reddit.
com
A growing collection of online forums that is one of the most visited
This website is a platform that
websites. Reddit’s content, managed largely by volunteers, has publishes content from its users
contributed to the spread of false information and conspiracy theories. that it does not vet. Information
from this source may not be
reliable.
Ownership and Reddit is owned by Reddit Inc. Steven Huffman, one of
Financing
Reddit’s two co-founders, is the corporation’s CEO.
Advance Publications, whose properties include Condé
Nast, 30 local and regional newspapers, American
Business Journals, and a digital marketing agency, is
Reddit’s largest shareholder.
The site earns revenue through advertising, sponsored
content, and premium memberships. Reddit announced
in February 2019 that it had raised $300 million in
series D funding, which included $150 million from
Chinese technology company Tencent, increasing the
company’s valuation to $3 billion. (Tencent owns the
social media platform WeChat.) In 2017, technology
news site Recode reported that Reddit raised $200
million in venture capital funding. A previous funding
round in 2014 raised $50 million.
Content Anyone with a Reddit account can post text, videos,
images, and links to external websites on the platform,
which describes itself as “the front page of the internet.”
RedditMetrics.com reported in January 2018 that about
1.2 million online forums, called subreddits, had been
created, although as of August 2018 approximately
138,000 were active, according to Reddit’s corporate
website. Reddit was the fifth most visited site in the
U.S. and the ninth most visited site in the world as of
August 2018, according to Alexa rankings. A Pew
Research Center study published in February 2016
found that about 71 percent of Reddit users are men.
Users — who go by names they create on Reddit —
often use acronyms popular on the Internet, such as
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) and IMO (in my opinion),
as well as terms with a unique meaning on Reddit such
as cakeday (the day a user joined the site) and
karmawhore (a pejorative term for users who post
content simply to earn points, or votes from other users,
on Reddit).
Each subreddit focuses on a specific topic, which can
cover anything that doesn’t violate Reddit’s content
policy, and is referred to using the last portion of its web
address (for example, /r/announcements). There are
subreddits on commonplace subjects (/r/science,
/r/politics, /r/books), and specific ones
(/r/AnimalsWithoutNecks, /r/Random_Acts_Of_Pizza,
/r/lifeofnorman).
Subreddits include an array of original posts, each
generally followed by user comments. Users can
comment directly on the original post or on any
subsequent comment. Original posts and their
comments can be “upvoted” or “downvoted.” Original
posts are all given a rank, which is determined by an
algorithm. They can also be labeled as inappropriate
(“not safe for work” or NSFW”), or as content originally
published on Reddit. Subreddits can be marked as
“Over 18” if the content is not suitable for a young
audience.
One of Reddit’s most well-known subreddits (/r/AMA)
features the site’s Ask Me Anything series. Many high-
profile figures have done Reddit AMAs, including former
President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jerry Seinfeld,
and Madonna. Users who do AMAs must provide proof
of who they are.
A 2018 redesign of the site includes a home page that
displays content from the subreddits to which each user
is subscribed, and links to pages showing popular
content on the site and content originally published on
Reddit. Users can choose to sort posts based on the
categories hot, new, controversial, top, or rising.
Reddit’s interface has been translated by volunteers
into 63 languages, some of which are made up, such as
LOL (an interpretation of how a cat might speak
English) and Arrrrrrrr! (“pirates’” language).
Credibility Reddit content is regulated by its users, moderators,
and administrators, with rules that vary by subreddit.
Reddit has a staff of approximately 300 people.
Volunteer moderators manage each subreddit, and can
largely run them as they please. They can create new
rules about what content can be posted and how users
should conduct themselves, as long as they don’t go
against Reddit’s overall content policies. They can
remove content they decide is objectionable or off topic,
and ban users. Users can appeal a moderator’s
decision, and Reddit administrators can take control of
a subreddit.
Any user can create a subreddit after maintaining an
account for at least 30 days, acquiring enough “positive
karma” (points earned when others vote on a user’s
posts or comments).
The user that creates a subreddit automatically
becomes its moderator, and can ask others to join
them.
Reddit created a content policy in 2015 that it says
“provides a lot of leeway in what content is acceptable.”
However, it banned content that is illegal, encourages
violence, involves sexual content and children, or is
threatening or harassing.
The site enforces these rules in a number of ways,
which include asking users to stop bad behavior,
removing content, suspending accounts, and banning
subreddits. Reddit’s values, which include rules written
by Reddit users, are often referred to as “reddiquette.”
In June 2020, Reddit updated its content policy to more
explicitly prohibit hate speech. The updated policy
states that “communities and users that incite violence
or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability
will be banned.” Steven Huffman, Reddit’s co-founder,
owner, and CEO, wrote in a post on the site that
approximately 2,000 subreddits — the majority of which
were inactive — were banned from Reddit as a result of
this new rule.
Two of the most active banned subreddits included the
ardently pro-U.S. President Donald Trump subreddit
/r/The_Donald, which was known for promoting
conspiracy theories and for the use of derogatory
language, as well as /r/ChapoTrapHouse, an offshoot of
a left-wing podcast of the same name. Huffman wrote
that /r/The-Donald “has consistently hosted and
upvoted more rule-breaking content than
average...antagonized us and other communities...and
its mods have refused to meet our most basic
expectations.” He said that /r/ChapoTrapHouse also
“consistently [hosts] rule-breaking content and their
mods have demonstrated no intention of reining in their
community.”
/r/The_Donald still exists as a separate site not
associated with Reddit. It was created in July 2019 after
Reddit quarantined /r/The_Donald a month earlier for
violating the site’s content policy. Quarantining a
subreddit means that the forum will face restrictions
such as not appearing in search results. Reddit also
took steps to limit /r/The_Donald’s reach in June 2016
and February 2017 by adjusting its ranking algorithm.
Reddit’s content policy does not prohibit the spread of
conspiracy theories and false information, which allows
such content to proliferate on the site.
Many false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic have
appeared on the site, including the debunked claims
that Bill Gates is somehow responsible for the
pandemic, that the outbreak was a hoax, and that the
virus was man-made.
For example, an April 2020 post titled, “The
Coronavirus was manmade, but a single country didn’t
make it” stated: “The virus, along with the Spanish flu,
SARS, and H1N1, was made by the Illuminati. It was
developed in a bunker. They are continuous [sic]
making viruses to make a virus that will completely
depopulate a country in days. These viruses were being
developed and some of them were accidentally
released.”
There is no credible evidence showing that COVID-19
was manmade or that any of these other claims are
true. A March 2020 study in the journal Nature Medicine
concluded that the COVID-19 virus “is not a laboratory
construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, COVID-19’s similarities to other
coronaviruses suggest “a likely single, recent
emergence of this virus from an animal reservoir.” A
February 2020 study published in the journal Nature
found that the COVID-19 virus is “96% identical at the
whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus.”
The conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate,” which
claimed that a pedophilia ring run by Hillary Clinton and
her aide, John Podesta, was operating out of a
Washington pizzeria, gained traction on the mainstream
internet after a Reddit user posted a document detailing
the “evidence” in November 2016, shortly before the
U.S. presidential election. The theory spread widely on
social media and in right-leaning outlets such as
InfoWars. Subsequently, a man fired a rifle inside the
pizzeria, claiming he was there to “self-investigate.”
Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
even used the theory verbally to attack Erdogan’s
opponents, claiming Erdogan critics should be more
focused on Pizzagate and less on an actual child-abuse
scandal at a foundation linked to the Turkish
government. Reddit banned the /r/pizzagate subreddit
in late-November after users repeatedly posted private
information of people they believed were involved in the
“conspiracy,” saying “We don’t want witch hunts on our
site.”
In the aftermath of the April 2013 Boston Marathon
bombing, a Reddit user created /r/findbostonbombers, a
subreddit intended to host discussion about who was
responsible for the attack. Users in this subreddit
misidentified multiple people as the perpetrators,
including missing Brown University student Sunil
Tripathi. Reddit issued a public apology for its role in
spreading this misinformation, acknowledging that
“some of the activity on Reddit fueled online witch hunts
and dangerous speculation.”
There are also many subreddits on which users attack
those who disagree with them, often using hateful
language.
Reddit instituted new rules in 2017 prohibiting the
exchange of goods and services such as firearms and
falsified documents. These rules banned subreddits
such as /r/stealing and /r/DarkNetMarkets.
Transparency Reddit users can remain anonymous under the site’s
rules. Reddit users, including moderators, are identified
by their usernames, which they choose when they sign
up for an account on the site. Each subreddit identifies
moderators and provides a link at which users can send
them private messages. Reddit requires moderators to
provide an email address where site administrators can
reach them.
The original author of each post, subreddit moderators,
and Reddit administrators are identified with different
colors, images, and bold usernames. Original authors
are denoted with a microphone next to their username,
which is bold. Moderators are identified with a shield
and their username in green, and administrators with
the site’s mascot, Snoo, and their username in red.
Reddit Inc.’s website lists Reddit’s executive team,
including each employee’s biography. Reddit publishes
a transparency report each year regarding requests the
site has received for private user information and
requests for content removal. Site administrators
communicate with users regularly through different
subreddits.
History Reddit was founded by Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in
2005, during their last year of college at the University
of Virginia. They developed the idea that summer at the
first Y Combinator, a startup accelerator which has
helped launch numerous successful companies.
The site was acquired by Condé Nast in 2006 and
became a subsidiary of Advance Publications, Condé
Nast’s parent company, in 2011. Advance re-
incorporated Reddit as an independent entity in 2012.
Huffman and Ohanian left Reddit in 2009, after their
contracts with Condé Nast expired, although Ohanian
came back as a board member in 2011. The pair
returned to Reddit fulltime in 2015, to help revamp the
site after controversies over its false content and hate
speech. Ohanian stepped away from his day-to-day
role at Reddit in February 2018, but retained his seat on
Reddit Inc.’s board. In June 2020, he resigned from the
board and urged the company to fill his seat with a
Black member, in the wake of protests following the
police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The site
honored this request, naming Michael Seibel, a partner
at seed funding company Y Combinator and CEO of its
startup accelerator program, to Reddit Inc.’s board.
Editor’s Note: This Nutrition Label was updated on July
1, 2020, to include details about Reddit’s updated
content policy and about changes to the Reddit Inc.
board. This Nutrition Label was previously updated, on
April 3, 2020, to include details about content on the
site relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Written by: Melissa Goldin
Edited by: Amy Westfeldt, Jim Warren
Send feedback to NewsGuard:Click Here
Sources
Ownership and https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrieveP
Financing
DF?Id=03419700-22673859
https://www.advance.net/
https://redditblog.com/2013/08/06/reddit-myth-busters/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-reddit-
chicago-office-20180418-story.html
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advance-
publications-inc-appoints-michael-fricklas-chief-legal-
officer-300626496.html
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/31/reddit-just-raised-a-
new-round-that-values-the-company-at-1-8-billion/
http://fortune.com/2017/07/31/reddit-200-million-
funding/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/how-reddit-plans-to-
make-money-through-advertising.html
https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-hacked-thanks-to-
woefully-insecure-two-factor-setup/
https://www.recode.net/2017/7/31/16037126/reddit-
funding-200-million-valuation-steve-huffman-alexis-
ohanian
https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/201
9/feb/10/chinese-company-stake-reddit-normalise-
censorship-rights?
utm_source=API+Need+to+Know+newsletter&utm_ca
mpaign=7d21835280-
EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_11_01_03&utm_medium
=email&utm_term=0_e3bf78af04-7d21835280-
45872775
https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/reddit-300-million/
https://www.reuters.com/article/cyber-perimeterx-
fundraising/israeli-cybersecurity-firm-perimeterx-raises-
43-mln-in-funding-idUSL5N2064P7
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/11/18216134/reddit-
tencent-investment-deal-memes-amount-winnie-the-
pooh-tank-man-china
Content http://redditmetrics.com/
https://www.redditinc.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalsWithoutNecks/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Random_Acts_Of_Pizza/
https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualConversation/
https://www.reddit.com/comments/1ujvrg
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1mj1yl/
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/i_am_ba
rack_obam
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18bhme/im_b
ill_gates_c/
https://lifehacker.com/a-beginners-guide-to-reddit-
1798643829
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/5g
vd6b/scores_on_posts_are_about_to_start_going_up/
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/06/reddit-overhauls-
upvote-algorithm-to-thwart-cheaters-and-show-the-
sites-true-scale/
https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1a0mq2/im_ne
w_to_reddit_tell_me_the_acronyms/
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/89
1stx/starting_today_more_people_will_have_access_to
/
https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-redesign/
https://www.reddit.com/r/i18n/wiki/getting_started
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/wiki/glossary
https://old.reddit.com
https://www.redditinc.com/assets/partnerships/guides/A
MASetupGuide.pdf?
_ga=2.122832203.1183691280.1533160319-
724809773.1532966770
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dj
jxw/lets_talk_content_ama/
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/reddit.com
Credibility http://www.journalism.org/2016/02/25/reddit-news-
users-more-likely-to-be-male-young-and-digital-in-their-
news-preferences/
https://www.reddit.com/r/help/wiki/faq
https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/2yob6r/creatin
g_a_subreddit/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mealtimevideos/
https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy
https://www.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/needamod/
https://www.redditinc.com/policies/moderator-guidelines
https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette
https://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22263020
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/26/red
dit_sunil_tripathi_and_retweets_aren_t_endorsements_
who_s_to_blame.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/20
14/04/reddit_and_the_boston_marathon_bombings_ho
w_the_site_reckoned_with_its_own.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/ImGoingToHellForThis/
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xxymb/here-are-
reddits-whiniest-most-low-key-toxic-subreddits
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38156985
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38205885
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38156985
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2017/03/26/521545788/conspiracy-theorist-alex-
jones-apologizes-for-promoting-pizzagate
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/pizzagate-alt-right-
turkey-trolls-child-abuse/
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3dj
jxw/lets_talk_content_ama/
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/technology/reddit-
steve-huffman.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3fx
2au/content_policy_update/ctsqobs/
https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/05/reddit-finally-bans-
rcoontown-and-other-hateful-subreddits-updates-user-
policies/?_ga=2.202335126.608494996.1533218432-
1915861473.1529094274
https://www.reddit.com/r/coontown
https://www.reddit.com/r/watchniggersdie
https://www.reddit.com/r/stealing
https://www.reddit.com/r/darknetmarkets/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/29/how-to-land-a-job-at-
reddit.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-
updates/summary.html?
CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fc
oronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fsummary.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/frk60n/th
e_coronavirus_was_manmade_but_a_single_country/
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/ftfgr5/th
ere_is_a_higher_chance_covid19_was_man_made/
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/fhts45/c
oronavirus_is_a_manmade_bio_weapon/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mainstreamkillaz/comments/fnr
ggv/bill_gates_foundation_owns_the_coronavirus_pate
nt/
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/fr1fwb/li
nk_to_coronavirus_patent_pdf_inside_article/
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracyundone/comments/f
tmibv/proof_coronavirus_hoax_is_rich_nerds_terrorizin
g/
https://www.redditstatic.com/banned-subreddits-june-
2020.txt
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/politics/reddit-
bans-steve-huffman.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/hi3
oht/update_to_our_content_policy/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChapoTrapHouse/
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/
https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy
https://www.reddithelp.com/en/categories/rules-
reporting/account-and-community-
restrictions/promoting-hate-based-identity-or
https://thedonald.win/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/red
dit-bans-subreddits-thedonald-chapotraphouse
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/26/18759967/reddit-
quarantines-the-donald-trump-subreddit-misbehavior-
violence-police-oregon
https://domainbigdata.com/thedonald.win
https://gizmodo.com/reddit-is-finally-fixing-its-trump-
spam-problem-1792061056
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-
trump-s-reddit-fan-club-faces-crackdown-civil-war-
n601441
Transparency https://www.redditinc.com/press
https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/
https://old.reddit.com/r/changemyview/
https://www.redditinc.com/policies/moderator-guidelines
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/wiki/bots
https://www.reddit.com/r/pizzagate/
http://archive.fo/IHhGb
http://archive.fo/umY7J
https://www.redditinc.com/policies/transparency-report-
2017
History https://www.redditinc.com/
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?
storyId=545635014
http://www.ycombinator.com/
https://www.cnet.com/news/reddit-cofounder-alexis-
ohanian-steps-aside-but-will-remain-on-board/
https://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-
conde-nastwired-acquires-reddit/
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/re
ddit-thrives-after-advance-publications-let-it-sink-or-
swim.html
https://redditblog.com/2013/08/06/reddit-myth-
busters/#independent-reddit-inc
https://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/05/y-
combinators-first-batch-where-are-they-now/
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/05/alexis-ohanian-
steps-down-reddit-board/
https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/1268943036228
292608?
ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7C
twterm%5E1268943036228292608%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_
url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2020%2F06
%2F05%2Falexis-ohanian-steps-down-reddit-
board%2F
https://redditblog.com/2020/06/10/reddit-welcomes-
michael-seibel-to-board-of-directors/
