2021). "The bleak psychology behind Reddit's viral 'award' celebrating Covid deaths". NBC News. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
218. "This Reddit forum has been mocking unvaccinated people who die of Covid-19". Deccan Herald. October 1, 2021. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
219. Brandy, Grégor (October 14, 2021). "Sur Internet, la traque des personnes opposées au vaccin qui sont mortes du Covid-19". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved November 7, 2021.
220. Peckford, Ashley (2020). "Right Wing Extremism in a Video Game Community? A Qualitative Content Analysis Exploring the Discourse of the Reddit GamerGate Community r/KotakuInAction" (PDF). A Closer Look in Unusual Times: Criminological Perspectives from Crim 862: 65–81.
221. Binder, Matt (September 18, 2018). "It's Reddit's turn: The 'front page of the internet' should be next to face Congress". Mashable. Archived from the original on March 12, 2019.
222. Massanari, Adrienne L.; Chess, Shira (July 4, 2018). "Attack of the 50-foot social justice warrior: the discursive construction of SJW memes as the monstrous feminine". Feminist Media Studies. 18 (4): 525–542. doi:10.1080/14680777.2018.1447333. ISSN 1468-0777. S2CID 149070172.
223. Dale, Brady (October 30, 2015). "Posting on GamerGate's Subreddit Gets Users Automatically Banned on Others". Observer. Archived from the original on January 24, 2016.
224. Bernstein, Joseph (October 30, 2014). "The Disturbing Misogynist History Of GamerGate's Goodwill Ambassadors". Buzzfeed News. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018.
225. Jhaver, Shagun; Chan, Larry; Bruckman, Amy (February 5, 2018). "The view from the other side: The border between controversial speech and harassment on Kotaku in Action". First Monday. 23 (2). arXiv:1712.05851. doi:10.5210/fm.v23i2.8232. S2CID 3653593. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019.
226. Knoop, Joseph (July 14, 2018). "Reddit brought back a Gamergate forum after its creator tried to destroy it". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018.
227. Cole, Samantha (July 13, 2018). "The Creator of the Largest Gamergate Subreddit Rage Quits, Says it's 'Infested With Racism and Sexism'". Motherboard. Vice. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018.
228. Peckford, Ashley (2020). "Right Wing Extremism in a Video Game Community? A Qualitative Content Analysis Exploring the Discourse of the Reddit GamerGate Community r/KotakuInAction" (PDF). A Closer Look in Unusual Times: Criminological Perspectives from Crim 862: 65–81.
229. ^ Cousineau (2021), pp. 133–134.
230. LaViolette, Jack; Hogan, Bernie (2019). "Using Platform Signals for Distinguishing Discourses: The Case of Men's Rights and Men's Liberation on Reddit". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. 13 (1): 323–334. doi:10.1609/icwsm.v13i01.3357. ISSN 2334-0770. S2CID 189818861.
231. ^ Ging, Debbie (2019). "Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere". Men and Masculinities. 22 (4): 638–657. doi:10.1177/1097184X17706401. ISSN 1097-184X. S2CID 149239953.
232. "Misogyny: The Sites". Intelligence Report (145). Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2012.
233. Collier, Kevin (March 9, 2012). "Southern Poverty Law Center calls Reddit section misogynistic". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013.
234. Morris, Kevin (March 28, 2012). "Why Reddit's r/MensRights is not a hate group". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 7, 2013.
235. ^ Goldwag, Arthur (May 15, 2012). "Intelligence Report Article Provokes Fury Among Men's Rights Activists". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on July 24, 2013.
236. ^ Romano, Aja (April 22, 2013). "Men's rights activists bombard feminist with death threats—and it's the wrong woman". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014.
237. ^ Culp-Ressler, Tara. "'Men's Rights' Groups Are Spamming Occidental College With Hundreds Of False Rape Reports". ThinkProgress. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014.
238. Kingkade, Tyler (December 18, 2013). "'Men's Rights' Trolls Spam Occidental College Online Rape Report Form". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on December 22, 2013.
239. Bishop, Kate (September 9, 2019). "What's causing women to join the NoFap movement?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 9, 2019.
240. Manavis, Sarah (November 13, 2018). "No Nut November: the insidious internet challenge encouraging men not to masturbate". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on November 13, 2018.
241. Kobie, Nicole (April 14, 2019). "First it was football streams, now Reddit is going after r/piracy". Wired UK. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
242. Gault, Matthew (April 8, 2019). "Reddit's Piracy Subreddit Is Purging a Decade of Posts". Vice. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
243. ^ Van der Sar, Ernesto (August 18, 2022). "Reddit Bans '/r/PiratedGames' for Excessive Copyright Claims (Updated)". TorrentFreak. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
244. Maxwell, Andy (February 23, 2022). "Reddit Banned 2,625 Subreddits For Excessive Copyright Infringement in 2021". TorrentFreak. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
245. Van der Sar, Ernesto (August 21, 2022). "Reddit's DMCA Removals Surged 15,000% in Five Years". TorrentFreak. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
246. Moon, M. (March 1, 2022). "Reddit hides r/Russia from search and recommendations due to misinformation". Engadget. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
247. Yeo, Amanda (March 1, 2022). "Reddit has quarantined r/Russia due to misinformation". Mashable. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
248. Hatmaker, Taylor (March 1, 2022). "Reddit quarantines r/Russia due to 'high volume' of misinformation". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
249. Alfonso, Fernando III (March 29, 2014). "Reddit's r/technology has apparently been blocking Tesla links for months". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014.
250. Collier, Kevin (14 April 2014). "Reddit mods are censoring dozens of words from r/technology posts". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014.
251. Tsotsis, Alexia (23 April 2014). "The Return Of Reddit's /r/Technology Is 'Certainly Possible'". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014.
252. Peckham, Matt (22 April 2014). "Reddit Demotes Technology Section to Punish Lazy Moderators". Time. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014.
253. ^ Milner (2016), pp. 118–119.
254. ^ Hodapp, Christa (2017). Men's Rights, Gender, and Social Media. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. pp. xvi–xvii. ISBN 978-1-49-852617-3.
255. ^ Cousineau (2021), pp. 134–135.
256. "Male Supremacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on June 7, 2018.
257. Gallagher, Brenden (June 6, 2018). "What is r/TheRedPill?". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019.
258. Romano, Aja (April 28, 2017). "Reddit's TheRedPill, notorious for its misogyny, was founded by a New Hampshire state legislator". Vox. Archived from the original on June 14, 2019.
259. Sommer, Will (September 28, 2018). "Reddit 'Quarantines' White Nationalist Subreddits". Archived from the original on May 6, 2019.
260. Liles, Jordan (November 7, 2022). "Tweet About Elon Musk Giving Jewish Accounts Star Badges Is Satire". Snopes. Archived from the original on November 7, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
261. Liles, Jordan (December 2, 2022). "Matt Walsh Never Tweeted 'Taking Advantage of a Drunk Girl Is Not Rape'". Snopes. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
262. Liles, Jordan (January 5, 2023). "Viral Tweet About Andrew Tate Under 'Demonic Attack' Originated as Satire". Snopes. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
263. ^ Alfonso, Fernando (August 11, 2011). "Reddit wrestles with violence and misogyny". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
264. "Reddit will not ban 'distasteful' content, chief executive says". BBC. October 17, 2012. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
265. Chen, Adrian. "Reddit CEO Speaks Out on Violentacrez in Leaked Memo: 'We Stand for Free Speech'". Gawker. Archived from the original on May 22, 2013. Retrieved May 13, 2013.
266. Ball, James (October 15, 2012). "Reddit wants free speech – as long as it agrees with the speaker". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
267. Ingram, Matthew (October 18, 2012). "Twitter, Reddit, and the Battle Over Freedom of Speech". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on April 19, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
268. Fischer, Sara (June 29, 2020). "Reddit bans The_Donald forum as part of major hate speech purge". Axios. Retrieved September 22, 2021.

Works cited

• Cousineau, Luc S. (2021). "'A Positive Identity for Men'?: Pathways to Far-Right Participation through Reddit's /r/MensRights and /r/TheRedPill". In Devries, Melody; Bessant, Judith; Watts, Rob (eds.). Rise of the Far Right: Technologies of Recruitment and Mobilization. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 127–145. ISBN 978-1-78661-493-3.
• Milner, Ryan M. (2016). The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53522-9.

• Internet-related controversies
• Internet ethics
• Internet vigilantism
• Internet privacy
• Online obscenity controversies
• Social bookmarking
• News aggregators
• Political websites
• Child pornography websites
• Violence against women
• 21st-century controversies
• Subreddits
• Alt-right Internet forums
• Cyberbullying