Reddit, the so-called "front page of the internet," has moved forward with a sweeping ban that has shut down thousands of subreddit boards the site deemed inappropriate, or potentially offensive.
Many of the recently banned boards revolved around humorous topics that were too edgy for Reddit to be able to justify to "woke" mobs, including comedy podcast Cumtown, socialist political podcast Chapo Trap House, and other subreddits based around memes, such as /r/Wojak, /r/SoyBoys, /r/ConsumeProduct, and perhaps most notably, /r/TheDonald, a once-thriving platform where Trump supporters would shitpost pro-Trump content.
An unintended consequence of the sweeping ban is the mass exodus of Reddit users who will now need to find a home for their shitposting, and unfortunately, most of the sites where actual freedom of speech is allowed also include uncensored, fringe ideologies. These boards include 8chan and 4chan's /pol/ (politically incorrect,) a board which has been widely criticized for having some racist content as there is no censorship on those platforms.
Within minutes of the bans, posts could be seen from Redditfugees, who are now in a position where they have to share a platform with self-professed white supremacists because Reddit was too spineless to actually stand for free speech and expression.
Most of the subreddits that were banned were of a humorous nature. As Twitter and Facebook have now begun providing "fact checks" to "doctored" comedic videos, Reddit's mass extinction event is yet another nail in the coffin for those seeking humour that isn't watered down—because God forbid humour be offensive to any single person.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a statement that he has been struggling with the balance between free speech and human decency for some time. “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,” Huffman said in a call with Verge.
“Reddit’s mission is to bring community and belonging to everybody in the world, and there is speech in the world and on Reddit that prevents other people from doing so,” Huffman continued. “Harassing speech or hateful speech prevents people from coming to Reddit and feeling safe and sharing their vulnerabilities ... So if we have speech on Reddit that’s preventing people from using Reddit the way that we intend it to be used, or that prevents us from achieving our mission, then it’s actually a very easy decision.”
Reddit has said that "the vast majority" of the banned pages were inactive, with only 200 of the 2,000 having more than 10 daily users. Of those are:
- r/DarkHumorAndMemes
- r/ConsumeProduct
- r/DarkJokeCentral
- r/GenderCritical
- r/Cumtown
- r/imgoingtohellforthis2
- r/Wojak
- r/soyboys
In the hours after the following the Reddit exodus, /pol/'s activity relative to its average posts per minute swelled up to 125 percent, according to 4stats.io
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