Downvote

A downvote is a negative vote cast on a Reddit post or comment by clicking the downward arrow, lowering the item's net score and reducing how prominently it is shown within a community. It is the counterpart to the upvote and is the basic tool Reddit gives users to push content down in the rankings. According to Reddit's guidelines, downvotes are meant for content that does not contribute to a discussion or is off-topic, not simply for opinions a user disagrees with—though in practice downvoting is widely used to express disapproval.

Downvotes directly affect a post's visibility and a user's comment karma, so heavy downvoting can effectively bury content and signal community disapproval, sometimes within minutes of posting. Because scores are subject to Reddit's "vote fuzzing" and weighting, the displayed number is approximate rather than an exact tally. Patterns of downvoting feature in many Reddit dynamics and controversies: coordinated mass downvoting can be a form of brigading, the so-called "hivemind" effect can suppress dissenting views, and bot-driven downvote campaigns are a recognized manipulation tactic that Reddit's content policy prohibits.