Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content
- 7 years ago
Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content
Going forward, we will take action against any content
that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, we will also take action against content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals.
Reddit, the online internet forum, has started to implement a new policy to ban content
that glorifies and incites violence, and among the first to go were forums for Nazi, racist and white supremacist groups.
But it added sometimes there were reasons to post violent content — such as with educational, newsworthy, artistic
and satirical items — in which case context should be provided to show it was not gratuitous.
On Thursday, as news of the policy surged through the site, moderators began to question how it would be applied in Reddit’s micro-communities, or subreddits,
where interests can range from hunting to Bible study, as well as in its dark corners, where people are urged to kill themselves or others.
We understand that enforcing this policy may often require subjective judgment, so all of the usual caveats apply with regard to content
that is newsworthy, artistic, educational, satirical, etc, as mentioned in the policy.
Reddit said it was taking the steps to clarify the way it has moderated posts in the past,
and to bring its policy on allowable content in line with its values.
Going forward, we will take action against any content
that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, we will also take action against content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals.
Reddit, the online internet forum, has started to implement a new policy to ban content
that glorifies and incites violence, and among the first to go were forums for Nazi, racist and white supremacist groups.
But it added sometimes there were reasons to post violent content — such as with educational, newsworthy, artistic
and satirical items — in which case context should be provided to show it was not gratuitous.
On Thursday, as news of the policy surged through the site, moderators began to question how it would be applied in Reddit’s micro-communities, or subreddits,
where interests can range from hunting to Bible study, as well as in its dark corners, where people are urged to kill themselves or others.
We understand that enforcing this policy may often require subjective judgment, so all of the usual caveats apply with regard to content
that is newsworthy, artistic, educational, satirical, etc, as mentioned in the policy.
Reddit said it was taking the steps to clarify the way it has moderated posts in the past,
and to bring its policy on allowable content in line with its values.