Reddit has banned a number of its most abhorrent subreddits this week, including those moderated and populated by white supremacists, as the site continues to undergo radical changes to its policies.
In a policy update posted on the site yesterday by CEO Steve Huffman, known as “spez” on the site, it was revealed that /r/CoonTown, /r/WatchNiggersDie, /r/bestofcoontown, /r/koontown, /r/CoonTownMods, /r/CoonTownMeta had all been banned, along with several other (unnamed) subreddits that were dedicated to the posting of animated child pornography.
In addition to the banning of these subreddits, Huffman also announced that Reddit would also be introducing “Quarantines” for the site’s most offensive content, wherein users would be asked to opt in if they wished to see it. The subreddits that will be Quarantined will be those “with content [that] would be considered extremely offensive to the average redditor,” according to Huffman.
The changes follow the controversy surrounding Reddit’s treatment of Ellen Pao, the site’s former interim CEO who handed in her resignation after facing a torrent of abuse at the hands of Redditors, who perceived her as being responsible for numerous changes to the site including the banning of several offensive subreddits and the alleged “censorship” that was being enforced by the site’s management. However, it was later revealed that Pao wasn’t responsible for the changes to the site, and that in actuality her good standing with the “Silicon Valley feminists” had led to her appointment as CEO, according to former CEO Yishan Wong, so that the site could continue to house its offensive communities without fear of backlash.
However, Wong has stated that since Pao has now been removed, the site is set to become more strict with its policies in regards to offensive subreddits, something which many Redditors vehemently oppose as evidenced by the mass hysteria that ensued on the site when r/FatPeopleHate was taken down.
For those who aren’t inexplicably enraged when a subreddit devoted to inciting hatred is removed from the site, this can be seen as a bold step forward in Reddit’s treatment of the site’s more shameful communities, and the introduction of Quarantines will certainly help in making the site welcoming to users who previously found its offensive subreddits off-putting.
