Reddit has banned three controversial forums for white nationalists from its open platform website because users violated terms of services regarding harassment.
Users of the site that dubs itself the “front page of the internet” who try to load three subreddits – r/altright, r/alternativeright and r/rightfriends – receive notices that the communities have been closed.
“This subreddit was banned due to a violation of our content policy, specifically, the proliferation of personal and confidential information,” a message reads on the r/altright forum.
Anyone who visits the two other forums receive a short message indicating the community was banned, with a link to the site’s regulations.
“While Reddit generally provides a lot of leeway in what content is acceptable, here are some guidelines for content that is not,” the policy reads. “Please keep in mind the spirit in which these were written, and know that looking for loopholes is a waste of time.”
Content is banned from the site if it “encourages or incites violence,” threatens, harasses or bullies users or encourages others to do. Material that contains personal or confidential information, “involuntary pornography” or impersonates someone in a misleading manner is also off-limits.
Enforcement of those rules can range from Reddit asking users “nicely to knock it off” to the outright ban of entire Reddit communities, according to the policy.
A spokeswoman told The Post in a statement that the company banned the r/altright forum for repeated violations of the content policy. Reddit users can be barred from the site for posting personal information, although Soellner’s statement did not cite specific examples. She said there’s “no single solution” to the violations that led to the ban.
“We strive to be a welcoming, open platform for all by trusting our users to maintain an environment that cultivates genuine conversation and adheres to our content policy,” the spokeswoman said.
The r/altright subreddit first made headlines in November, Vox reports, when moderators elevated its profile by naming it “Subreddit of the Day.”
Meanwhile, The Verge reported that “chatter” on Voat – a news aggregator and Reddit alternative – suggests that r/altright and r/alternativeright were banned for posting and disseminating personal information, also known as doxxing. It’s unclear exactly who was targeted, but the site suggests it was the man who punched white nationalist Richard Spencer, who coined the “alt-right” term, on Inauguration Day.
The Verge notes that other prominent communities like r/The_Donald – a subreddit dedicated to President Trump – continues to be a forum where “alt-right members and sympathizers” can interact.
As of Friday, the “subreddit of choice” for President Trump had more than 359,000 subscribers, with more than 14,000 active users just after noon.
“Be advised this sub is for serious supporters,” the subreddit reads. “We have jokes, comics, memes, and are not politically correct. Please read and respect our rules below before contributing.”
On Monday, the founder of Reddit posted on open letter on the site blasting President Trump’s recent executive order restricting immigration from seven countries as potentially unconstitutional and “deeply un-American.”
We are a nation of immigrants, after all,” founder Alexis Ohanian wrote. “In the tech world, we often talk about a startup’s “unfair advantage” that allows it to beat competitors. Welcoming immigrants and refugees has been our country’s unfair advantage, and coming from an immigrant family has been mine as an entrepreneur.”
The letter by Ohanian – the son of an undocumented immigrant from Germany — called on Reddit users to “speak out” against the executive order by marching in protests, calling local elected officials or by donating to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“My forebears were brave refugees who found a home in this country,” Ohanian wrote. “I’ve always been proud to live in a country that said yes to these shell-shocked immigrants from a strange land, that created a path for a woman who wanted only to work hard and start a family here.
“Without them, there’s no me, and there’s no Reddit. We are Americans. Let’s not forget that we’ve thrived as a nation because we’ve been a beacon for the courageous—the tired, the poor, the tempest-tossed.”
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