Every day, millions of people around the world submit posts, comments, and other content to Reddit, and Reddit regularly receives requests to remove some of this content from the platform. This section provides information on the volume of content removed from Reddit in 2019 — by both Mods and Admins. We also provide information, where applicable, on appeals and content reinstatement requests.

Chart 1: Total amount of content created vs. content removed from Reddit in 2019

Moderator Removals

Reddit’s approach to content moderation is primarily community-led. Each community on Reddit is required to have at least one volunteer Moderator. These individuals are either assigned by default when they create the subreddit, or appointed by other moderators.

The vast majority of content removals on Reddit are executed within individual subreddits by Mods. In 2019, Mods removed 84,140,588 pieces of content from Reddit. This represents the vast majority of all non-spam content removals on Reddit in 2019. These removals are largely based on individual subreddit rules that are unique to each community and set by the moderators and communities themselves. While there may be overlap between enforcement of these rules and the Reddit Content Policy, Moderator actions are entirely separate from removals carried out by Reddit Administrators.

Chart 2: Mod Removals vs. Admin Removals for Content Policy Violations

(not including spam or other content manipulation at scale)



* “AutoModerator” is the term used to describe automated actions set and configured by Mods.



Reddit Admin Removals

As described above, Admins are Reddit employees who remove content based on violations of Reddit’s Content Policy. 53,047,580 pieces of content were removed by Reddit Admins in 2019. This figure includes content removed for spam and other scaled content manipulation violations, but does not include content removed for violations of copyright or other legal removals (see Copyright Removals and Legal Removals sections below for more).

Content Manipulation

“Content manipulation” is a term we use to combine things like spam, community interference (i.e. “brigading”), vote manipulation (attempts to interfere with Reddit’s upvote/downvote tallies), and other attempts to artificially promote content. Content removals in this section of the Transparency Report represent the vast majority of Admin removals on Reddit.

Chart 3: Reddit Admin Removals (Content Manipulation vs. Content Policy Removals)

Admins may also action accounts that are attempting to artificially manipulate content on Reddit. In 2019, 7,586,136 accounts were suspended (or “banned”) for these reasons.



Content Policy Removals

222,309 pieces of content were removed by Reddit Admins for Content Policy violations (excluding spam and other types of content manipulation removals at scale). The below graph represents removals carried out by our teams, broken out by reason.

Chart 4: Pieces of content removed by Admins for Content Policy violations

NOTE: Violent content (25,365) includes 41 pieces of designated foreign terrorist organization content

In addition, 55,994 accounts were suspended by Reddit Admins in 2019 for Content Policy violations (excluding spam and other types of content manipulation at scale).

Chart 5: Accounts removed or suspended for content policy violations

Subreddit Removals (Content Policy or lack of moderation)

If entire communities are found to be in violation of our Content Policy, they may be removed. Communities may also be removed if they lack active moderation, in accordance with our Moderator Guidelines. Community removals are always carried out by Reddit Admins.





Chart 6: Subreddit Removal Reasons (Content Policy Violations or Unmoderated)

Total Admin Subreddit Removals (Content Policy or Unmoderated): 21,910

NOTE: this section of the report does not include Subreddit removals for repeated violations of copyright. Please refer to the Copyright Removals section of the report for more on this. It also does not include subreddit removals for content manipulation (see below).

Subreddit Removals (Content Manipulation)

Communities may also be removed if they are found to be engaging in content manipulation (e.g. spam or vote/subscription cheating). 98,899 communities were removed for these reasons in 2019. Vote or subscription cheating is when fake accounts are created and used to inorganically boost subreddit subscriber volume.



Chart 7: Content Manipulation Subreddit Removals

Total Content Manipulation Subreddit Removals: 98,899

Other Admin Actions

Account Security

If we have reason to believe that an account’s credentials have been compromised, we may force the user to reset their password. Affected accounts receive notices of the reset request through private messages, emails, and onscreen banners. Those accounts are locked until the password reset process is completed.

In 2019 we finished up a major effort to detect all accounts that had credentials matching historical third-party breaches. It's important to track breaches that happen on other sites or services because bad actors will use those same username/password or email address/password combinations to break into your other accounts (on the basis that a percentage of people reuse passwords). As a result of this effort, we put 13,428,604 accounts through the force password reset process. Of those, 682,976 (5%) successfully completed the reset process, while 12,745,628 (95%) remain locked or abandoned.

Quarantined Communities

As noted in the Content Policy, Reddit Admins may under certain circumstances apply a Quarantine to a community. In 2019, 256 communities received quarantines.

User Reports

Users may report content on Reddit via our Reddit Help Center or by using the report button directly on a post or comment. By sending a report, users can alert a community’s team of moderators (anonymously) and/or Reddit administrators to something that violates either community rules or Reddit’s Content Policy.

Reddit received 793,863 user reports for potential Content Policy violations in 2019. 13.2% of reports resulted in action being taken by Admins. The remaining 86.8% of reports were either duplicates, already actioned, or the reported content didn't violate our rules.

Appeals

Whether applied against an individual piece of content, an account, or an entire subreddit, actions taken by Reddit in response to Content Policy violations may be appealed. The appeals are evaluated by Reddit employees, and are either granted (reinstating the content/account/subreddit) or denied.

In 2019, Reddit Admins received 54,143 appeal requests. Reddit granted 10,402 (19%) of these requests, and denied 43,731 (80%).

Chart 8: Reddit Appeals (Granted vs. Denied)

Legal Removals

This section of the Transparency Report counts the number of legal removal requests received by Reddit in 2019. Legal removal requests are submitted by governments, law enforcement, and private parties (e.g. lawyers/solicitors). One legal removal request may identify several pieces of content (URLs), so in this section we count both the number of requests and the total number of pieces of content removed in response to these requests. We believe Reddit users have a right to know if and when we receive such a request relating to their account. Reddit insists on compliance with procedural requirements, scrutinizes each request and legal process for facial validity and legal sufficiency, and objects to legal process when appropriate.

Below you will find information on the volume of legal removal requests received per country, the volume of copyright removal requests, and for the first time, the volume of child sexual exploitation content removed from Reddit.

Government Requests to Remove Content

In 2019, Reddit received a total of 110 requests from 12 law enforcement and other government entities to remove or restrict access to content on the platform. Governments may request the removal of content for a variety of reasons, including alleged violations of local law. Reddit scrutinizes each request and may reject it for a variety of reasons, including that the request is overbroad or inconsistent with international law. All reported content is reviewed under our Content Policy and any violations are actioned by the appropriate team. In situations where there are no underlying Content Policy violations, Reddit may restrict access to the post in the reporter country.

Chart 9: Government requests to remove content by country

Chart 10: Reddit response to Government requests to remove content

Chart 11: Reddit removals in response to Government requests

NOTE: In 2019, the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA) alleged that 3,842 subreddits contained obscenity and nudity in violation of Section 37 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) and Section 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Out of the 3,842 communities reported to Reddit, 1,737 were duplicates, 135 had already been removed, three were incorrect links, and 37 were not in violation of PECA. Following an assessment of the relevant local laws, we restricted access to the remaining 1,930 subreddits in Pakistan. These subreddits account for a large portion of the above chart.

Child Sexual Exploitation

We have zero tolerance for content that sexually exploits and puts children at risk. When we find child sexual abuse imagery content (“CSAI”) on the platform, we purge it and permanently ban the user from accessing Reddit. We also take the steps required under the law to report the relevant users to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and to preserve any necessary user data.

Reports regarding CSAI are received in a number of ways:

PhotoDNA technology for images;

YouTube CSAI technology for videos; and

User reports.

In 2019, we made 724 Cyber Tipline reports to NCMEC.

Legal Requests submitted by Private Parties to Remove Content

Reddit also receives legal requests to remove content from private parties. Examples include requests from lawyers/solicitors, private individuals, corporations, and social organizations to remove content they believe is defamatory or otherwise violates private legal rights. Most of these requests can be evaluated under the Content Policy, but sometimes the request contains a formal legal demand that the content be removed on the grounds that it violates local law.

In 2019, Reddit received a total of 459 legal demands for the removal of content citing local laws (not including GDPR requests). This is the highest number of removal requests in this category since Reddit published its first transparency report in 2016.

As described above, when Reddit receives a removal request for content that violates local law but is not against Reddit's Content Policy, Reddit may restrict the availability of that content in the country where it is alleged to be illegal.

Reddit complied in whole or in part with 210 of these requests. This resulted in 87 pieces of content being geoblocked in the reporter country and 223 pieces of content being removed entirely for violations of our Content Policy.

Chart 12: Private Party legal requests to remove content

*includes requests received from private parties under the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). For more on these requests, please refer to our bi-annual NetzDG report here (under “More information about Reddit’s handling of NetzDG reports”.)

**includes pieces of content removed for violations of the Content Policy or restricted in the reporter country for violations of local law.

***includes incomplete or insufficient legal requests (219)

Copyright Removals

When Reddit receives a complete and valid copyright notice, it complies with the notice and removes the infringing content identified in the request.

This section of the report provides data on the volume of content removed from Reddit in 2019 in response to valid copyright notices, as well as data on the content we declined to remove in response to incomplete or invalid notices. We also include data on content that was reinstated by reason of the original poster submitting a copyright counter notice or the rightsholder retracting its removal request.

In 2019, Reddit received 34,989 copyright notices, which resulted in 170,684 pieces of content being reviewed, and 124,257 content removals. In 2018, Reddit received 9,534 copyright notices, which resulted in 26,234 content removals. In 2017, Reddit received 3,130 copyright notices, which resulted in 4,352 content removals.

The content Reddit removed for copyright infringement in 2019 amounted to around a 500% increase from the 26,234 pieces of content removed in 2018, and increased by over 2000% from the 4,352 pieces of content removed in 2017.

Chart 13: Copyright removals year-over-year

We have investigated this year’s massive increase in notices received and content removed, and found the source of volume increase comes from two main factors: Notices from adult entertainment requesters, and notices which target pieces of content that have already been removed from Reddit.

User and Subreddit Copyright Bans

Reddit's policy is to close the accounts of users, in appropriate circumstances, who have repeatedly been charged with copyright infringement. Sometimes a repeat infringement problem is limited to one user and we close just that user’s account. Other times, the problem pervades a whole subreddit community and we close the subreddit.

In 2019, Reddit removed 283 users and 137 subreddits under our Repeat Infringer policy.

Incomplete or Invalid DMCA Notices

When Reddit receives an incomplete or invalid copyright notice, it rejects the notice and declines to remove the content identified in the request.

A request may be incomplete or invalid for many reasons, including:

Failing to include information required by copyright law, such as the claimant’s full legal name

Confusing other issues for copyright infringement, such as privacy or harassment.

Failing to include enough information about the copyrighted work that the claimant alleges is being infringed

Targeting an entire subreddit or entire user profile instead of specific infringing content

Targeting content that makes a “fair use” of the claimant’s work as allowed by copyright law

Targeting content that does not copy the claimant’s work

Targeting content that is not hosted by Reddit

Targeting content that has already been removed from Reddit upon the time of review

In 2019, we found 46,427 pieces of content to be invalid for removal via copyright notice, because the notice was either incomplete or invalid.

Chart 14: Content identified in copyright notices to Reddit in 2019 that we declined to remove

Below are three examples of copyright notices we rejected this year because they were incomplete or invalid:

Fair Use: Reddit received a takedown notice targeting a link on Reddit to a YouTube video. The notice claimed copyright in a professional headshot photo briefly used in the YouTube video to identify a person whom the video accuses of unethical practices and possible fraud. We asked the claimant to explain the basis for their belief that the use did not qualify as a fair use under the law. The claimant did not respond, so we did not remove the content. Claim by Someone Other than Rightsholder: Reddit received a request from someone asserting copyright in a video by virtue of the person’s appearance in the video. Copyright protects the author of a work, which for a video is typically the filmmaker, so Reddit responded to the claimant to clarify their relationship to the work. The claimant did not reply to our request for additional information, so we did not remove the content. Reported Material Not Protected by Copyright: Reddit received a claim targeting a post purporting to list the cast members for an unreleased TV series. Because neither names nor lists of factual information are subject to copyright, we did not remove the content.

Counter Notices and Retractions

When Reddit removes content pursuant to a copyright notice, Reddit sends a message to the user who posted the content. This message informs the user of the removal, and provides them an opportunity to submit a “counter notice” swearing their belief that the rightsholder’s notice is mistaken. Copyright law prescribes the statutory counter notice procedure, which results in Reddit reinstating the content unless the rightsholder files a lawsuit.

Reddit may also restore content that was removed as a result of a copyright infringement notice if the copyright owner who submitted the notice simply retracts their claim of copyright infringement.

Reddit complies with counter notices and retraction requests that are complete, and rejects those that are incomplete or invalid. In 2019, Reddit received a total of 7 counter notices and 1 retraction request. Reddit complied with the complete counter notices and retraction requests, which resulted in 3 content restorations.