- Date
- 2017-02-01
- Trigger
- Repeated posting of personal and confidential information in r/altright, including efforts to identify the person who punched white-nationalist figure Richard Spencer on inauguration day.
- Policy change
- No new rule; Reddit enforced its existing anti-doxxing content policy, citing 'repeated violations' involving the proliferation of personal and confidential information.
- Communities removed
- 2 communities
What happened
On February 1, 2017, Reddit banned r/altright and its sibling r/alternativeright, citing repeated violations of its policy against posting personal and confidential information. The enforcement followed users' attempts to identify the person who had punched white-nationalist figure Richard Spencer, and a broader pattern of doxxing within the community. Reddit characterized the removals as a doxxing-policy action rather than a viewpoint-based ban. The bans were among the platform's most prominent moves against organized far-right communities at the time and presaged the broader violence-policy purge later that year. Coverage framed it as Reddit applying existing rules rather than announcing new ones.