# Reddit Reddit is the substantially-large American social-news-aggregation-and-discussion social-media platform launched in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian (with subsequent involvement of Aaron Swartz). The platform substantially-pioneered the contemporary structured-online-community format — substantively-organized into "subreddits" (substantially-autonomous community-spaces moderated by community-volunteer moderators), substantially-structured around upvote-and-downvote content-ranking mechanics, substantially-organized into nested-comment-thread discussion infrastructure. The platform's substantive-political-cultural significance has been substantial across the post-2010 American political-environment — Reddit became one of the principal subculture-and-radicalization-pipeline-infrastructure platforms across the contemporary period. The platform's substantive-political-cultural significance for the KB operates across multiple distinct documentary registers: - **r/The_Donald subreddit (2015-2020).** Principal Trump-aligned subreddit; substantial 2015-2020 contemporary political-mobilization-infrastructure platform. At peak, ~790,000 subscribers; substantial mass-political-discourse infrastructure. The subreddit operated substantially within the broader [[MAGA]] online-political-mobilization-infrastructure. The subreddit was substantially-quarantined in June 2019 and banned in June 2020 following sustained policy-violation documentation. The subreddit's substantial post-ban migration to alternative platform infrastructure (TheDonald.win, subsequently Patriots.win) substantially-continued the online-political-mobilization-infrastructure. - **r/Incels subreddit (2015-2017).** Principal contemporary incel-ideology-community subreddit; peaked at ~40,000 subscribers before being banned in November 2017 for violent-content policy-violation. The subreddit was one of the principal contemporary documented incel-radicalization-pipeline infrastructure platforms; substantial post-ban migration to alternative platform infrastructure (incels.is, incels.co, and adjacent platforms) substantially-continued the radicalization-pipeline infrastructure. - **r/MGTOW subreddit (2011-2021).** Principal contemporary MGTOW-ideology-community subreddit; substantial mass-community development through 2021 ban. The subreddit was one of the principal contemporary documented manosphere-radicalization-pipeline infrastructure platforms. - **r/KotakuInAction subreddit (2014-present).** Principal contemporary Gamergate-and-adjacent-online-culture-war-community subreddit; substantial mass-community development across the post-2014 period. The subreddit continues active operation as one of the principal contemporary right-coded online-culture-war-community infrastructure platforms. ## Platform Architecture **Subreddit infrastructure.** Reddit's substantively-distinctive platform-architecture feature is the *subreddit* infrastructure — substantially-autonomous community-spaces moderated by community-volunteer moderators. The subreddit infrastructure substantially-enables: substantial-community-internal cultural-and-political-development; substantial-community-internal moderation-infrastructure; substantial-community-internal mass-political-mobilization infrastructure-development. The infrastructure substantially-distinguishes Reddit from other contemporary social-media platforms. **Upvote-and-downvote ranking mechanics.** The platform's ranking-infrastructure operates through community-voted upvote-and-downvote ranking. The ranking-infrastructure substantially-enables substantial-community-internal preference-aggregation; the infrastructure substantially-produces substantial-community-internal echo-chamber dynamics. **Pseudonymous user-account infrastructure.** Reddit user-accounts are substantially-pseudonymous; the pseudonymous infrastructure substantially-distinct from Facebook's real-name-policy infrastructure and substantially-similar to Twitter's-and-other-platforms' pseudonymous infrastructure. The pseudonymous infrastructure substantially-enables substantial-user-anonymity in political-and-cultural-discourse engagement. **Algorithmic-recommendation infrastructure.** Reddit's post-2020 algorithmic-recommendation infrastructure substantially-promotes content across substantially-multiple subreddits to user-feed infrastructure. The infrastructure substantially-extends content-distribution beyond subreddit-internal-subscriber populations. ## Content-Moderation History **Pre-2015 minimal-moderation period.** Substantial pre-2015 period of minimal-content-moderation infrastructure. The platform substantially-permitted substantively-extreme content across multiple subreddits including substantial-portion-pornographic-and-violent-content subreddits, substantial-portion-racist-and-misogynist-content subreddits, and adjacent extreme-content subreddits. **2015-2017 incremental-moderation expansion.** Substantial 2015-2017 platform-policy-restructuring producing incremental-content-moderation expansion. Notable specific bans: r/jailbait (2011), r/coontown (2015), r/fatpeoplehate (2015), r/incels (November 2017). The bans substantially-followed sustained-media-coverage and external-political pressure. **2019-2021 substantial-moderation expansion.** Substantial 2019-2021 platform-policy-restructuring producing substantial-content-moderation infrastructure expansion. Notable specific bans: r/The_Donald (quarantined June 2019, banned June 2020), r/ChapoTrapHouse (June 2020, also banned at that time), r/MGTOW (August 2021), r/GenderCritical (June 2020), and adjacent substantively-extreme subreddits. The bans substantially-followed sustained-internal-policy-development and external-political-pressure dynamics. **Post-2021 stable-moderation period.** Substantial post-2021 period of substantially-stable content-moderation infrastructure operation. The platform substantially-maintains content-moderation infrastructure across the post-2021 period without substantial additional policy-restructuring. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Subculture-and-radicalization-pipeline infrastructure documentary anchor.** Reddit is one of the principal contemporary subculture-and-radicalization-pipeline infrastructure platforms. Tracking the platform is essential to engaging with the broader contemporary online-radicalization analytical-literature. **r/The_Donald subreddit MAGA-mobilization documentary case.** The r/The_Donald subreddit is one of the principal documented MAGA-online-political-mobilization-infrastructure case-studies. Tracking the subreddit is useful for engaging with the broader contemporary MAGA-coalition-organizational analytical-literature. **r/Incels / r/MGTOW manosphere-pipeline documentary case.** The r/Incels and r/MGTOW subreddits are principal documented manosphere-radicalization-pipeline infrastructure case-studies. Tracking the subreddits is useful for engaging with the broader contemporary manosphere-radicalization analytical-literature. **Content-moderation policy-development documentary case.** Reddit's content-moderation policy-development trajectory across approximately a decade is one of the principal documented contemporary platform-content-moderation case-studies. Tracking the trajectory is useful for engaging with the broader contemporary platform-content-moderation analytical-literature. ## See Also - [[White Nationalist Radicalization Pipeline]] — the broader analytical-framework - [[Surveillance Capitalism]] — adjacent platform-economic-structural framework - [[Engagement Farming]] — adjacent platform-optimization-dynamic concept - [[Deplatforming]] — adjacent platform-moderation political-rhetorical-vocabulary - [[Incel]] — adjacent manosphere-vocabulary - [[Incel Ideology]] / [[MGTOW]] — adjacent manosphere-ideologies - [[MAGA]] — adjacent contemporary political-coalition - [[Gamergate]] — adjacent online-culture-war case-event