Reddit says it's going to take a more active role in preventing harassment among its members. In a blog post entitled "Promote ideas, protect people," the site's administrators say that they will now be prohibiting "attacks and harassment of individuals" through the platform. Here's Reddit's definition of harassment:

Systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person (1) conclude that reddit is not a safe platform to express their ideas or participate in the conversation, or (2) fear for their safety or the safety of those around them.

Reddit is known for laissez-faire administration that has allowed for a huge range of subject matter and tone on the site. While individual subreddits can be run however moderators like, the site-wide rules mostly only ban things that will interfere with the site's operations, including spamming and vote manipulation. Over the past few years, it's tweaked its policies amidst debate over where free speech crosses into abuse or illegality — it banned "sexually suggestive content featuring minors" three years ago after being taken to task by CNN and others, and more recently, it updated its privacy policy to address users posting nude pictures without the subject's consent. (Reddit has long banned posting "personal information" about private individuals.)

But this is a broader move, and one that's taking place in a larger discussion of online harassment. "Instead of promoting free expression of ideas, we are seeing our open policies stifling free expression; people avoid participating for fear of their personal and family safety," the admins write. They cite a survey of 15,000 Reddit members that "showed negative responses to comments have made people uncomfortable contributing or even recommending Reddit to others." Women were particularly likely to report these worries.

"It is specifically designed to prevent attacks against people, not ideas."

Now, site-wide administrators will investigate complaints and potentially ban users over them. "When someone reports harassment we will investigate thoroughly rather that leaving it to moderators and respond based on the nature of the harassment," writes one administrator in a discussion thread. The blog post doesn't give specific examples of harassment, but admins have responded to some individual cases in the thread. "Someone threatened to 'stomp my dog to death' in a local sub-reddit, and then posted a picture of my dog, and told me to 'Imagine its guts on the sidewalk,'" one user wrote. "Feeling real life danger is definitely a reason to contact us," an administrator responded.

Some users have complained that this move will be used to stifle debate or disagreement, something Reddit has positioned itself explicitly against. "This change will have no immediately noticeable impact on more than 99.99 percent of our users," reads the post. "It is specifically designed to prevent attacks against people, not ideas." Admins say that each case will be investigated on its own merits. The New York Times reports that according to Reddit interim CEO Ellen Pao, the new rules could "serve to prohibit harassment that originates on Reddit and spreads to other websites" as well.

It's not always clear what it will mean in practice. The complaints about negative content often don't involve one user posting negative comments to another, but systemic campaigns or individual subreddits devoted to promoting things like racism or anti-semitism. In the discussion post, Reddit members point to subreddits like "FatPeopleHate" (which posts and mocks pictures of overweight people) or the anti-Black "CoonTown" as groups that could inherently tread the line between free speech and harassment. The Gamergate movement, which has largely organized on Reddit, is a political group that has also been tied strongly to individual harassment campaigns, and any investigation around it would almost certainly create an internet firestorm. "The problem with this rule's wording is that you can't maintain a 'safe platform' for both /r/judaism and /r/gasthekikes," writes one user, who finds the phrasing vague.

Rhetorically, however, this is a big step for Reddit.

(Disclosure: Reddit executive chair Alexis Ohanian was the host of our video series Small Empires.)