Controversial Reddit communities

On Reddit, a social news site, some communities (known as subreddits or subs) are centred around explicit, violent, propagandist, or hateful material. Many such subreddits have been the topic of controversy, at times receiving significant media coverage. Journalists, attorneys, media researchers, and others have commented that such communities shape and promote biased views of international politics, the veracity of evidence-based medicine, misogynistic rhetoric, and other socially disruptive concepts.

Contrary to popular opinion as well as previous staff practices and statements, Reddit's founders have said they did not intend the platform to be a "bastion of free speech" where online hate speech would be tolerated. But for a period of time, Reddit allowed these controversial communities to operate largely unrestricted. The site's general manager, Erik Martin, has argued that objectionable material is a consequence of allowing free speech on the site.

Eventually, Reddit administrators instituted usage rules to allow for the banning of groups and members who stole or exposed personal information or images or promoted illegal activity, violence, shaming, race- or gender-related violence, online harassment, or extremist speech. Nevertheless, various active and heavily trafficked subreddits still skirt the edges of the rules.

Critics argue that while concerned Redditors and moderators often report these subs, they often remain open until a specific incident, or the actions of an individual, force them to come under more intense scrutiny and require administrators to decide between allowing distasteful content or suppressing dangerous or destructive communities. Critics have also charged that the site has been inconsistent in what it bans. Some banned users and communities have created or moved to other platforms, with some even saving a duplicate of their subreddit to preserve it elsewhere, in the event it gets banned.