Two of the largest white nationalist subreddit groups, altright and alternativeright, were banned from Reddit for sharing personal information without consent, the social media site announced on Wednesday. The act, known as 'doxing', is a form of online harassment and violates the site's content policy.
The exact content for which the subreddits were banned wasn't revealed, but it appears to be the groups' attempts to 'dox' the protester who punched a white nationalist during an interview at Donald Trump's inauguration,The Guardian reports.
"We are very clear in our site terms of service that posting of personal information can get users banned from Reddit and we ask our communities not to post content that harasses or invites harassment. We have banned r/altright due to repeated violations of the terms of our content policy. There is no single solution to these issues and we are actively engaging with the Reddit community to improve everyone's experience," Reddit said in a statement.
With this move, it is clear that the self-proclaimed "front page of the internet" is policing its massive network of users for any spiteful and dangerous content. Before the altright group was banned, the subreddit witnessed a significant boost in the number of subscribers after Donald Trump assumed office in January.
The subreddit had a little over 16,000 subscribers earlier in January compared to 11,659 as of end of last year. The page views for the subreddit group had also gone up by almost double to 2.9 million.
One of the senior moderators of the atlright subreddit, who identified himself as Bill Simpson, told The Daily Beast that the ban on the forum took place without any notification or justification. Simpson claimed the subreddit was banned because of its growing fame, record monthly traffic and for "spreading inconvenient truths about who's ruining our country and robbing our children of a future."
"The AltRight represents tens of millions of decent White Americans who want their neighborhoods, schools, institutions, and country back. We are the decent people and we will no longer tolerate the anti-White establishment or be denied an identity," Simpson said.
