A popular Reddit forum that’s dedicated to Donald Trump has been banned by the social media giant due to its users’ continual hate speech. Since it’s inception, r/The_Donald has been a wellspring of hate speech and conspiracy theories. It was a place where his most ardent supporters could bask in their hate and promulgate conspiracy theories, making it a highly popular forum with at least 790,000 subscribers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a place where members of Trump’s own staff admit they regularly lifted content, Indy100 [1] reports.
And as a presidential candidate, Trump himself used the forum in 2016 to answer users’ questions.
But Reddit has banned the forum while in the process of revamping its rules to better address hate speech on the platform, stating in one of its new rules that “communities and users that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.”
R/The_Donald isn’t the only forum Reddit is banning. In total, about 2000 forums have been banned, but most of these were pretty small, with less than 200 having 10 active, daily viewers.
Among those banned? r/TheChapo TrapHouse, dedicated to the popular left-wing podcast and r/gendercritical, which was criticized as transphobic. And the ban comes as the website is trying to affect positive change as the Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum.
In an interview with The Verge, [2] Reddit’s top executive Steve Huffman had this to say:
“I have to admit that I’ve struggled with balancing my values as an American, and around free speech and free expression, with my values and the company’s values around common human decency,” he said. “Political speech continues to be safe. But all communities, including our political communities, have to abide by our policies. And while we will do everything we can to help bring them in line, if they fail in doing so, they are not allowed on Reddit.”
And some, like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, are taking it a step further. He recently resigned from the website’s board and is urging [3] the company to hire a Black executive to replace him.
Updated policy against hate + violence — at last!! https://t.co/lZ7cBArC3S [4]
— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) June 29, 2020 [5]
But the company is also facing some criticism, with former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao saying R/The_Donald should have been dropped early on.
I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long https://t.co/VN5XCiYp5g [6]
— Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) June 2, 2020 [7]
Pao definitely has a point. Who knows how many of Trump’s rabid fans used this to do hateful things and promote wackadoodle conspiracy theories that may cause real harm? What’s worse is that many in team Trump have looked to r/The_Donald every day, include Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital campaign director. And while the First Amendment protects hate speech, the constitution regulates the government, not companies like Reddit.
But of course, the Trump faithful don’t see it that way and they are complaining.
Conservative silencing.
— Cedric Taylor 🌐 (@TheUrbanEntity) June 29, 2020 [8]
how very #fascist [9]
— Dan450BM (@Dan450BM) June 30, 2020 [10]
Reddit hates free speech.
— Kisskorven (@YeaIAmGod) June 29, 2020 [11]
But perhaps one of the worst things about r/The_Donald is that it fueled conspiracy theories like pizzagate, [12] a ridiculous theory that dogged Hillary Clinton throughout her campaign. In fact, r/The_Donald users set up a forum dedicated to this “theory.”
Fortunately other social media giants, like Twitter, for instance, are also stepping up. Twitter’s doing this by adding fact-checking tabs whenever Trump tweets (that must be a busy job.) In a pair of tweets, Trump complained about mail-in ballots and Twitter fact-checkers schooled him on that. (Which you can see if you click on the tweets).
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 [13]
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 [14]
Honestly, what a lovely day it will be when Trump leaves office and takes his lies, bullying behavior, and his addle-brained followers with him.