Content warning: This article contains numerous examples of bigoted rhetoric. Users on Reddit’s “r/conspiracy” forum have repeatedly and openly posted anti-LGBTQ content for years without pushback, despite the platform’s rules prohibiting “hate based on identity or vulnerability” and anti-LGBTQ “groomer” rhetoric. Reddit has a history of taking action against other subreddits that have violated those rules. A Media Matters review of r/conspiracy since May 2020 found a widespread pattern of anti-LGBTQ hate, which includes accusing the LGBTQ community of grooming, having “mental illness,” and associating with pedophilia.
Well, Mediamatters isn’t the biggest news org, but then again, this is how it starts. A smaller news source runs a story that then leads to other stories, then Reddit admins see it splashed across national news, panic about it, then they ban the sub while pretending they knew nothing about it, or that they had been issuing warnings that went unheard.