Reddit

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Not to be confused with the similar alternative Alt-Right Voat or the truth-seeking free-thinking SaidIt third way.
Reddit Inc.
Reddit logo
Type Private
Founded June 23, 2005 (2005-06-23),[1]
Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Steve Huffman
Alexis Ohanian
Key people Steve Huffman (co-founder and CEO)
Industry Internet
Media
Employees 100 (as of 2015)[2]
Slogan(s) "The front page of the internet"
Website www.reddit.com
Written in Python
Alexa rank Increase 9 (Global, May 2017)[3]
Type of site Social news and -media aggregation
Advertising Banner ads, promoted links
Registration Optional (required to submit, comment, or vote)
Available in Multilingual, primarily English
Current status Active

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Reddit is a left-wing and often far-left[4] English language website run by an American company based in San Francisco, California, noted both for its diverse (and often politically liberal) online discussion forums, and for several forms of censorship, particularly the practice of shadowbanning some users. It lets approved members post news, articles, videos, original pictures, and stories, where all registered members can then vote on these submissions. The most popular items are divided into categories by Reddit employees, and presented in a constantly updated list on the main page, according to the site's confidential editorial policies. Reddit's front-page posts strongly favor left-wing political content, including constant (albeit indirect) praise for non-white immigration and ongoing population replacement trends in all Western countries. Many other subjects are also highlighted and discussed, almost all from an engaged liberal perspective. Relevant submissions also appear on the front pages of many smaller "subreddits", generally without interference from site employees. The site members who created these subreddits can censor them though. Each post has an attached section where approved members can post comments.

Reddit was started in 2005 in Medford, Massachusetts, USA (the site has no connection to the community in Ontario of Redditt). In the years since its inception, the site has become most controversial for its partially or completely hidden censorship policies. Comments from controversial or unpopular members are often deleted immediately, or automatically shadowbanned. This has caused controversy, as these banned members are said to be more likely to be right-wing or even far-right commenters.[5][6] Often, these commenters do appear more abrasive and impolite.[7] Shadowbanning may occur if a Redditor uses an "inappropriate" word, such as any racial slur directed against a non-white person (such as "Nigger" or "Paki"), which critics argue may be politically biased. For example, using the word "cuckservative" or even just "cuck" will trigger an automatic shadowban on many parts of Reddit, but extreme profanities such as "fuck" (and even stronger derivatives such as "motherfucker") and "cunt", as well as pejorative terms for white people, such as white trash and Karen, are allowed. This is not legally considered a form of censorship, as Reddit is a private corporation, and its legal rights and some of its policies are listed in its terms of use. Also, such bans may not be sitewide, allowing these users' comments to be seen in some smaller subreddits. Many Reddit users may not know their comments can't be read by others, though.[8]

Reddit's tens of thousands of active communities[9] did include several right-wing subreddits, though these are often deleted without warning. The most prominent of these was known as r/The_Donald (now a part of Communities.win), which generated many posts that never appeared on the front page. Some right-wing communities managed to survive on Reddit by hiding behind complex meme cultures. In 2019, the subreddit r/frenworld, known for coded discussions of human biodiversity, was shut down since the site managers believed such talk was fully equivalent to glorifying violence.[10] Meanwhile, the dissident subreddit "Where are all the good men" was dedicated to mocking female profiles copied from dating sites. The commenters made cynical and humorous observations about women with high expectations spending their fertile years competing for a relatively small number of high-status men. After hitting the so-called "Wall", these women wish to marry wealthy established men, who are expected to take care of their children fathered by others.[11] This subreddit was considered problematic by Reddit's feminist members and overseers.[12] It had been generally disabled by August 2021. The Men Going Their Own Way subreddit was banned earlier that year.[13][14] In a case of a double standard, anti-male (even though the site and most of its members support the ongoing trend of mass male immigration from the Third World into Western countries) and anti-white subreddits continued to thrive on the site, however.

By late June 2020, Reddit administrators had embarked on a large-scale purge of mostly right-wing and otherwise politically incorrect content. Numerous subreddits were banned and their content deleted without warning, including r/The_Donald.[15] This trend took a new turn in 2021, when a large number of subreddits where suspended by their member moderators to protest the postings of COVID-19 vaccine and facemask skeptics on Reddit. The moderators demanded that these skeptics be silenced by the site.[16][17]

Reddit-alternative, SaidIt.net, has become a free-speech refuge and safe-haven for many banned and/or quarantined Reddit feeds. (A very incomplete initial list of banned subreddits: /s/SaidIt/wiki/BannedFromReddit.) In the spring of 2019, SaidIt was even mobbed by a banned unruly Opie And Anthony community, then taken down entirely for 12 hours by a Raddle far-left DDoS attack aiming at the "OnA" crowd - despite SaidIt having not done anything to the far left, not to mention the crass and unfunny OnA "comedy fans" are neither left nor right. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience SaidIt recovered from and the politically incorrect Opie And Anthony crowd established their own site.[citation needed]

Reddit uses IP tracing to identify the approximate physical location of site visitors, and then presents them with more locally relevant story links and targeted ads. After the site's 2018 redesign, there were increasing complaints that Reddit was slow to load on mobile devices like tablets or smartphones, or not loading at all due to bloated software requiring intensive Javascript CPU cycles.

Description

Site

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Further information: Reddit culture

The main page of the site contains a quota of posts from various categories, with a general bias for upbeat content. Reddit has a liberal/progressive social, and an often extreme left-wing political bias in its user base,[18] and in how it displays its stories. During 2017, the front page contained frequent posts from several new anti-Donald Trump subreddits, such as r/esist and r/MarchAgainstTrump. Later, r/PoliticalHumor became more prominent, though its humor always had a liberal slant. Front page posts typically endorse left-wing political goals or just a progressive worldview. There are frequent sexual and scatological puns and jokes, and a generally libertine worldview, but Reddit's corporate and volunteer editors also enforce strict forms of political correctness, including race censorship on most subreddits. Comments reflecting negatively on non-Asian minorities, feminists, the LGBT community, Muslims, Jews, and gypsies are removed by the moderators, or quickly hidden by member downvotes, even though negative comments about the policies of Israel usually are allowed, albeit always from a liberal or progressive perspective. In some threads on the prominent front-page subreddit r/BlackPeopleTwitter, many (but not all) comments posted by white people are summarily deleted. Personal verification as a person of color, or an approved ally, is required to post there.[19] Subreddits created with the opposite goal of favoring white commenters are deleted or "quarantined".[20] For this very reason, Reddit has sometimes been described as a "hate site".

Content is further organized in "subreddits" (each an internet forum) about political and social goals, news debates, science, gaming, movies, music, books, fitness, food, image-sharing, and many other popular and obscure things. Reddit is a moderated rating site that uses social network aggregation, and enforces generally liberal/progressive community standards in almost all its prominent subreddits. Their front pages feature lists of entries submitted by registered users in a bulletin board system. Users can click whether they like a post or comment (upvote/downvote). Submissions with the most upvotes are more likely to appear on the front page or at the top of a category page, though administrators can and do manipulate these results.[21]

The name "Reddit" is a play-on-words with the phrase "read it".[22] The site's content is divided into numerous categories, and 49 such categories, or "default subreddits", are visible on the front page to new users and those who browse the site without logging in. As of May 2016, these include:[23]

Category Subreddits
Educational News, Science, Space, DataIsBeautiful, TodayILearned, WorldNews
Entertainment Creepy, Documentaries, Gaming, ListenToThis, Movies, Music, NoSleep, Sports, Television, Videos
Discussion-based AskReddit, AskScience, Books, ExplainLikeImFive, History, IAmA, TwoXChromosomes
Humor/light-hearted Funny, InternetIsBeautiful, Jokes, NotTheOnion, ShowerThoughts, TIFU, UpliftingNews
Image sharing Art, Aww, EarthPorn, Gifs, MildlyInteresting, OldSchoolCool, PhotoshopBattles, Pics
Self-improvement DIY, Food, GetMotivated, LifeProTips, PersonalFinance, Philosophy, WritingPrompts
Technology Futurology, Gadgets
Meta Announcements, Blog
  • Note: There are over 11,400 active subreddits[24][25] with a default set of 50 subreddits as of February 2016.

The users are called "redditors",[26] They post comments about submissions and respond back and forth in a conversation-tree of comments that are also upvoted and downvoted. The front page of the site itself shows a curated list of the highest-rated posts out of all the subreddits a user is subscribed to. Front-page rank – for both the general front page and for individual subreddits – is determined by the age of the submission, positive ("upvoted") to negative ("downvoted") feedback ratio and the total vote-count.[27] Dozens of submissions cycle through these front pages daily. The site's logo and its mascot is a line drawing of an alien nicknamed "Snoo". Subreddits often use themed variants of Snoo relevant to the subject.[28] Although most of the site functions like a bulletin board or message board, each subreddit has the option of having an associated wiki that can provide supplementary material like instructions, recommended reading, or collaboration for real-life events.

Reddit is said to be built upon crowdsourcing and user generated content[29] sharing, pathological altruism,[29] gamification,[29] social reputation[29] in a participatory culture with participatory governance[30] and/or self-governance, and collective intelligence.

Reddit posts often link to images hosted on an unaffiliated site, Imgur, an online image sharing community and image host started in 2009 that was designed to be a gift to the Reddit community.[31][32]

Size and trends

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Main article: Timeline of Reddit

Reddit has grown rapidly since its founding, and has occasionally been one of the 10 top sites in the world by number of daily users and pageviews. By 2017, Reddit had 542 million monthly visitors (234 million unique users), ranking #4 most visited web-site in US and #9 in the world.[33] Across 2015, Reddit saw 82.54 billion pageviews, 73.15 million submissions, 725.85 million comments, and 6.89 billion upvotes from its users.[34] Most Reddit users are male,[35] with a large chunk of them identifying as gay or bisexual. In 2016, the Pew Research Center published research showing that 4% of U.S. adults use reddit, of which 67% are men.[36] Users tend to be significantly younger than average, with less than 1% of users being 65 over.[36]

Content and presentation

The front page is editorially curated based on Reddit's social and commercial policies.[37] It features many types of content that are also popular in social media, like cute animal pictures, jokes, cuisine and DIY photos, and captions and reports about funny incidents. There are also deeper discussions on many original and obscure subjects. Much of this content first appears on Reddit, and is later copied to other sites like 9gag.

Reddit's culture is typically defined by wokeness with a limited undercurrent of white guilt.[38][39] The front page is said to contain much stuff white people like. Parts of the front page have been compared by critics to progressive propaganda. As is the case on mainstream left-leaning websites, the skeptical movement is highly influential on Reddit.[40] On most days, non-Asian minorities and immigrants are featured in anti-stereotypical and uplifting news stories. The unwillingness of the USA to provide full taxpayer-funded healthcare is illustrated with heartbreaking reports of medical ordeals, and European politicians are sympathetically portrayed compared to their American counterparts. Such posts are popular among the site's main userbase, however.[41][42][43]

Alleged censorship

On November 23, 2016, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman admitted to secretly modifying the contents of many public user comments on Reddit that he disliked.[44][45] He did so by changing insulting comments made towards him and made it appear as if the insult were directed at the moderators of the "The_Donald" community.[46] He said it was in response to abuse directed at him "after Reddit moved to shut down subreddit community 'Pizzagate'."[47][48] At least one source has suggested this could lead to Reddit losing its Section 230 protection.[49]

Many subreddits have been deleted based on their content or on alleged violations of the site's terms.[50] However, outright censorship is rare on Reddit, though influential subreddits are accused of abusing their power to deny allegedly dissenting opinions.[51] Reddit recommends these dissidents form their own subreddits, but these will have far fewer readers, making their voices unheard.[52] Users may be "shadowbanned" using the site's sophisticated post display algorithms that have been developed since 2005. This is mostly used against automated spamming and bot accounts, and against marketers of off-site content.[53]

In February 2017, Reddit banned the alt-right subreddit (/r/altright) when its members demanded the legal prosecution of the man who attacked alt-right figure Richard B. Spencer. These comments were alleged to have violated the attacker's privacy rights. Forum members accused Reddit administrators of having left-wing political bias.[54]

On July 12, /u/david-me, the head moderator of the GamerGate subreddit (/r/kotakuinaction) shut the forum down, describing it as "a cancerous growth" because its discussions of anti-white male themes in mainstream comics were equivalent to "racism and sexism". A Reddit employee allowed the forum to be restored, drawing fierce left-wing criticism.[55]

In September 2018, after months of online deplatforming efforts by progressive social media sites including Reddit, the site banned right-wing forum /r/SJWHate for what its members stated were purely left-wing political reasons.[56] From its beginnings, Reddit has been known as an SJW converged community.

Shadowbanning

Reddit also has a widespread policy of shadowbanning comments by controversial members, which continued in several forms through 2020, though the practice was claimed to be suspended[57] in 2015.[58][59][60] These are more likely to be right-wing and far right members, severely politically incorrect commenters, and subjectively offensive or abrasive persons, but a number of Islamist and far-left commenters have also been affected. They can still post, but their comments are not visible to others, though to them their comments appear normally. New commenters are automatically shadowbanned from political and otherwise controversial discussions.

The algorithms that decide who gets shadowbanned are not disclosed, though some hints have been provided.[61] Users may only be shadowbanned on some subreddits, while their comments are still allowed to appear normally on others. This is because most Reddit shadowbans occur within single subreddits or a network of subreddits that have adopted the same automated shadowbanning policies, like how controversial a user appears, based on their comment "karma".[62] Reddit administrators or their automated tools may then decide to extend the shadowban on a wider scale .

Shadowbanning is defended as a way to let a banned user "blow off steam" without offending others. If they don't know they have been banned, they also won't create a new account to circumvent the ban. Shadowbanning is criticized by users who say that weeks of their time have been wasted crafting posts that no one can read.[63]

Reaction

Other websites have attempted to compete with Reddit. The most prominent of these was Voat, which was described as a right-wing version of Reddit, but it had less than 5% of Reddit's user base. It was shut down in December 2020.

See also

General

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Similar websites

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References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Valerie Richardson Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/13/facebook-reddit-censorship-reignites-conservative-/
  5. ↑ comment section (Apr 16, 2017) http://rebrn.com/re/reddit-just-got-caught-accidently-launching-a-new-tactic-which-s-3238703/
  6. ↑ user tools (June 2017) https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8322154
  7. ↑ comment section (retrieved Jun 2017) http://www.stochasticgeometry.ie/2010/03/09/silently-banned-reddit/
  8. ↑ (Feb 2014) https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/comments/1x92jy/an_unofficial_guide_on_how_to_avoid_being/cgmpmer/
  9. ↑ Craig Smith (May 11, 2017) http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/reddit-stats/
  10. ↑ Times of Israel (Jun 24, 2019) https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-9-months-reddit-finally-bans-group-spreading-thinly-veiled-anti-semitism/
  11. ↑ (retrieved Jun 25, 2019) https://old.reddit.com/r/WhereAreAllTheGoodMen/
  12. ↑ Voat.com post (Dec 24, 2018) https://voat.co/v/whatever/2740619
  13. ↑ (Aug 3, 2021) https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mgtow-subreddit-banned/
  14. ↑ (Aug 4, 2021) https://www.newsweek.com/reddit-bans-men-going-their-own-way-forums-violating-hate-speech-rules-1616379
  15. ↑ Online discussion (Jun 29, 2020) https://old.reddit.com/r/MGTOW/comments/hi59qr/reddit_is_beginning_to_mass_ban_subs_its_been_a/
  16. ↑ (Aug 30, 2021) https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/pehdvn/why_is_rasksciencefiction_suddenly_a_private/
  17. ↑ (retrieved Aug 31, 2021) https://www.reddit.com/r/N8theGr8/comments/pelle1/subs_going_dark/
  18. ↑ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/26/how-the-2016-presidential-campaign-is-being-discussed-on-reddit/
  19. ↑ (retrieved Sep 5, 2019) https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditcancer/comments/bfij5r/rblackpeopletwitter_quietly_rolls_out_new_racist/
  20. ↑ (retrieved Sep 10, 2019) https://www.reddit.com/r/Reddit_Courthouse/comments/b9yogh/the_case_of_rsubforwhitepeopleonly_vs/
  21. ↑ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/07/30/reddit-admins-accused-of-censoring-donald-trump-ama/
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ "2016-update" at "blog.reddit.com" http://blog.reddit.com/2013/06/browse-future-of-reddit-re-introducing.html%7Ctitle=Browse the Future of Reddit: Re-Introducing Multireddits|date=June 7, 2013|accessdate=June 7, 2013
  25. ↑ "Active" is defined as "subreddits that had at least 5 posts or comments in the past day", according to /u/chromakode who is an admin
  26. ↑ Redditor - definition of Redditor Oxford Dictionaries Online
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ (Feb 15, 2017) https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/15/reddit-tweaks-and-renames-public-front-page/
  38. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3y6ja8/whats_with_the_white_guilt_thing_a_lot_of/
  39. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/7mcqmx/has_reddit_become_too_politically_correct_and/
  40. ↑ https://old.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/ngt7ib/wikipedia_editors_quietly_fire_up_the_memory_hole/gyv4mnl/?context=3
  41. ↑ (Mar 27, 2014) http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/politics/i-figured-out-why-reddits-r-politics-is-such-a-liberal-echo-chamber-cesspool/49034656/
  42. ↑ (Jul 28, 2014) http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/whats-your-opinion-on-reddit-i-think-it-sucks-ass.454136699/
  43. ↑ https://penetrate.blogspot.com/2013/12/reddits-liberal-hivemind-groupthink.html
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/12/19/critics-blast-reddit-over-climate-change-skeptic-ban.html
  52. ↑ T.C. Sottek; "Reddit leaders deflect censorship criticism and defend hands-off policies"; https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/14/3499796/reddit-moderator-secrecy-subreddit-control
  53. ↑ (Oct 14, 2012) https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/11ggji/can_someone_please_explain_to_me_what_shadow/
  54. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/why-reddit-banned-alt-right-2017-2 | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/02/reddit-bans-far-right-groups-altright-alternativeright
  55. ↑ https://www.inquisitr.com/opinion/4985599/opinions-are-split-on-the-attempt-to-shut-down-popular-subreddit-r-kotakuinaction/ | https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comments/8yh18h/righting_a_wrong/
  56. ↑ (Sep 14, 2018) http://www.amerika.org/politics/reddit-bans-r-sjwhate-in-recent-spate-of-ideologically-motivated-actions/
  57. ↑ "Third Parent" parenting blog | http://blog.thirdparent.com/reddit-improves-safety-tools-will-end-the-shadowban/
  58. ↑ http://findnerd.com/list/view/How-to-Avoid-shadowban-or-Account-suspension-on-Reddit/18427/
  59. ↑ https://enhanceviewsbugs.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/340520-what-is-reddit-shadowban
  60. ↑ https://www.quora.com/What-can-a-Reddit-user-do-about-a-Reddit-wide-shadowban
  61. ↑ (Feb 7, 2014) https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/comments/1x92jy/an_unofficial_guide_on_how_to_avoid_being/
  62. ↑ "Silencio" (2014) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8322154
  63. ↑ (2015) https://blog.jixee.me/am-i-shadowbanned-on-reddit/

External links

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