Reddit has quarantined (temporarily banned) subreddit r/Russia for reportedly spreading misinformation, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its sixth day.
The account r/Russia has been quarantined and a message on the account now warns about a high volume of information not supported by credible sources.
While many online platforms have clearly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reddit has a significantly different perspective on the invasion. An account dedicated to “[e]verything related to the country of Russia,” r/Russia’s top posts over the past few days have justified or defended the invasion. The subreddit also unleashed propaganda against the Ukrainian government. Claiming Ukrainian soldiers are Nazis who are harming people and calling for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be tried as a war criminal.
However, there have also been some posts based on reality, such as the disturbing reports of Ukrainian officials discriminating against refugees of coloured communities. A larger portion of the invasion-related content posted to r/Russia has been without basis, mischaracterised, or quickly debunked. Due to these dis- and misinformation issues, Reddit has now added r/Russia to its list of quarantined communities, just like the subreddit r/The_Donald before it.
Another subreddit r/RussiaPolitics has also been quarantined, just days after it was created in order to host invasion-related discussions.
“We are clear in our policies that moderators and users may not attempt to manipulate and interfere with the conversations or communities on our platform,” a Reddit spokesperson told Mashable.
What are quarantined subreddits?
Quarantined subreddits don’t show up in searches, recommendations, or feeds in which a user hasn’t specifically included them (such as r/Popular or r/All). Further, anyone who finds their way to a quarantined community is shown a warning regarding the content, which they must acknowledge in order to access it.
