Make Reddit Great Again: Assessing Community Effects of Moderation Interventions on r/The_Donald

Tracing r/The_Donald through its 2019 quarantine, 2020 restriction, and 2020 ban, the study finds the interventions sharply reduced problematic-user activity but also increased toxicity and pushed users to share more polarized, less factual news — with restriction hitting harder than quarantine and core users suffering the strongest effects. Evidence that escalating moderation shrinks a community while radicalizing its remnant.