Reddit has announced that in an effort to “force subscribers to reconsider their behavior,” it will no longer just be punishing users who post rule-breaking content.
Instead, the platform will also start sanctioning “users who consistently upvote policy-breaking content within quarantined communities.”
Reddit made the announcement in a post about its 2019 transparency report and wrote that the sanctions will start with “automated warnings, followed by further consequences like a temporary or permanent suspension.”
Reddit added: “We hope this will encourage healthier behavior across these communities.”
However, Reddit’s users are seeing this change as something that’s likely to lead to more bans and censorship on the platform.
One Reddit user responded to the policy by writing: “Very ominous. Every day, reddit strains farther (sic) from its original values, wonder what users from 5-10 years ago would think of the site now.”
“You gonna do a Blizzard next and ban people for posts on other sites?” another user responded.
Another Reddit user summarized the policy as: “Think like we do or we will ban you.”
“Uh…wow. Which rules violations are these? Will this be policed in subreddits outside of the Donald?” wrote another Reddit user.
This change is the latest of several in recent months which Reddit users have criticized for enabling more censorship.
Last December, Reddit tested a “crowd control” feature which let moderators mass suppress comments and opinions from those who are new to a subreddit.
And last October, Reddit announced that it would be cleaning up the site in order to appeal to advertisers.
