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Reddit played a big part in the 2016 USA elections that crowned Trump. Reddit had to change its front page algorithm to avoid having Trump content near the top

Reddit played a big part in the 2016 USA elections that crowned Trump. Reddit had to change its front page algorithm to avoid having Trump content near the top of the page for almost the whole time. The subreddit in question organized itself to mass-upvote certain posts at certain times, and Reddit wasn't prepared for such massive, non-organic influence. I wonder how big of a part the Russian bots and trolls played. I'd love to read an in-depth book about it.

porpoisely 8y ago
Most of the content on reddit's frontpage in 2016 was anti-trump just like it is today. Reddit changed its algorithm because reddit admins supported hillary. The donald subreddit is no different from politics. The only difference is that one has the support of reddit and the other does not. And even bigger difference is that reddit admins allow reddit's power users to spam anti-trump propaganda from multiple subreddits. The idea that reddit helped Trump is absurd. Pretty much every social media company was anti-trump and many, like google, actively worked against trump.
ww520 8y ago
Reddit by and large was actively against Trump during 2016 and thereafter.
- TheRealDunkirk 8y ago
  You must have blocked /r/t_d. I would trust that there would be little argument that, by number of subs, and subscriber count, Reddit leans pretty-heavily left. However, by front page posts, the site APPEARED to lean heavily right in the run-up to the last presidential election. Week after week, I was blown away that the admins didn't nerf the algorithm to "fix" it.
  - moojd 8y ago
    They did eventually nerf the algorithm. /r/t_d was abusing stickied mod posts to get on the front page and that got fixed. I think it was also partly because most of the pro-trump users and posts were concentrated in one subreddit causing inflated upvote counts. /r/t_d also took advantage of the void left after the DNC primaries ended since the site was very anti-Hillary at the time.
- vvillena 8y ago
  Reddit is not a single entity, it is a clustered social network. The small part of it that supported Trump managed to create and empower a meme machine that is still going strong. Subreddits are like thinktanks. They are the perfect breeding ground for internet content. You can gauge popularity, you can quickly refine the content based on the comments received, and if you're lucky you can even kickstart and guide whole movements.
- hopler 8y ago
  As was a majority of the country, so that's unsurprising.
LeoPanthera 8y ago
Reddit is still a haven for the far-right. It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they are tolerated there.
- hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
  While this may be true, Reddit's "free speech" ethos has been part of its DNA from day 1. Reddit has also gone a long way to getting rid of the most egregious content (I mean, jailbait???) What would you suggest the alternative is? I think the real problem is that society is coming to terms with the fact that anonymous free speech isn't all it's cracked up to be.
  - lostlogin 8y ago
    > What would you suggest the alternative is? Does there need to be one? This site seems to manage to avoid it. Quite how you get into the situation reddit did is mystifying to me. I completely agree that anonymous free speech is not the ideal it sounds.
    - figgis 8y ago
      > This site seems to manage to avoid it. If we are going to be reasonable a better comparison would be comparing this site to a single heavily moderated subreddit. As an extreme you have subreddits like https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ if you look into the comments you will see a lot of "[ Removed ]" threads. https://i.imgur.com/Q7mXkPd.png https://i.imgur.com/Q7mXkPd.png Other subreddits are purposefully not moderated as heavily. It's entirely up to whoever runs it to moderate how they see fit.
  - Rebelgecko 8y ago
    I don't think it's accurate to say that reddit has a free speech ethos. Maybe "free speech up until the point where it causes problems with revenue". For example, a year or so ago Reddit overhauled its rules to ban subreddits that were used to facilitate exchanging or gifting drugs (including alcohol and tobacco). However that rule has an exemption saying that advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics are still OK. So /r/beertrade gets banned, but reddit will still happily show me ads for some winery founded by MIT grads. Reddit will also ban subreddits for hosting content that some people may think is "bad", but definitely not illegal. Not that I miss /r/shoplifting, but the discussion itself wasn't illegal. They also banned legal things like firearm schematics and r/brassswap

porpoisely 8y ago

Most of the content on reddit's frontpage in 2016 was anti-trump just like it is today. Reddit changed its algorithm because reddit admins supported hillary. The donald subreddit is no different from politics. The only difference is that one has the support of reddit and the other does not. And even bigger difference is that reddit admins allow reddit's power users to spam anti-trump propaganda from multiple subreddits. The idea that reddit helped Trump is absurd. Pretty much every social media company was anti-trump and many, like google, actively worked against trump.

ww520 8y ago

Reddit by and large was actively against Trump during 2016 and thereafter.

TheRealDunkirk 8y ago
You must have blocked /r/t_d. I would trust that there would be little argument that, by number of subs, and subscriber count, Reddit leans pretty-heavily left. However, by front page posts, the site APPEARED to lean heavily right in the run-up to the last presidential election. Week after week, I was blown away that the admins didn't nerf the algorithm to "fix" it.
- moojd 8y ago
  They did eventually nerf the algorithm. /r/t_d was abusing stickied mod posts to get on the front page and that got fixed. I think it was also partly because most of the pro-trump users and posts were concentrated in one subreddit causing inflated upvote counts. /r/t_d also took advantage of the void left after the DNC primaries ended since the site was very anti-Hillary at the time.
vvillena 8y ago
Reddit is not a single entity, it is a clustered social network. The small part of it that supported Trump managed to create and empower a meme machine that is still going strong. Subreddits are like thinktanks. They are the perfect breeding ground for internet content. You can gauge popularity, you can quickly refine the content based on the comments received, and if you're lucky you can even kickstart and guide whole movements.
hopler 8y ago
As was a majority of the country, so that's unsurprising.

LeoPanthera 8y ago

Reddit is still a haven for the far-right. It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth that they are tolerated there.

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
While this may be true, Reddit's "free speech" ethos has been part of its DNA from day 1. Reddit has also gone a long way to getting rid of the most egregious content (I mean, jailbait???) What would you suggest the alternative is? I think the real problem is that society is coming to terms with the fact that anonymous free speech isn't all it's cracked up to be.
- lostlogin 8y ago
  > What would you suggest the alternative is? Does there need to be one? This site seems to manage to avoid it. Quite how you get into the situation reddit did is mystifying to me. I completely agree that anonymous free speech is not the ideal it sounds.
  - figgis 8y ago
    > This site seems to manage to avoid it. If we are going to be reasonable a better comparison would be comparing this site to a single heavily moderated subreddit. As an extreme you have subreddits like https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ if you look into the comments you will see a lot of "[ Removed ]" threads. https://i.imgur.com/Q7mXkPd.png https://i.imgur.com/Q7mXkPd.png Other subreddits are purposefully not moderated as heavily. It's entirely up to whoever runs it to moderate how they see fit.
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  I don't think it's accurate to say that reddit has a free speech ethos. Maybe "free speech up until the point where it causes problems with revenue". For example, a year or so ago Reddit overhauled its rules to ban subreddits that were used to facilitate exchanging or gifting drugs (including alcohol and tobacco). However that rule has an exemption saying that advertisements for alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics are still OK. So /r/beertrade gets banned, but reddit will still happily show me ads for some winery founded by MIT grads. Reddit will also ban subreddits for hosting content that some people may think is "bad", but definitely not illegal. Not that I miss /r/shoplifting, but the discussion itself wasn't illegal. They also banned legal things like firearm schematics and r/brassswap