Reddit banned an anti-vaccine forum and limited the visibility of 54 other subreddits associated with coronavirus denial after several moderators protested the platform’s approach to health misinformation.
The subreddit r/NoNewNormal was banned for breaking Reddit’s rules around intentionally targeting conversations elsewhere on the platform. The community had grown rapidly since being launched in June 2020, accumulating more than 122,000 subscribers.
The rest of the forums targeted in Wednesday’s action will be removed from search or recommendations, and visitors to those subreddits will be warned that they should get medical advice from their physicians.
The new ban and restrictions come a week after dozens of moderators released an open letter calling for aggressive action against COVID-19 misinformation.
CEO Steve Huffman defended his company’s light touch approach to content moderation in a response post, saying that “dissent is a part of Reddit and the foundation of democracy.”
Wednesday’s announcement shifted that stance slightly.
“Our policies, and how we enforce them, evolve with time,” a member of Reddit’s safety team wrote in a post. “We base these evolutions on two things: user trends and data.”