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Reddit bans two high profile alt-right subreddits over content violations

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By John Glenday | Reporter

February 2, 2017 | 2 min read

Reddit has banned two well-known alt-right groups, a loosely defined umbrella term to bracket white nationalists, after they were found to be disseminating personal information, in contravention of the social news platforms policy.

Known as doxing, the practice of publicising personal and confidential information is a clear violation of Reddit’s content policy, prompting moderators to block access to both the r/altright and r/alternativeright subreddits.

Explaining their decision in a statement Reddit said: “We are very clear in our site terms of service that posting of personal information can get users banned from Reddit and we ask our communities not to post content that harasses or invites harassment.

“We have banned r/altright due to repeated violations of the terms of our content policy. There is no single solution to these issues and we are actively engaging with the Reddit community to improve everyone's experience."

Speculation suggests that the individual concerned was a man who punched alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer in a fracas. Far from closing down hate speech however many users are simply dispersing to other sympathetic communities such as Voat and r/The_Donald.

Reddit's move follows a bid to remove advertising from threads promoting conspiracy theories and similar measures by Twitter to clampdown on hate speech.

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