Reddit, where chaos thrives, tries to clean up to attract ads from big brands (latimes.com)

The key point here is “to attract ads from big brands.” A lot of alleged banning and deplatforming that is happening on the internet is in the name of creating a brand safe environment for advertisers. It’s why subreddits like The Donald will never qualify for ads because advertisers cannot tolerate the backlash that comes from boycott campaigns that happened because a bulk ad buy put their logo next to content that triggers a virtual mob. The alternative is to charge for content and not take advertising (case in point Netflix and the recent Chappelle special: lots of controversy but no advertisers can pull out and did anyone really cancel Netflix who wasn’t leaning that direction already?)

Good luck clearing out the Reddit trolls, skinheads, and wumao. Why would a company pay for space in a septic tank, unless they really want the business of those users?

IMO - it’s inevitable that Reddit (as a company) will need to do some pruning of subreddits to keep brand interests satisfied.

This isn’t just about political subreddits. SoccerStreams and NBAStreams are 2 popular subreddits to get banned for copyright infringement. DarkNetMarkets and related Tor subreddits were banned for being avenues to buy drugs. The counterfeit fashion subreddits are probably also on the chopping block.

I realize these examples are not exactly “moral” to begin with, but I think what this does show is that Reddit is no longer a Wild West of subreddit creation and that corporate and government input will increasingly impact what new measures Reddit implements (or what Reddit restricts) as the need to figure out a way to make investor-pleasing profits takes priority.

Reddit, like MySpace and Digg before it, has outrun its usefulness. It is a site in rapid quality-decline.

No doubt its owners want to extract as much cash as they can before it fails completely, and good luck to them.