June 22, 2023
Reddit has removed the entire moderator crew of many protesting subreddits who are posting pornographic and not safe for work (NSFW) content in subreddits as part of their protests.
The posts from subreddits such as r/interestingasfuck, r/pokemongo, r/Formula1, and r/videos were a purposeful attempt to disrupt Reddit’s advertising revenue generation since they violated the regulations that prohibit adverts from appearing in communities that encourage such postings.
Reddit removed the entire volunteer moderator teams from subreddits such as r/interestingasfuck, r/self, r/TIHI (Thanks, I hate it), and r/shittylifeprotips in response to this protest approach. In the instance of r/mildlyinteresting, the moderator team was originally removed, but its powers were later greatly limited after the subreddit decided to allow NSFW content.
The impacted moderators felt ignored by Reddit, which appeared to reject the will of the 40,000 users who voted to make the sub private or set new regulations. Meanwhile, Reddit defends its actions, claiming that the subreddits in question violated both the platform’s Content Policy and the Moderator Code of Conduct.
According to a Reddit spokesman, incorrectly labeling a community as NSFW is against the rules.
The sources for this piece include an article in PCMag.
