Downvote Brigade

A downvote brigade is a specific form of brigading in which a group of users coordinates to mass-downvote a particular post, comment, or account, driving its score down so the content is hidden, collapsed, or deprioritized in feeds. Rather than reflecting many independent readers' genuine disapproval, the votes are organized, often after a target is linked in another community or off-platform chat with an explicit or implied call to pile on. The effect can be to effectively censor a viewpoint, punish a user, or push a narrative by making something look more unpopular than it organically is.

The term is part of Reddit's everyday culture and is frequently invoked, sometimes loosely, whenever a comment drops sharply in score. The recognizable signature of an actual brigade is an abrupt collapse in a post's vote ratio coinciding with a spike in vote volume, often traceable to the moment a link was shared elsewhere. Reddit's Content Policy treats this as prohibited vote manipulation, and the platform's systems may discount suspicious votes. Because individual users cannot see who voted, accusations of downvote brigading are common but hard to prove, and the phrase is sometimes used rhetorically to dismiss legitimate unpopularity. Genuine coordinated downvoting, however, can lead to account suspensions or community bans.