Topline
Reddit shut down r/NoNewNormal, a community that undermined the coronavirus pandemic’s severity and dismissed face masks and vaccines, because its users broke platform rules on community interference, Reddit said, after other subreddits went dark this week to protest the spread of disinformation in the community and elsewhere on the platform.
Reddit deleted a controversial subreddit Wednesday, saying its users had violated rules regarding ... [+]
Key Facts
Reddit banned r/NoNewNormal Wednesday, saying the community had violated the platform’s policy against brigading, a term Reddit uses to refer to when members of a subreddit “invade” another community, often to harass users or manipulate Reddit’s upvote and downvote system and make certain views more visible on the platform.
Administrators found “very clear signals” that indicated members of the r/NoNewNormal subreddit had launched brigades roughly 90 times in the last month, Reddit said, mostly targeting subreddits with what Reddit called “more mainstream views” on coronavirus, as well as local subreddits having conversations about pandemic restrictions.
The platform also quarantined 54 other subreddits Reddit said deny coronavirus because they violated Reddit policies that forbid users from harassing, bullying or threatening violence.
Quarantined communities do not show up in search results and require that users opt-in to prevent people from accidentally stumbling upon content that “warrants additional scrutiny” without context, Reddit says—r/NoNewNormal was quarantined last month before it was banned altogether.
Reddit plans to introduce new features that will allow moderators to report community interference, the platform said.
While r/NoNewNormal and the 54 other subreddits were not punished for spreading coronavirus disinformation, Reddit administrators said an analysis shows there has been a “pronounced” uptick in coronavirus denialism on the platform since July.
Tangent
Reddit also clarified its health misinformation and disinformation policies on Wednesday. According to Reddit, any health misinformation that would be “falsifiable” and “encourages or poses a significant risk of physical harm to the reader” is against platform rules. Reddit’s policy banning impersonation extends to “manipulated content presented to mislead,” the platform said, which applies to falsified medical data and fake guidance from health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.
Key Background
Last week, the moderators of some of Reddit’s most popular communities signed onto an open letter demanding that Reddit delete r/NoNewNormal and do more to address the circulation of misinformation, writing that “there can be no room for leniency when people are dying as a result of misinformation on this platform.” Reddit opted not to ban the controversial subreddit, with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman writing in a statement that Reddit believes it’s best to “enable communities to engage in debate and dissent,” including views that “question or disagree with popular consensus.” In response, dozens of subreddits went private this week, rendering more than 50 million Reddit users unable to view the communities. Some of the subreddits who took part in the blackout were still private Wednesday afternoon, while others have reopened.
Further Reading
Dozens Of Subreddits Go Private To Protest Reddit’s Covid Disinformation Policy (Forbes)
Reddit Moderators Demand The Platform Take Action Against Covid Disinformation (Forbes)
