R/DIRECTACTION

Dozens of Reddit Communities ‘Go Dark’ to Protest COVID-19 Misinformation

The moderators of these subreddits, some of which have millions of subscribers, are protesting Reddit’s refusal to delete pandemic-skeptical discussion boards.

At least 135 subreddits have switched to private this week in a coordinated effort to demonstrate against coronavirus disinformation circulating on Reddit. Moderators have said that the closed subreddits will remain “dark,” meaning that non-members will be blocked from reading or joining the boards, until Reddit agrees to delete the communities “dedicated to undermining the severity of the pandemic.” This includes subreddits like r/NoNewNormal, a mask- and vaccine-skeptical community with 124,000 subscribers. Of the subreddits in blackout, several, like r/futurology and r/tifu, have more than 10 million subscribers each. Others, like r/childfree, r/instant_regret, and r/PokemonGo, have more than a million each. Last week, moderators of hundreds more subreddits signed an open letter to the company, calling on them to take “more active involvement” in preventing the spread of medical disinformation. “There can be no room for leniency when people are dying as a result of misinformation on this platform,” the letter read. “Reddit as a global platform needs to take responsibility here.”