Days after a crowd raided the United States Capitol during protests against Donald Trump's election loss in 2020, another major social media platform banned a popular pro-Trump forum. Reddit this morning he confirmed that he had closed the r / donaldtrump subreddit due to "repeated policy violations" on the forum since Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the site tells ProWellTech:
Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate or encourages, glorifies, incites or invites violence against groups of people or individuals. Based on this, we have proactively reached out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed. We have also taken steps to ban the r / donaldtrump community due to repeated policy violations in recent days regarding violence on the US Capitol. "
While r / donaldtrump didn't come close to the infamy of other pro-Trump subreddits, the site was a current hub for the Stop the Steal movement. The subreddit also encouraged people to join the DC rally which turned into deadly violence on the Capitol: A side banner on r / donaldtrump featured an image of President Trump as Uncle Sam. "POTUS wants you in Washington on 6/1/21" it read.
Reddit declined to provide further details as to why the subreddit was removed, but noted that its actions against r / donaldtrump have been isolated and no other subreddit has been banned today. The subreddit was not connected to President Trump in any official role.
Prior to the Capitol invasion, many Trump supporters attended the Trump event, a rally near the White House. While that event stood around a stage, Trump eventually encouraged his attendees to march to Congress to continue expressing their indignation over the election results.
Reddit has historically hosted large pro-Trump communities known for their toxic behavior and for opening violent threats against public figures. Last June, Reddit banned the most prominent of these, the controversial r / The_Donald subreddit, amid a wider sweep of pages. A year earlier, Reddit quarantined r / The_Donald, making it harder to discover and requiring an activation screen for anyone to visit.
Reddit's decision to shut down the hub for Trump supporters follows several other de-platforming operations on major services, including Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Shopify.
