Reddit Bans r/CringeAnarchy After Christchurch (2018 Quarantine, 2019 Ban)
2018–2019
Reddit quarantined the 400,000-subscriber r/CringeAnarchy in September 2018 and banned it on April 25, 2019 after it hosted anti-Muslim content justifying the Christchurch mosque massacre.
What happened
r/CringeAnarchy began as an edgy meme and 'cringe' community but drifted heavily toward far-right, anti-transgender, anti-'SJW,' and Islamophobic content. By the time Reddit quarantined it in September 2018 — part of a wave alongside r/watchpeopledie — it had more than 400,000 subscribers. Quarantine required users to explicitly opt in and cut the community off from ad revenue and casual discovery.
Following the March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings that killed 51 people, anti-Muslim content on the subreddit spiked, including posts justifying the attack and calling for further violence against Muslims. Reddit banned the community on April 25, 2019 for violating its content policy against posting content that glorifies or encourages violence, amid a broader post-Christchurch crackdown in which Reddit also removed gore communities for hosting the shooter's video.
The timeline drew criticism: Reddit had tolerated a community of more than 400,000 subscribers with documented far-right, anti-trans, and Islamophobic content for months under mere quarantine, banning it only after it began openly celebrating a terrorist mass shooting.
Impact
Showed how a large 'edgy humor' community curdled into a venue for celebrating terrorism, and became a leading example of Reddit's slow escalation from quarantine to ban.