Reddit is purging Nazi, white supremacist, and other hate-based groups from its site as part of a new policy change announced Wednesday that targets and bans certain violent material.

The popular discussion site, which has struggled with how to monitor and remove vitriolic and offensive content in the past, said in a statement that it had decided to retool certain rules and regulations that were "too vague" and ban material that “encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people.”

"We did this to alleviate user and moderator confusion about allowable content on the site. We also are making this update so that Reddit’s content policy better reflects our values as a company," Reddit told its nearly 542 million monthly users. "In particular, we found that the policy regarding 'inciting' violence was too vague, and so we have made an effort to adjust it to be more clear and comprehensive."

Here's the rest of the statement:

Going forward, we will take action against any content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, we will also take action against content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. This applies to ALL content on Reddit, including memes, CSS/community styling, flair, subreddit names, and usernames. We understand that enforcing this policy may often require subjective judgment, so all of the usual caveats apply with regard to content that is newsworthy, artistic, educational, satirical, etc, as mentioned in the policy. Context is key. The policy is posted in the help center here.


After the changes were published, users quickly pointed out that at least 10 subreddits pertaining to the alt-right and Nazism had been removed. Others, like r/racoonsareniggers and r/whitesarecriminals, were also deleted.