Culture Reddit Officially Bans /r/ChapoTrapHouse and /r/The_Donald - More than 2,000 communities are being removed on Monday for violating Reddit’s new content policies

Reddit bans r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse as part of a major expansion of its rules

More than 2,000 communities are being removed on Monday for violating Reddit’s new content policies.

www.theverge.com

Reddit will ban r/The_Donald, r/ChapoTrapHouse, and about 2,000 other communities today after updating its content policy to more explicitly ban hate speech. The policy update comes three weeks after Black Lives Matter protests led several popular Reddit forums to go dark temporarily in protest of what they called the company’s lax policies around hosting and promoting racist content. It marks a major reversal for a company whose commitment to free expression has historically been so strong that it once allowed users to distribute stolen nude photos freely on the site.

“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,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a call with reporters.

In a blog post that cites the company’s new rules, Huffman said users of the r/The_Donald subreddit had violated the site’s policies for years. (The site has no official connection to President Donald Trump, although he did do an Ask Me Anything there as a candidate in 2016.) “The community has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average (Rule 1), antagonized us and other communities (Rules 2 and , and its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations,” Huffman said.

Similarly, r/ChapoTrapHouse had also hosted content that violates the site’s rules, Huffman said. The subreddit is a spinoff of the popular left-wing podcast.

Reddit’s new policy begins with a first rule that requires users to “consider the human.” It reads:

Remember the human. Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying, and threats of violence. Communities and people that incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.

That formed the basis of a policy framework that bans hate speech.

“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 told reporters. “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.”

The introduction of the new policies has resulted in the removal of about 2,000 subreddits so far, and the company says “the vast majority” were inactive. Only about 200 of them had more than 10 daily users, the company said. They include:

• r/DarkHumorAndMemes
• r/ConsumeProduct
• r/DarkJokeCentral
• r/GenderCritical
• r/Cumtown
• r/imgoingtohellforthis2
• r/Wojak
• r/soyboys

Last year, Reddit “quarantined” r/The_Donald, placing it behind a warning screen after it was found to host content that incited violence. The company had previously prevented posts on the forum from reaching Reddit’s front page. Former users of the forum began moving to a new site off Reddit last year.

While Monday’s removals hit some high-profile political communities, Huffman said the company would continue to support a broad range of political speech.

“Political speech continues to be safe,” Huffman said. “But all communities, including our political communities, have to abide by our policies. And while we will do everything we can to help bring them in line, if they fail in doing so they are not allowed on Reddit.”

While r/The_Donald has no official connection to Trump, Reddit’s move could draw the ire of the president. Trump’s campaign complained after Snap removed him from promotion in Snapchat’s Discover tab earlier this month, and after Twitter began placing warnings on some of the president’s tweets.

At the same time, the company has been under more pressure to remove hate speech. Among the critics has been former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, who earlier this month said r/The_Donald should have been removed long ago. “You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence,” she said in a tweet directed at Huffman. “So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don’t get to say BLM when Reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long.”

 

[Tookie]

Rest in Power, r/BearMemeGIF

 

[Rotollo]

will be cleansing the Kiwi Farms tomorrow (July 1) with healing fire.

Spoiler: fitting song for the occasion

No company in existence with enough money to be "funded through 2050", as you claimed, would be sitting on their asses investing nothing in the platform that made that much money. If stickers were the revenue stream you're claiming they are, reddit would be launching spinoff after spinoff and throwing money around like their shit didn't stink, just like Amazon, Google, Facebook all did when they got massively in the black.
Admins give stickers out for free to users, have them free for themselves/their alts, and generally use the tool to fake customer engagement and promote a sanitized version of the site to outside advertisers.

How would you even make a semi-decent spin off with reddit's bare bones infrastructure and skim milk tier feature set without it just being reddit 2
that being said I do agree there is no way anyone is making bank off of reddit since it's mostly a content aggregation and shower thought posting site that makes money off of ads, internet stickers, and barely worthwhile gold subscriptions.

 

[KiwiFuzz]

These morons don't understand the value of American free speech.

Matt Taibbi has been on fire recently, and in one of his recent posts, he was raging about journalists being unwilling or unable to share perspectives shared by huge segments of the American public.

If the only place I am free to say that Rayshard Brooks had it coming is in some dude's basement decorated with Swastikas, then that's a problem.

And once people conclude that their thoughts and beliefs place them outside polite society (even if their beliefs are shared by the majority of the public!) there's no reason for them not to go full race realist.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

These morons don't understand the value of American free speech.

Matt Taibbi has been on fire recently, and in one of his recent posts, he was raging about journalists being unwilling or unable to share perspectives shared by huge segments of the American public.

If the only place I am free to say that Rayshard Brooks had it coming is in some dude's basement decorated with Swastikas, then that's a problem.

And once people conclude that their thoughts and beliefs place them outside polite society (even if their beliefs are shared by the majority of the public!) there's no reason for them not to go full race realist.

The left are too smug to realize that the blowback their actions are building toward is going to be catastrophic.

 

[President Joe Biden]

The left are too smug to realize that the blowback their actions are building toward is going to be catastrophic.

I would have said that you're being wildly optimistic about the future up until a few days ago. Then the pink shirt boomer and his crazy looking wife were standing shoeless in their yard pointing guns at people. If Phil and Karen are that far gone, it's not much longer now. Of course, right now the only people being charged with crimes right now are people like them, but eventually the police will stop bothering with people like them too. Cops are going to stop showing up to calls the minute white people start treating them like black people already do. It's not a desirable outcome, but it's the most obvious.

 

[Ledian]

Not surprised they're cleaning up the site. They want to sell it more and more to advertising space and keep the right leaning riff-raff out because people can't hold an opinion and just exist. Only good part of Reddit left are the writing focused subs like, r/HFY and r/WritingPrompts.
And the Paradox subs, because people are unabashedly un-pc there and the amount of dumb memes map painting games can create is obscene.

 

[HumanHive]

If the only place I am free to say that Rayshard Brooks had it coming is in some dude's basement decorated with Swastikas, then that's a problem.

lol
There are cameras and microphones everywhere now. Phones, computers, soon in fridges and TVs. Granted, no actual people are listening in; just bots who want to eavesdrop and hear what products you're consooming (try saying some corporation names while your smartphone is on, then log into Youtube. You'll start seeing similar ads.), but eventually they're going to start docking points from your hidden social credit score if they ever hear the word "nigger".

In China, this social credit system came from the government down; in America it's going to come from corporations down. Your bank account, ability to travel, ability to work in certain jobs; all will be tied to what you say and do in your own home.

 

[Dogfacefuke]

I don't really care. The space to communicate will be filled elsewhere. The real problem comes when they start trying to legislate free speech out of the internet in general.

Although that may start the decentralization revolution we have desperately needed.

But the fact that any website eventually reaches the normie peak is to be expected, and Reddit reached it nearly a decade ago, I don't really see how it changes anything.

They're just playing to the trend right now; which is essentially to hyperventilate like all the other leftists and corporations over the death of a single black man on fentanyl during an all-time record low of police incidents with that demographic.

It's all so predictable.

 

[MrJokerRager]

lol
There are cameras and microphones everywhere now. Phones, computers, soon in fridges and TVs. Granted, no actual people are listening in; just bots who want to eavesdrop and hear what products you're consooming (try saying some corporation names while your smartphone is on, then log into Youtube. You'll start seeing similar ads.), but eventually they're going to start docking points from your hidden social credit score if they ever hear the word "nigger".

In China, this social credit system came from the government down; in America it's going to come from corporations down. Your bank account, ability to travel, ability to work in certain jobs; all will be tied to what you say and do in your own home.

We entering a shitty version of Deus Ex.

 

[HumanHive]

We entering a shitty version of Deus Ex.

I think the only good news is that nobody wants to hire actual human beings to eavesdrop on the average consoomer's meaningless lives.

 

[Trump's Chosen]

I don't really care. The space to communicate will be filled elsewhere. The real problem comes when they start trying to legislate free speech out of the internet in general.

Although that may start the decentralization revolution we have desperately needed.

But the fact that any website eventually reaches the normie peak is to be expected, and Reddit reached it nearly a decade ago, I don't really see how it changes anything.

They're just playing to the trend right now; which is essentially to hyperventilate like all the other leftists and corporations over the death of a single black man on fentanyl during an all-time record low of police incidents with that demographic.

It's all so predictable.

The great thing about this wave of censorship is that alternative candidates like Trump and a variety of alternative candidates in other countries in the american hemisphere like europe, won't have a way to get their message to people. This means no more fake news, no more hate, but just love, progress and science.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

lol at "r/brapbarn" and "r/chapotraphouse1488"

Brapbarn was a sub that made fun of fat fetishists and feeders. The mockery came in the form of rping as farmers running a weird farm. Shame such creativity got the ban hammer.

Correction: It was about fart fetishists. Due to the content, I interpreted it as satirizing feeders and fat fetishists.
Reddit post explaining what it was.
Archive

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

Unsurprisingly they banned chapo just to justify banning every even slightly right-leaning subreddit.

They do this every time and I actually think that's why they constantly have such bizarre oversights.

2020 was the death knell of the internet. Kiwifarms is basically The Last Remnant of Web 1.0 culture. Eventually they'll take us down.

 

[AnOminous]

Unsurprisingly they banned chapo just to justify banning every even slightly right-leaning subreddit.

And you'll notice even this thread lists CTH first. It's like the old joke about Hitler telling his advisors he's going to kill six million Jews and a blonde bitch with big tits and they ask "why kill a blonde bitch with big tits" and he looks over at Goebbels and says "see I told you no one would care about the Jews."

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

I don't really care. The space to communicate will be filled elsewhere.

...Where?

The internet is a lot smaller than it was 10 years ago.

These black holes suck everything in.

 

[melty]

The left are too smug to realize that the blowback their actions are building toward is going to be catastrophic.

I would have said that you're being wildly optimistic about the future up until a few days ago. Then the pink shirt boomer and his crazy looking wife were standing shoeless in their yard pointing guns at people. If Phil and Karen are that far gone, it's not much longer now. Of course, right now the only people being charged with crimes right now are people like them, but eventually the police will stop bothering with people like them too. Cops are going to stop showing up to calls the minute white people start treating them like black people already do. It's not a desirable outcome, but it's the most obvious.

 

[KiwiFuzz]

....eventually they're going to start docking points from your hidden social credit score if they ever hear the word "nigger".

What if I listen to a lot of rap?

Maybe this is why Negroes pay out the ass in interest rates.

 

[Dogfacefuke]

...Where?

The internet is a lot smaller than it was 10 years ago.

These black holes suck everything in.

Anywhere anyone wants to start a web zone. Again, the only issue is if they start trying to legislate what you're allowed to host, beyond the reasonable restrictions for shit like child porn.

If they, or rather, when they make their move, and it becomes decided that saying for example; transgender people are not real women, and it's now a hate crime punishable by law, communication will have to enter a new more underground form, much akin to the Phone Phreakers of old.

There will always be holes in the infrastructure. And despite the difficulty and sophistication required in staying truely anonymous, it is still possible to remain anonymous and communicate freely.

Of course we should fight tooth and nail to avoid that nightmare scenario for as long as we can, but I do take solace in the fact that the hacker spirit still remains, and I try to keep myself as informed as my dumb ass can be on what I'll need to do should the laws take a turn for the worse.

 

[Wesley Willis]

Reddit is the most retarded thing ever after Facebook.

 

[moocow]

View attachment 1417929

Largest list of banned subreddits I've seen, all those Chapo back up subreddits!

Did they ever get around to banning /r/BlackFathers, which was dedicated to black fathers who stuck around for their children, and which never had any posts made to it (a nice subtle little jab)? That one always made me chuckle.