Content warning: This article contains numerous examples of bigoted rhetoric. Users on Reddit’s “r/conspiracy” forum have repeatedly and openly posted anti-LGBTQ content for years without pushback, despite the platform’s rules prohibiting “hate based on identity or vulnerability” and anti-LGBTQ “groomer” rhetoric. Reddit has a history of taking action against other subreddits that have violated those rules. A Media Matters review of r/conspiracy since May 2020 found a widespread pattern of anti-LGBTQ hate, which includes accusing the LGBTQ community of grooming, having “mental illness,” and associating with pedophilia.
The written rules don’t matter, even if Reddit gaslights you into believing so. The only rule that matters is unwritten (Rule Zero: “do not stand between Reddit Inc. and a bag of money, you filthy user”), and they aren’t breaking it.
Hence why my main account (and all alts) got banned for “report abuse” because I dared to report all the spam bots infesting subs I enjoyed…