Reddit conducts wide-ranging purge of offensive subreddits

Enlarge / Instead of thinking about horrible subreddits, look at this adorable kitten instead. (credit: Joaquim Gaspar )

Reddit has long been the most permissive of the major social media sites. Whereas Facebook tries to ensure that all content on the site is suitable for a general audience, Reddit willingly hosts content that is sexually explicit, violent, or disturbing in a variety of other ways.

But even Reddit has its limits. On Wednesday, the site announced a new policy clarifying its rules against content that incites violence. "We will take action against any content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people," Reddit administrator landoflobsters wrote. Promoting harm to animals is also against the rules.

Within minutes, moderators started to ban a long list of controversial subreddits, including /r/Nazi, /r/DylannRoofInnocent, /r/SexWithDogs, /r/WhitesAreCriminals, and /r/PicsOfDeadKids.

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