Reddit has taken a drastic step to crush protests against the social media platform by removing entire moderator teams from several popular subreddits.
The company did so after the subreddits began allowing porn and other not-safe-for-work (NSFW) content in an effort to keep protesting Reddit’s controversial API change, which risks shutting down several third-party apps.
By permitting the NSFW content, the subreddits are trying to undermine Reddit’s ability to generate advertising revenue since ads are prohibited on forums that allow NSFW posts.
Hence, on Tuesday, you may have encountered a stream of nudity and other risque imagery on the platform. The starkest example has been the subreddit r/interestingasfuck, which has 11 million readers, and is now full of porn. Other subreddits—including r/pokemongo, r/Formula1, and r/videos—also opened the floodgates to nudes.
In response, Reddit has moved swiftly to crack down on the protest tactic. The platform removed entire volunteer moderator teams for subreddits including r/interestingasfuck, r/self, r/TIHI (Thanks, I hate it), and r/shittylifeprotips.
Meanwhile, Reddit pulled the entire moderator team for r/mildlyinteresting, only to backtrack before stripping away most of their privileges after the subreddit decided to allow NSFW content.
“I honestly don't even have words for this situation right now,” a moderator for r/mildyinteresting wrote when the crackdown occurred. “No communication, no attempt to seriously answer any of our questions we asked in ModMail, but still going in and removing our posts, literally locking us out of our accounts, removing the entire moderation team, and entirely ignoring the 40,000 people who voted to either take the sub back private, or open it with new rules.”
However, Reddit is justifying the action, saying the affected subreddits broke the rules. “Moderators incorrectly marking a community as NSFW is a violation of both our Content Policy and Moderator Code of Conduct,” a Reddit spokesperson told The Verge.
Reddit further told PCMag: "It’s not OK to show people NSFW content when they don’t want to see it. In line with our Moderator Code of Conduct, we’ll remove moderators and restrict communities where moderators are engaging in malicious conduct, like allowing rule-violating behavior or encouraging the submission of sexually-explicit content in previously safe-for-work spaces."
In an interview with NBC News last week, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman called out the volunteer moderators supporting the protests as “landed gentry,” and threatened to change Reddit's policies to boot them out.
The threat caused many subreddits to open back up this week, after 8,400 of them went private, thereby preventing users from accessing them, in an effort to protest the company. But now, many subreddits are tapping other forms of protest, whether it be allowing NSFW content, or enacting other ridiculous rules, such as only permitting users to post content featuring British comedian John Oliver.
Other subreddits have remained private, and Reddit is now messaging them, demanding they reopen or else. “If this community remains private, we will reach out soon with information on what steps will take place,” Reddit said in a message to a small subreddit called Hentai_in_Peril.