Is The Downfall Of Reddit Imminent? “This Site Is A Shell Of Its Former Self”

Reddit has a checkered past in its nearly 20-year history, dotted by troubling corporate shake-ups and a notably unpopular “anti-harassment policy” implemented in 2015. Founded by two University of Virginia students, the entire concept behind Reddit was a sort of online agora, or a public forum where anyone and everyone could share their knowledge, thoughts, and opinions on a wide variety of topics.

It wasn’t Facebook or MySpace but something entirely different, and after a rocky beginning, Reddit emerged as one of the most popular online sites in the world. It was revolutionary in its construction and helped characterize the internet age as we know it. But its recent years have been marked by internal conflict, stringent policies, and an increasing implementation of censorship that even its own users can’t help but feel significantly impacted by. Though it remains popular in some specific circles, its scope of operation and what remains on the site has drastically changed since its inception, prompting both users and critics to wonder if its downfall is imminent.

The Front Page of the Internet

Even now, Reddit is one of the most unique spaces on the internet. It operates as a sort of online bulletin board and was designed to be entirely user-operated. There are thousands of communities, called subreddits, on the site, which are dedicated to specific topics and overseen by moderators, or volunteer users who head the communities, both in directing topics of discussion, approving and/or removing posts, and adhering to the site’s specific guidelines and terms of service. 

This is nothing new to us now, but when it was founded in 2005, the space only operated on a micro-level, and its founders, current CEO Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, have admitted to spamming the internet with Reddit content and fake accounts to attract more users and attention to the site. It raised only $100,000 in startup funding and was later acquired in 2006 by Conde Nast for an undisclosed amount under $20 million. 

Reddit’s first decade wasn’t without its controversies. Huffman and Ohanian brought in prodigy Aaron Swartz to construct much of the back-end technology, enabling the site to operate. Swartz was later arrested on federal charges for allegedly hacking into MIT servers to release academic sources that were behind paywalls and died by suicide in 2013.

Even after its corporate acquisition, Reddit remained staunchly anti-censorship. It blacked out the site in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act in 2012, a piece of legislation that freedom of information activists argued would effectively derail free speech – a cornerstone of Reddit’s operation and guiding principles. But building the site from the ground up brought learning curves, and Reddit drew the criticism of many for failing to monitor the creation of provocative subreddits like r/jailbait, which posted pictures of underage girls, and r/beatingwomen, both of which were later removed from the site. At its height, though, subreddits like r/gaming and r/AskMeAnything were drawing millions of views, comments, and upvotes, or “likes” designed to move a post to the top of the page.

Reddit was advertised as “the front page of the internet” by the technology sector’s most elite patrons, and its future was bright. It invented and colloquialized terms taken from subreddits that we use today, like TIL (today I learned), AMA (ask me anything), and AITA (am I the assh*le), as well as made “not safe for work” and pornographic content widely and freely accessible. It drew millions of visitors to its communities every day, and even as engagement waned, its impact on the internet was still considerable.

The Beginning of the End of Reddit

Recent developments have made concerned users even more assured that Reddit’s days are numbered. It was announced in 2019 that as part of an effort to raise an estimated $300 million, nearly $150 million was given by Chinese investment company Tencent. Since the explosion of TikTok that same year, many Americans and policymakers are anxious about Chinese parties operating within American social media. Though Tencent doesn’t own Reddit in any sense of the word, its considerable stake is still enough to make some Reddit users feel cautious about the future of free speech on the platform, which many say is already vanishing. 

In 2015, the site implemented a “game-changing” anti-harassment policy, which was applauded by the mainstream media, in attempts to curtail “violently” racist, right-leaning, or other seemingly problematic content. One company statement read, “We’re banning behavior, not ideas,” and in the process, the platform banned communities like r/FatPeopleHate and r/transf*gs. The blanket banning of offensive communities was only the beginning, and what followed was censorship of what user hellagoofybeezy describes as “anti freedom, anti America, or anti conservative” views. Since that policy, it has banned a pro-Trump group (r/TheDonald) and the r/altright community.

The user goes on to write, “However, if a post is pro any of those things, you are immediately alienated and diagnosed with every ‘phobia’ under the sun. Does anyone feel like Reddit is becoming the propaganda arm of the CCP? It started to become clear during the HK protests. Not with Covid, it has never been this obvious. Am I alone in thinking that the CCP are purposefully driving wedges between gender, political party, race, and sexuality in order to cause as much division and hostility as possible? Think about it, it is practically impossible to simply voice an opinion that goes against the MSM narrative nowadays.”

This sentiment was echoed on the subreddit r/WatchRedditDie, which is now deactivated. But as one post reads, “Reddit’s downfall will be due to its censorship.” The overwhelming feeling echoed by users is that the open forum and online exchange of ideas isn’t what it used to be in the wake of China’s stake in the platform, and it’s getting worse. Once-popular communities now only have minimal engagement, compared to what they used to have, and though the site boasts millions of monthly users, those numbers aren’t reflected in engagement or in the diversity of independent thought. The platform has also seemingly cracked down on spaces for women, though it continues to allow communities that disseminate murder, rape, and fetish porn. 

What further angered users was a recent announcement that Reddit would begin charging for access to its API, or basically, the inner workings of the platform under the hood, so to speak. Essentially, this impacts users who use ad-blockers to browse the Reddit app, which relies on bombarding users with ads, making it complicated to look through subreddits or add a comment. Many users believe this is meant to not only bring in more revenue, but also crush the use of outside, third-party apps. It’s also concerning because Reddit data is being used to teach language functioning to artificial intelligence programming from Google and other sources. This announcement motivated many of the most popular subreddits to shut down in protest, and many pointed to a similar tactic taken by a former (now nonexistent) social media site called Digg. 

“It’s Not What It Used To Be”

With the announcement of changes to its API access, some Reddit users say that the platform is directly impacting moderators, who volunteer their time and energy to monitor subreddits. Anyone who’s interacted on Reddit or heard about it online shouldn’t be surprised that overwhelmingly, the platform is represented largely by adult males, and now, its most visited communities are those pertaining to video games, science, documentaries, and politically-derived topics. 

Because of the requirements of the anti-harassment policy, users are now responsible for reporting potentially harmful content on the site, meaning that any subreddits that are arbitrarily deemed unacceptable are closed, comments are removed or blocked, and posts are deleted without question. Its r/technology subreddit has specific filters that will automatically remove posts containing certain topics, and if this subreddit has implemented that, many more surely have as well. Opinions or posts that may ideologically differ from the mainstream tone on Reddit are downvoted or disappear altogether, accounts are shadowbanned, and you don’t have to be conservative or right-leaning to notice.

“This site is a shell of its former self,” writes one user. In the wake of the API protest, one source reports that 7,000 subreddits locked their privacy settings – meaning if you weren’t previously a member, you couldn’t see their content. Most of the site was blacked out or inaccessible for a couple of days, and a community of moderators wrote a letter to Reddit’s management, asking for the prohibition of third-party apps to be reconsidered. This occurred last month, but it seems that Reddit has moved forward with the policy, further alienating its moderators. Many subreddits have now closed permanently. 

The dawn of the internet was like the Wild West in many ways, and Reddit stood out for its commitment to the pursuit of information and its encouragement of sharing opinions. In that time, it’s seen its fair share of trials – but in recent years, its priorities have changed, and now, it seems committed to furthering the goals of its politically-motivated investors. Reddit was unique in that it was self-policed and user-supported, but who monitors the monitors? 

Closing Thoughts

Those who support censorship or the removal of “problematic” or ideologically harmful content will no doubt posit that anyone wanting to post things contrary to the dominant narrative on the platform has other means to do so, and can post or discuss their contentious topics in other spaces. This is true, obviously, but it’s disheartening to see, in that it’s contrary to the fundamentals Reddit was founded on and what made it so popular in the first place. It’s just a shame it couldn’t stay true to what it was.

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