2020 Reddit's Quarantine Policy Update

Overview

2020 Reddit's Quarantine Policy Update refers to a February 2020 update to the Reddit's quarantine policy regarding rule-breaking content posted by users in quarantined communities on the platform. The update allowed punishments such as suspensions and bans to be applied to the site users who regularly upvote policy-breaking content in quarantined communities.

Background

On February 24th, 2020, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (spez)^[1] posted the Reddit's 2019 Transparency Report in the /r/announcements subreddit. The post included an announcement for a change in the policy regarding quarantined subreddits such as /r/The_Donald and /r/ChapoTrapHouse. According to the change, website users who consistently upvote policy-breaking content within quarantined communities would receive automated warnings followed by temporary and permanent suspensions.

When we expanded our quarantine policy, we created an appeals process for sanctioned communities. One of the goals was to “force subscribers to reconsider their behavior and incentivize moderators to make changes.” While the policy attempted to hold moderators more accountable for enforcing healthier rules and norms, it didn’t address the role that each member plays in the health of their community.
Today, we’re making an update to address this gap: Users who consistently upvote policy-breaking content within quarantined communities will receive automated warnings, followed by further consequences like a temporary or permanent suspension. We hope this will encourage healthier behavior across these communities.

Developments

Also on February 24th, Steve Huffman^[2] provided additional comment on the policy change.

We'll be actioning users--beginning with a warning--who submit and upvote content that we ultimately remove for violating our policies.
We're doing this because even though some moderators of these communities are acting in good faith, the community members aren't changing their behavior and therefore jeopardize the community at large.

Online Reactions

On February 24th, 2020, Redditor^[3] SitelessVagrant posted an extract from the post to /r/The_Donald subreddit where it received over 16,600 upvotes in two days. Starting the same day, multiple posts condemning the policy change were posted in the subreddit. For example, a February 24th post by Redditor^[4] Tredge received over 16,200 upvotes in one day (shown below, left). A same-day post by Redditor^[5] memetic-heretic received over 16,100 upvotes (shown below, right).

On February 25th, Redditor^[6] Mike4Life posted an inquiry about the /r/The_Donald posts in /r/OutOfTheLoop, with the post accumulating over 10,600 upvotes in two days.

Starting on February 25th, memes about the policy change were posted in numerous subreddits. For example, on February 25th, 2020, Redditor^[7] Kingdon_Of_Italy_ ironic Doge meme that garnered over 8,600 upvotes in one day (shown below, left). A same-day Political Compass meme by Redditor^[8] Floydsfarms received over 13,700 upvotes in /r/PoliticalCompassMemes (shown below, right). In some posts, Reddit users drew compared the policy with "thoughtcrime" from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

Search Interest

External References