Comparing Platform Hate Speech Policies: Reddit’s Inevitable Evolution

On Monday, June 30, 2020, Reddit updated its policy on hate speech, an area of content moderation traditionally considered among the most difficult to regulate on platforms. The new policy more closely corresponds with other major platform moderation policies by prohibiting content that “promote[s] hate based on identity or vulnerability” and listing vulnerable groups. Previously, Reddit’s content policy was vague; according to co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, the rules around hate speech were “implicit.” Reddit began to enforce its new policy immediately: it removed 2,000 subreddits, including several notable communities such as r/The_Donald and r/chapotraphouse.This post outlines how platforms grapple with hate speech, one of many issues addressed in a forthcoming book based on the Stanford Internet Observatory’s Trust and Safety Engineering course. We present a comparative assessment of platform policies and enforcement practices on hate speech, and discuss how Reddit fits into this framework.