The Great Ban: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of a Massive Deplatforming Operation on Reddit

Analyzing ~16M comments from ~17K users over 14 months around the June 2020 'Great Ban' of ~2,000 communities, the study finds 15.6% of affected users left Reddit and those who stayed cut their toxicity by 6.6% on average — but roughly 5% of users reacted by increasing their toxicity by more than 70% of their pre-ban level. The most rigorous measurement of Reddit's largest moderation action.