Reddit admins are stepping in to cool the political hate
Summary
- Reddit is cracking down on hate speech and violent threats against Elon Musk’s employees.
- Administrators are enforcing rules against violence more firmly, implementing bans as a cooling-off period.
- Reddit’s history of banning subreddits for rules violations reveals ongoing tensions between the platform and its users.
It has been a tense few days on Reddit as political tensions overflow into death threats. Reddit has cracked down on hate speech and calls to physically hurt others in an effort to cool things down.
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The social platform temporarily suspended r/WhitePeopleTwitter after users posted violent threats targeting employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (via The Verge). The popular subreddit has been shut down for 72 hours as Reddit cracks down on rules violations. Another community, r/IsElonDeadYet, received a permanent ban.
Reddit’s rules against violence are clearly written
The platform is taking a firmer stance against rule-breaking in response to a rise in violations across multiple communities. This is according to a post from Reddit administrators on r/RedditSafety. The bans are intended as a cooling-off period. Admins emphasized that inciting violence and doxing are clear violations of long-established site policy. They are also illegal.
This follows screenshots of violent posts circulating on X. Many of the posts are calls to physically harm members of Musk’s DOGE team. Musk himself reposted the screenshots. “They have broken the law” his post reads.
Reddit has long positioned itself as a haven for free discussion, but it has also been known to shut down subreddits that violate its rules. The company said that when it detects an increase in rule-breaking within a community, it tries to get community moderators to implement warnings and issue user bans if necessary. When that fails, Reddit admins will sometimes step in to shut down a community.
A history of user tension and subreddit bans
Reddit has a history of banning entire subreddits for less severe infractions, including communities centered around controversial topics. Many have accused Reddit of political bias when it chooses which communities can stay active, and which ones get shut down.
Tensions between Reddit’s corporate ownership and its user base have escalated over recent years. Reddit went public with an IPO last March, but not before stirring up controversy by making its API pricing so high several popular third party clients had to shut down. More recently, many communities restricted or banned links to X as a form of protest. Reddit allows subreddit-level decisions such as these.
Reddit has a tough road ahead of it in the current political climate. For now, the platform is sending a clear message: violent threats and doxing have no place on
Reddit
, regardless of political stripe.
