/r/The Donald

/r/The_Donald is an internet forum on Reddit dedicated to support of President-elect Donald Trump. As of November 2016, the subreddit has gathered over 300,000 subscribers.[1]

History

In June 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."[2] 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", "nimble navigator", "cuck", and "SJW".[1][3] Due to the very active community that outpaced the rest of the website, the algorithm that dictated what content reached the "/r/all" page of the website resulted in a significant portion of the page being /r/The_Donald content. In response, Reddit admins made changes to its algorithms on June 15, 2016, in an attempt to preserve variety of /r/all.[2] Despite this, the subreddit has been ranked constantly as the most active subreddit on Reddit.[4]

The subreddit hosted "Ask Me Anythings" (AMAs) of notable Trump supporters, including Scott Adams, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, Curt Schilling, Peter Schweizer, Roger Stone, and Milo Yiannopoulos.[5][6] During the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 27, 2016, Donald Trump hosted an AMA on the subreddit.[7] Trump answered thirteen of the thousands of questions posted on the subreddit.[8] Moderators of the subreddit stated that they banned more than 2,000 accounts during Trump's AMA session.[9]

Controversies

/r/The_Donald has faced controversy since its inception.[10] 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.[2][11] The publication Slate has described The_Donald as a "hate speech forum".[12] 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."[5]

On October 27, 2016, a bug in the Reddit algorithm caused its entire "all" page to be flooded with posts from the subreddit. It was later resolved by admins of the site.[13]

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 book Settle for More.[14] Amazon later removed many of the negative reviews.[15]

The subreddit received major news coverage in November 2016 when Reddit CEO Steve Huffman admitted to editing comments critical of him on that subreddit.[16][17][18] On November 30, 2016, Huffman announced that sticky posts from "r/The_Donald" would no longer show up on /r/all.[19] Huffman's regulations were criticized by members of the subreddit.[20]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Lagorio-chafkin, Christine (November 19, 2016). "Reddit and the God Emperor of the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "How r/the_donald Became a Melting Pot of Frustration and Hate". Motherboard. July 12, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ O'Neill, Patrick Howell (2 May 2016). "How to speak like a Donald Trump supporter". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  4. ↑ Jackson, Jasper (22 November 2016). "Moderators of pro-Trump Reddit group linked to fake news crackdown on posts". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  5. 1 2 Josh Herrman (April 9, 2016). "Donald Trump Finds Support in Reddit's Unruly Corners". New York Times.
  6. ↑ Alfonso III, Fernando (July 26, 2016). "What To Expect When Donald Trump Invites Reddit Users To Ask Him Anything". Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  7. ↑ King, Hope (July 25, 2016). "Donald Trump will host Reddit AMA". CNNMoney. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  8. ↑ Lopez, German (July 28, 2016). "Reddit asked Obama and Trump the same question. You should see their answers side by side.". Vox. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Moderators banned 2,200 accounts during Donald Trump's AMA". Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  10. ↑ Sarlin, Benjy (July 1, 2016). "Trump's Reddit Fan Club Grapples With Crackdown, Infighting". Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  11. ↑ Benjy Sarlin (July 27, 2016). "Donald Trump to Drop In on Reddit, Where He's Already a Phenomenon". NBC News. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Meanwhile, Donald Trump Did a Q&A Wednesday Night on a Hate Speech Forum".
  13. ↑ Jain, Rishabh (October 28, 2016). "Donald Trump Posts Flood Reddit Due To Bug In Website". International Business Times. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Trump supporters try to undermine Megyn Kelly's book with an onslaught of negative reviews on Amazon". latimes.com. November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  15. ↑ Zillman, Claire (November 25, 2016). "Amazon Reviews Are Being Hijacked by Commentary on Donald Trump". Fortune. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  16. ↑ Weingerger, Matt. "The CEO of Reddit confessed to modifying posts from Trump supporters after they wouldn't stop sending him expletives". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  17. ↑ Yeung, Ken. "Reddit CEO apologizes for editing comments critical of him following Pizzagate ban". VentureBeat. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  18. ↑ Russell, Jon. "Reddit CEO admits he secretly edited comments from Donald Trump supporters". Techcrunch. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  19. ↑ Lecher, Colin. "Reddit will punish hundreds of 'toxic users' and hide some posts from pro-Trump community". The Verge. Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  20. ↑ Lee, Dave (November 30, 2016). "Reddit moves against 'toxic' Trump fans". BBC News. Retrieved December 1, 2016.

External links

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