I've studied The_Donald extensively and they have been inciting violence against Muslims for years. Reddit has done very little until just recently. Spez, aka Steve Huffman, once referred to them as his “annoying little brother.” They also buy disproportionate amounts of Reddit gold.
You could regularly find the “Remove Kebab” meme on threads, particularly ones referencing Rep. Ilhan Omar. It was posted several times in the months leading up to the Christchurch Massacre — the same phrase was written on the shooter’s gun.
Reddit has coddled these people openly inciting hatred and violence for years, probably out of a fear that they would get backlash from the right and the president himself.
So, to cover their asses, they banned r/ChapoTrapHouse, too. There were some problems with r/CTH users, i.e. brigading and so forth, but the mods were generally compliant with Reddit’s rules and were cooperating. Nothing comparable to what r/The_Donald was doing in terms of incitement and hate speech. The worst infractions were making guillotine jokes and talking about executing slaveowners who have been dead for 150 years.
The_Donald was posting Ilhan Omar’s office number and threatening to murder Oregon police officers.
This entire thing is a joke. Spez debated for years over whether to shutdown a network of hate subreddits known as the “Chimpire,” which included subs, like r/WatchN****rsDie. In the end, he merely quarantined them and banned the worst mods/users, citing free speech.
A lot of those “inactive” subs that Reddit banned were Chimpire subs that had been quarantined. Reddit doesn’t care about hate speech or free speech. It only cares about saving face and protecting its share value. Period.
