Reddit will now BAN users for bullying and harassment: Social site gets serious about inappropriate behavior and will now investigate allegations from victims
- Policy broadens definition of abuse and allows bystanders to report behavior
- Prohibited harassment can take place in public forums or private messages/chat
- One notoriously abusive subreddit, r/braincels, was also closed
Reddit has announced a new anti-harassment policy in the hopes of improving its overall user experience.
The updated policy defines harassment as ‘anything that works to shut someone out of the conversation through intimidation or abuse, online or off.’
Unacceptable behavior is deemed to be anything from ‘directing unwanted invective at someone to following them from subreddit to subreddit, just to name a few.’
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Reddit’s new anti-bullying policy will allow observers to report behavior and not just victims
Being annoying, strongly disagreeing, or downvoting a person will not be considered harassment, but moderators will be asked to consider larger behavioral patterns and not just individual acts, according to the new policy on Reddit.
In a post explaining the new rules, Reddit user landoflobsters wrote that they were discussed internally for months and motivated primarily by user feedback.
One of the main problems with the old policy was its narrowness, writes landoflobsters, requiring a behavior to be ‘continued’ and/or ‘systematic’ and leave a user ‘fearing for their real-world safety.’
The old policy also required the person being harassed to report those abusing them, which was unfair and could feel overwhelming.
Reddit’s new rules against harassment and bullying (pictured above) went into effect on September 30, 2019
Under the new behavior guide, bystanders will be able to report troublesome behavior for review.
The announcement also coincides with the closure of one of the site’s most abusive subreddits, including r/braincels, an offshoot of the previously banned r/incels subreddit.
The ‘braincels’ subreddit had been called ‘one of the vilest sites on the internet,’ whose users praised Hitler because he ‘had a GF. His personality was awesome,’ promoted rape, and posted about attacking women in public.
In 2018, Reddit passed Facebook and became the third most popular website in the US, behind only Google and YouTube.
While Reddit generates more than 14 billion page views a month and has 330 million active users, the site has fewer than 500 paid employees and relies heavily on volunteer moderators to help enforce its policies.
Reddit isn’t the only social media company focusing on harassment. This week Instagram introduced a new ‘Restrict’ button that will allow users to restrict another person’s access to their account and mute their comments in case of persistent or hostile comments
In the past, moderators have been targeted just as frequently, and sometimes more frequently, than ordinary users.
‘By doing your volunteer job as a mod you’re putting yourself at risk, because, apparently, [Reddit’s] tools are not enough to contain these psychos,’ said Robert Allam, a moderator of the popular r/tifu subreddit.
‘Reddit just keeps allowing these fresh accounts to be made in batches. Most of them are suspended accounts that broke the rules, but they come back for more.’
Reddit isn’t the only social media company focusing on harassment.
This week Instagram introduced a new ‘Restrict’ button that will allow users to restrict another person’s access to their account and mute their comments in case of persistent or hostile comments.
It’s meant to give people a way to filter out abusive behavior without formally reporting a user, which might cause them to become even more hostile.
‘Once you Restrict someone, comments on your posts from that person will only be visible to that person,’ according to Instagram.
