Reddit Bans r/beatingwomen and r/rapingwomen
2014–2015
Reddit banned r/beatingwomen in 2014 after its moderators were caught sharing users' personal information, and named r/rapingwomen among communities banned in 2015 for inciting violence and rape.
What happened
Reddit for years hosted communities built around graphic violence and abuse of women. On June 9, 2014, Reddit banned r/beatingwomen, which featured graphic depictions of violence against women; the trigger for the ban was that the subreddit's moderators were found to be sharing users' personal information (doxxing) rather than the violent content alone. When the founder rebooted it to evade the ban, Reddit banned his account.
In July 2015, as part of a broader harassment-policy overhaul under CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit explicitly named r/rapingwomen among subreddits to be banned, stating that it would be removed because 'they are encouraging people to rape.' Huffman framed the line as distinguishing offensive opinion from incitement: 'It's ok to say, "I don't like this group of people." It's not ok to say, "I'm going to kill this group of people."'
These bans are notable both as documentation of the harassment-oriented communities Reddit tolerated for years and as an early, halting articulation of where the company would draw enforcement lines. Critics noted the inconsistency that r/beatingwomen was ultimately actioned for doxxing rather than for its core content.
Impact
The bans helped define Reddit's emerging stance that incitement to violence and doxxing, rather than mere offensiveness, would trigger removal. They are routinely cited in analyses of Reddit's slow, reactive approach to harassment communities before its 2015 policy reforms.