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Pro-Trump 'The_Donald' subreddit has been banned by Reddit

Reddit also banned a left-wing subreddit related to a podcast.

Published: June 29, 2020 3:37pm

Updated: June 29, 2020 11:44pm

The online forum Reddit on Monday announced changes to its content policy and said it is shutting down many subreddits including a large pro-Trump community called "The_Donald."

“Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people,” Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman said during a call with reporters, according to the New York Times. “‘The_Donald’ has been in violation of that.”

Reddit said that it is banning about 2,000 subreddit communities, though the company said the bulk of those groups are inactive. 

The Trump-supporting subreddit included hundreds of thousands of users, according to The Times, amid reports of a drop in activity following the 2016 election.

"Reddit said people in 'The_Donald' consistently posted racist and vulgar messages that incited harassment and targeted people of different religious and ethnic groups on and off its site," according to The Times.

"The community has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average (Rule 1), antagonized us and other communities (Rules 2 and 8), and its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations," Reddit said in explaining the ban on the subreddits. "Until now, we’ve worked in good faith to help them preserve the community as a space for its users —through warnings, mod changes, quarantining, and more," the platform said.

Reddit also banned the left-wing podcast-related "ChapoTrapHouse" subreddit, which reportedly had about 160,000 users.

"Though smaller, r/ChapoTrapHouse was banned for similar reasons: They consistently host rule-breaking content and their mods have demonstrated no intention of reining in their community," Reddit said. 

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