Reddit Purges 2k Subreddits Including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

Reddit Banned

Reddit purged about 2,000 subreddits for “offensive content”, claiming that only 200 of them had more than 10 daily active users. These bans came shortly after Reddit updated its policies to include this gem:

While the rule on hate protects such groups, it does not protect all groups or all forms of identity. For example, the rule does not protect groups of people who are in the majority or who promote such attacks of hate.

The platform published the top 10 subreddits that were banned, ranked by daily average users (DAU):

Subreddit7 Day DAU
darkhumorandmemes49,893
chapotraphouse42,949
consumeproduct30,349
darkjokecentral27,356
gendercritical27,333
cumtown8,091
wojak7,813
the_donald7,780
imgoingtohellforthis27,073
thenewright6,844

r/The_Donald was quarantined by Reddit a year prior, and the subreddit’s mods placed it into “restricted mode” four months before this removal.

Another popular subreddit that got caught up in this purge was r/hatecrimehoaxes.

Just found out that the other Reddit hate crime hoax sub just got the ban hammer. I hope this one doesn’t follow it anytime soon. First they came for the Nazi subs, but I wasn’t a Nazi so I didn’t care…Then they came for the White Supremacist subs, but I believe all races are equally valuable so I didn’t say anything…And then…

– TheLimeyCanuck 30 Jun 2020


Sources / Relevant Material

  1. Reddit r/announcements "Update to Our Content Policy" by spez (29 Jun 2020)
  2. AdAge "Reddit deletes Donald Trump community, and 2,000 others, in purge of offensive content" by (29 Jun 2020)
  3. Reddit Account and Community Restrictions "Promoting Hate Based on Identity or Vulnerability" (29 Jun 2020)
  4. BitChute "Reddit CEO Is LYING About Banning The Donald Subreddit, New Rules Allows Anti Women Posts??" by Tim Pool (29 Jun 2020)
  5. Archive of the r/HateCrimeHoaxes subreddit shortly after ban
  6. The Daily Caller "Reddit Removed Subreddit Dedicated To Tracking Hate Crime Hoaxes, Accused Of Promoting 'Hate'" by Chris White (10 Jul 2020)
  7. TheDonald.win "We've put the subreddit in "restricted" mode." by Doggos (26 Feb 2020)