R/The Donald

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/r/The_Donald
The Donald.png
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Screenshot
The Donald Frontpage.png
The front page of /r/The_Donald on May 20, 2017.
Web address www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Subreddit
Available in English
Users ~400,000 (as of May 2017)[1]

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. /r/The_Donald was an Internet forum hosted on Reddit (a "subreddit") created in support of Donald Trump, the current President of the United States. Initially created in June 2015, following the announcement of Trump's presidential campaign, the community had grown to over 400,000 subscribers and in November 2016 was ranked as one of the most active communities on the website.[2][3][4]

Activities by members and moderators of the subreddit have been actively counterted by political opponents, and site-wide administrators have taken steps, including an overhaul of the Reddit software, to prevent the subreddit from allowing their content to appear on Reddit's /r/all forum, the so-called "front page of the Internet", no matter how popular a submission may be.[5] It was censored in many ways, and was effectively shut down by April 2020. On June 29, 2020, Reddit banned the subreddit for discussing alternative social and political theories (including Deep-State related influences on society), open debate about racial and gender differences within and between populations, and frank discussions about Islamic terrorism and relations between the Jewish diaspora and Israel.

History

On June 27, 2015, immediately after Donald Trump announced his campaign for the presidency at Trump Tower, the subreddit was created to be a place for "following the news related to Donald Trump during his presidential run".[6]

The subreddit has grown to be known for frequent posting of memes, especially Pepe the Frog, and frequent use of slang terms such as "centipede" (a reference to a popular Trump highlight reel featuring the Knife Party song "Centipede"),[4][7][8] "MAGA", "nimble navigator", "no brakes", "cuck", "4D Chess", and "SJW".[4][9][10] For a significant period of time, the subreddit also tended to spread an image of Hillary Clinton kissing Robert Byrd, a former member of the KKK.[11][12] The image was accompanied by a photoshopped picture of an aged Byrd in KKK garb (Byrd severed ties with the KKK in 1952).

Due to deliberate[13][14][15] manipulation by the forum's moderators and active users, the algorithm that dictated what content reached the "/r/all" page of reddit resulted in a significant portion of the page being /r/The_Donald content. Reddit administrators then made changes to its algorithms on June 15, 2016 to stop this.[6] In April 2016, /u/jcm267, the founder of the subreddit, attributed the popularity of the subreddit to moderator /u/CisWhiteMaelstrom. /u/jcm267 told MSNBC that /u/CisWhiteMaelstrom told him "we'd have hundreds of thousands of readers there and I was very skeptical about that, not because I thought Trump can't win, because I think he's the only GOPer with 'landslide victory' potential, but because Reddit is not a conservative place."[16] Subsequently, /u/CisWhiteMaelstrom deleted his Reddit account.[17] On November 2016, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman reported that the subreddit's moderator team had changed "at least four times" due to the community revolting.[4]

External image
image icon Donald Trump preparing his AMA on his private jet before landing in Toledo.[18]

The subreddit has hosted "Ask Me Anythings" (AMAs) of notable Trump supporters including Scott Adams, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, Helmut Norpoth, Curt Schilling, Peter Schweizer, Roger Stone, Milo Yiannopoulos,[19] and Tucker Carlson.[20] In addition, during the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2016, Donald Trump hosted an AMA on the subreddit.[21] Moderators of the subreddit stated that they banned more than 2,000 accounts during Trump's AMA session.[22]

The Trump campaign's digital director, Brad Parscale, stated in June 2016 that he visits the subreddit daily.[23] Throughout the election, members in Trump's war room at Trump Tower monitored the subreddit to see new trends.[7][24]

In September 2016, Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, introduced a 501(c)(4) organization on /r/The_Donald called "Nimble America" with the stated purpose of creating and spreading pro-Trump Internet memes through "Facebook ads, billboards, and 'website ops'".[25] Luckey stated that he had donated $10,000 to the organization and offered to match contributions from /r/The_Donald users for 48 hours after the announcement.[26] Luckey later apologized for any negative impact his actions had on public perception of Oculus, and stated that he acted independently, not as a representative of Oculus VR.[27]

On November 22, 2016, the moderators of /r/The_Donald announced that they were going to start removing posts about some conspiracy theories[28][3] such as Pizzagate, citing that such content was "drowning out thoughtful discussion or Trump related content".[3]

The next day, Steve Huffman admitted to editing the comments of /r/The_Donald users by replacing expletive-laden comments directed at his username to be directed at the usernames of /r/The_Donald moderators instead.[29] Huffman said of the change that "I had my fun with them, they had their fun with me, but we are not going to tolerate harassment for any others."[29] One week later, Huffman apologized for his actions.

Reddit then offered a filter feature to the website, allowing users to exclude subreddits from their /r/all page.[30]

2017

Starting in February 2017, the subreddit was notably excluded from Reddit's updated homepage, /r/popular, along with other "narrowly focused politically related subreddits".[31][32][33]

In the beginning of January 2017, after BuzzFeed published a 35-page document alleged to be a dossier of controversial information about then-President-Elect Donald Trump,[34] members of the subreddit spread theories that the document was "fan fiction" sent to Republican political strategist Rick Wilson by members of the 4chan forum /pol/.[35] On January 11, 2017, Wilson denied the claims.[36] Later that day, Republican Senator John McCain confirmed that he had sent the dossier to FBI director James Comey several months earlier.[37]

In March 2017, during an AMA on the subreddit, the Republican candidate for Virginia governor Corey Stewart wrote "CONFIRMED!" in response to a user asking him if Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe "is a cuck".[38] This prompted a rebuke from the Virginia GOP chairman John Whitbeck who called some of Stewart's language "racist" and added that the term is "used by white nationalists".

On May 11, 2017, after firing James Comey, Trump responded to Rosie O'Donnell's 2016 tweet calling Comey to be fired with "We finally agree on something Rosie." Brandon Wall, a reporter for Buzzfeed alleged that Donald Trump browsed /r/The_Donald because O'Donnell's tweet was posted on the subreddit 20 minutes before Trump's response.[39][40][41] Although The Washington Post acknowledged that Trump tweeted images previously viral on the subreddit, Washington Post also noted that O'Donnell's tweet did not go viral until Trump responded.[24]

A week later, a moderator named /u/OhSnapYouGotServed posted a message claiming that the subreddit has been treated unfairly and that Reddit couldn’t exist without /r/The_Donald. /u/OhSnapYouGotServed also suggested that everyone of their subscribers should move to Voat.[42] Eventually, after three other moderators got banned from the site, the subreddit was temporarily set to "private" on May 19, 2017 in a sign of protest. According to the lock message, the admins did not warn the three moderators before banning.[43] The admins also claimed that they "refused to comply by a special set of rules that were solely imposed on this subreddit to marginalize the only community which doesn’t conform to the echo chamber of Reddit and corporate media." The subreddit was made public again the next day.[42]

The subreddit also maintains a Discord server called "Centipede Central", which has about 2,000 active users as of May 2017[44] and was among the largest servers on Discord.[45] The server was criticized for leaking personal information of Anti-Trump activists.[44][46]

Prominence on Reddit website

Algorithm

Through the use of "sticky posts" the moderators of the forum were "gaming" the algorithms[47] in order to dominate the content on the /r/all page, which is a representation of the most popular content on the website.[48] Additionally, users were apt to flood the website with waves of identical images or posts, in violation of anti-spam policies. In response, Huffman rolled out a change to the /r/all algorithm; he said that /r/The_Donald was among several Reddit communities over the years that "attempt to dominate the conversation on Reddit at the expense of everyone else".[6] Reddit staff then modified the site's software algorithms to limit the offending posts to the subreddit. It has been removed from /r/popular and so it no longer shows on the front page.[49][50] In February 2017, Reddit overhauled their algorithms even further to prevent content from the subreddit (among other communities) from ever being seen by logged out users or people who don't have a Reddit account.[31]

Conflict with Reddit management

On November 24, 2016, Huffman admitted to editing /r/The_Donald users' comments that were critical of him, in response to harassment[51] by the community.[52][53][54] On November 30, 2016, Huffman announced that sticky threads from /r/The_Donald would no longer show up on /r/all.[5] Huffman's rules were criticized by some Redditors, including both Trump and non-Trump supporters,[29] while others felt the sanctions did not go far enough and called upon Huffman to ban the subreddit entirely.[48] While members of the subreddit claimed they were the victims of censorship, Huffman said the actions were about "banning behavior, not ideas".[48]

The harassment directed at Huffman by /r/The_Donald users led to changes in the manner in which Reddit deals with problematic communities and users. Since being harassed by the community, Huffman stated that Reddit is going to start actively policing problematic users: "We're taking a different strategy now. We are focusing more on, like, taking care of the individual users instead of doing it at the community level which was largely our strategy before."[55]

In March 2017, users of /r/The_Donald accused Reddit of discriminating against them when Reddit's advertising platform portrayed /r/The_Donald as having 6,000,000 subscribers instead of the 385,000 displayed on the subreddit live counter available to the public.[56] The Reddit Director of Communications stated that the subscriber discrepancy was a simple labeling error wherein the count for "Daily Unique Visitors" was mistakenly labeled "Subscribers" and that the error would be partially fixed by the end of the day.

Pizzagate

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Main article: Pizzagate

A conspiracy theory involving the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, John Podesta and the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria attracted attention on /r/The_Donald. Several members of the community created the /r/pizzagate subreddit which was subsequently banned by Reddit administrators for releasing personal information of figures associated with the alleged cover-up.[57][58] In December 2016, the subreddit linked a knee injury sustained by NBA player Andrew Bogut to the conspiracy theory.[59] The group was additionally involved in promoting another controversial theory, the Seth Rich murder conspiracy theory,[60] with several members planning a march on Washington D.C..[61]

Similar subreddits

In response to the popularity of /r/The_Donald, similar subreddits regarding other politicians have been created.[62]

/r/The_Schulz

/r/The_Schulz was a subreddit created for Martin Schulz, the former President of the European Parliament and a member of the SPD. According to Spiegel Online, /r/The_Schulz was created as a satire against /r/The_Donald.[63] Like /r/The_Donald, the subreddit frequently uses slang terms, most notabally "MEGA", or "Make Europe Great Again",[63][64][65] and "keine bremsen" (German for "no brakes").[65] Since its creation in November 2016, the subreddit was featured in many articles, both within and outside of Germany.[65][66][67] On January 30, 2017, Schulz shouted out the subreddit on his YouTube channel.[64][68] As of January 2017, /r/The_Schulz has over 10,000 subscribers.[64]

Others

Other notable subreddits include /r/Le_Pen (for French National Front leader Marine Le Pen),[66][69][70][71] /r/The_Farage (for former British UKIP leader Nigel Farage),[72] /r/The_Wilders (for Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders),[66] and /r/The_Hofer (for Austrian politician Norbert Hofer).[70]

Many anti-Trump subreddits were created in response to the subreddit, most notably /r/EnoughTrumpSpam.[17][6][73][74] While changing the /r/all algorithm for /r/The_Donald, Huffman noted that "/r/EnoughTrumpSpam was hit harder than any other community when we rolled out the changes. That's Reddit for you."[6] Along with /r/The_Donald, /r/EnoughTrumpSpam was also excluded from /r/popular.[31][33] Other notable anti-Trump subreddits include /r/MarchAgainstTrump[32][75] and /r/esist,[75][76] which unlike /r/The_Donald are often prominently featured on the site's Main Page.

Online media reception

The subreddit has been criticized by left-leaning news outlets and commentators for spreading alleged conspiracy theories and hosting content that is racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, or white supremacist. The subreddit was also connected to the alt-right. Described by NBC News, its "anti-PC ethos made them popular".[17][72] It has also been criticized by liberals as being racist for sometimes supporting white nationalism.[77]

The subreddit was criticized by Vice as being anti-choice, pro-Russia, authoritarian, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, a hypocritical "free speech" rallying point, and censoring any differing opinion.[6][78] The publication Slate condemned /r/The_Donald as a "hate speech forum".[79] According to The New York Times, "Members respond to accusations of bigotry with defiant claims of persecution at the hands of critics. It is an article of faith among posters that anti-racists are the real bigots, feminists are the actual sexists, and progressive politics are, in effect, regressive."[19]

The subreddit was also criticized for promoting conspiracy theories,[3][29] such as "Pizzagate".[52] In February 2017, Medium criticized how the subreddit spread supposedly fake news throughout similar subreddits and "conspiracy" sites.[62] The subreddit is also connected to the alt-right[80][81][82] while an article by The Washington Post connected the moderators of closely related Trump subreddits to politically incorrect subreddits such as "/r/Quranimals" and "/r/Rapefugees".[72]

The National Memo noted that "moderators have made the occasional attempt to rid /r/The_Donald of overt racism and anti-Semitism"[83] while Motherboard interviewed a moderator of the subreddit, who said "The people from /pol/ who can behave, which is probably most of them, stay. The people who don't behave usually wind up getting banned for rule 3."[6] The New York Times also noted that, in addition to the subreddit's "no racism/anti-Semitism" policy, the subreddit also warns "no dissenters or SJWs" and that "concern trolling" is also banned.[4] Gizmodo commented that the subreddit "revealed how easy the site's ageing algorithm is to game", comparing their actions to the profitability of fake news posted on Facebook.[84] Gizmodo also referred the subreddit as "Trump supporters’ de facto base of power on Reddit."[85] Politico described the subreddit as "a message board that acted as a conduit between 4chan and the mainstream Web".[7]

In November 2016, the subreddit received media coverage for reportedly mobilizing readers to leave one-star reviews on Amazon.com for Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly's autobiography, Settle for More, in response to what users considered biased reporting.[86] Amazon later removed many of the negative reviews.[87]

2017

In February 2017, after Kellyanne Conway brought up the planned terror attacks in Bowling Green, Ohio SFGate noted that the subreddit's response to the incident was "varied – and rather muted". Some users shared the video uncritically while others thought that the incident was an intentional part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration.[88]

In May 2017, users on the subreddit began reposting memes that alleged that Seth Rich was murdered in Washington D.C..[60] It was later reported by Gizmodo that, at one point, 20 of the top 26 posts on the subreddit pertained to Seth Rich conspiracies.[85]

See also

References

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External links

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