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Reddit bans 'r/donaldtrump' subreddit for 'repeated policy violations'

The group is one of the largest communities dedicated to the president.

Karissa Bell / Engadget

Reddit has banned the r/DonaldTrump subreddit. While not directly affiliated with Trump or his campaign, the group is one of the largest communities dedicated to the president. Axios was the first to report on the news. Like Facebook and Twitter did when they temporarily banned the president from their respective platforms, the company cited Wednesday’s US Capitol riot for the decision and the fact the group has repeatedly violated its policies.

“Reddit's site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals,” a spokesperson for the company told Engadget. “In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed. We have also taken action to ban the community r/donaldtrump given repeated policy violations in recent days regarding the violence at the US Capitol.”

Among the other companies that have taken action against President Trump’s online presence in relation to Wednesday’s riot include Shopify, TikTok and Twitch. The latter disabled the account associated with the president, preventing it from streaming any new content.

Last June, Reddit banned r/the_donald, along with 2,000 other subreddits, for violating its then-new policies related to hate speech. Before its ban, the r/the_donald was one of the most notorious pro-Trump forums. “The community has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average, antagonized us and other communities and its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said at the time.