What happened
On November 23, 2016, Reddit banned r/pizzagate, the community that had become a central hub for the baseless conspiracy theory alleging that Democratic officials and the Washington, D.C. restaurant Comet Ping Pong ran a child-trafficking ring. The theory grew out of misreadings of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks weeks earlier. Reddit removed the subreddit — which had drawn more than 20,000 subscribers, many spilling over from r/The_Donald — for violating its anti-doxing policy, after users repeatedly posted the personal information of people they accused of involvement. The company said it acted to prevent a 'witch hunt.'
The ban marked an early, high-profile test of Reddit's willingness to shut down a fast-growing community over harassment rather than ideology, and it intensified backlash against CEO Steve Huffman, contributing to the harassment that prompted his secret comment-editing the same week. The conspiracy theory continued to spread on other platforms and culminated in December 2016 when a gunman fired a rifle inside Comet Ping Pong, underscoring the real-world stakes of online misinformation.