Reddit warns of removing protesting community moderators.

Reddit Threatens to Replace Private Community Moderators

In a recent report, The Verge revealed that Reddit has issued a warning to moderators who have chosen to keep their communities private as a form of protest against new rules. According to the report, moderators who are actively moderating their online communities, known as subreddits, will not face removal. However, Reddit sent a message to protesting moderators stating:

“After sending a modmail message on June 27, 2023, your mod team indicated that you do not want to reopen the [name of subreddit] community. This is a courtesy notice to let you know that you will lose moderator status in the community,” Reddit officials wrote. “If you reply to let us know you’re interested in actively moderating this community, we will take your request into consideration.”

Confirmation of this message was provided by at least two subreddit moderators who spoke to The Verge. One of them, yoasif, a moderator of r/firefox, expressed their stance, saying, “We see no reason to reopen as I don’t think we’re the bad guys here. Reddit has had a chance to reconcile with the protest for weeks now, and they haven’t.”

Interestingly, the subreddit r/firefox has already transitioned from private to public, but with a twist. Instead of focusing on the Mozilla web browser, the community now revolves around red pandas. The moderators explained their decision in a post, stating, “We don’t wish to let the subreddit fall into the hands of someone who would undo the good work we have done or would even foster an anti-Mozilla community here.” They also clarified that while browser-related posts will be temporarily restricted, they will eventually be allowed again.

Reddit, which attracts over 1 billion unique visitors per month, relies heavily on unpaid volunteers to manage its subreddits. However, the recent protest by moderators against a new pricing policy set by Reddit has caused significant discontent. More than 9,000 subreddit moderators joined the protest, which was initially planned to last 48 hours but has continued beyond that timeframe.

As a response to the protest, Reddit’s top officials removed moderator teams from subreddits that had switched their communities to Not Safe For Work (NSFW), where ads are prohibited. This action resulted in an unexpected consequence, as nudity began to appear on subreddits that were typically mild, such as r/pokemongo and r/Formula1. Consequently, Reddit initially removed the entire moderator team from r/mildlyinteresting, a subreddit with 11 million members, but later reinstated them, as reported by The Verge.

Reddit spokesman Tim Rathschmidt clarified the reasoning behind the removal, stating, “Moderators incorrectly marking a community as NSFW is a violation of both our Content Policy and Moderator Code of Conduct.”

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.