Reddit bans ‘alt-right’ community over harassment
Reddit isn’t done cracking down on harmful communities. The social site has banned its r/altright subreddit for violating policies against “the proliferation of personal and confidential information.” Members were doxxing people to harass or threaten them, in other words. Reddit didn’t tell us exactly what prompted the move, but it clarifies that there were “repeated violations” of its doxxing policy. Moderators either couldn’t or wouldn’t police users’ behavior, then. You can read the full statement below.
It’s doubtful that r/altright will have much of a chance at coming back given both the serious nature of the offenses and the historical behavior of the “alt-right” movement itself. As it is, Reddit may be happy to clamp down in this case. It’s still trying to strike a delicate balance between its free speech ethos and cleaning up hostile elements that scare away users and advertisers. While it ideally wouldn’t have to wait until after multiple incidents before it takes action, this represents a prime opportunity to improve its image.
“Reddit is the proud home to some of the most authentic conversations online. 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.
“We are very clear in our site terms of service that posting of personal information can get users banned from Reddit and we ask our communities not to post content that harasses or invites harassment. We have banned r/altright due to repeated violations of the terms of our content policy. There is no single solution to these issues and we are actively engaging with the Reddit community to improve everyone’s experience.”
(31)
