Reddit has permanently banned one of the biggest subreddits dedicated to US President Trump. The subreddit, r/DonaldTrump, wasn't directly connected with Trump himself, but it was a popular community for his supporters.
Reddit Takes Down R/DonaldTrump
The protests at Capitol Hill have triggered a shockwave of backlash across social media. Reddit is now stepping in, and has taken down r/DonaldTrump.
If you head to the location of the former subreddit, you'll see a page that reads: "r/DonaldTrump has been banned from Reddit." According to the page, "this community was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against inciting violence."
Clicking on the included link will lead you to Reddit's Help section, where you're presented with its rules against posting violent content. The rules state that users cannot post content that "encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people."
An Axios report first uncovered the ban, and included a statement from a Reddit representative. The Reddit spokesperson commented on the strict enforcement of Reddit's policies, saying:
Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed.
With that in mind, r/DonaldTrump likely reached Reddit's rule-breaking limits. The spokesperson went on to say that Reddit has decided "to ban the community r/DonaldTrump given repeated policy violations in recent days regarding the violence at the U.S. Capitol."
This isn't the only time that Reddit banned a Trump-related community. In June 2020, Reddit banned the pro-Trump subreddit, r/The_Donald, for violating its policies as well.
Reddit, along with several other social networks, has responded to the protests on Capitol Hill by limiting the exposure of content that potentially incites violence. Twitter locked Trump's account for 12 hours following the protests, while Facebook and Instagram have banned the President indefinitely.
Twitch has also taken action, and has temporarily banned Trump's channel. It's unclear when Twitch's ban will be lifted.
Social Media Forces Trump Out
As the walls of Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, Facebook, and Reddit close in on Trump, he'll likely be forced out. If he wants to stay on these platforms, he'll have to tread carefully and avoid breaking the rules on each site.
These mainstream social media networks may eventually ban Trump for good. If that happens, it will likely push him and his supporters towards alternative social networks, such as Parler.