Reddit Bans Pro-Trump Forum The_Donald in Massive Purge of Subreddits
CRACKDOWN
Reddit banned the pro-Trump “The_Donald” forum and roughly 2,000 other “subreddits” on the site on Monday, citing new rules against hate speech on the platform. Reddit also purged some popular subreddits on the left, including a subreddit devoted to socialist podcast Chapo Trap House.
With 790,000 members, The_Donald had become one of the internet’s biggest hubs of pro-Trump activism and meme-making. But the subreddit’s moderators had frequently clashed with Reddit administrators, who “quarantined” the subreddit last year by taking steps that would make it more difficult for Reddit users to find. Expecting an eventual ban, The_Donald’s moderators set up a Reddit-style site they could control, TheDonald.win, and encouraged The_Donald users to move there. As a result, The_Donald subreddit had been mostly inactive for months. “The_Donald is dead, long live .win!” posted one TheDonald.win user as news of the old subreddit’s ban spread.
The Reddit page for The_Donald now cites several Reddit rules Reddit’s owners allege the subreddit was breaking, including rules against interfering with the operation of the site and rules against inciting violence or promoting hate. Many of the deleted subreddits were inactive, with the vast majority of deleted subreddits having fewer than 10 daily users, The Verge reported.