One of the most difficult problems for Reddit, the self-proclaimed front page of the internet, is determining what should and should not appear on its

How Reddit turned its millions of users into a content moderation army

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2021-06-19 06:30:04

One of the most difficult problems for Reddit, the self-proclaimed front page of the internet, is determining what should and should not appear on its feeds.

When it comes to content moderation, which has become an ever more high-profile problem in recent years, Reddit opts for a different approach compared to other large social platforms.

Unlike Facebook, for example, which outsources much of the work to moderation farms, Reddit relies in large part on its communities (or subreddits) to self-police. The efforts of volunteer moderators are guided by rules defined by each individual subreddit, but also a set of values authored and enforced by Reddit itself.

The company has come under criticism for this model, though, which some have interpreted as laissez-faire and lacking in accountability. But Chris Slowe, Reddit CTO, says this is a total mischaracterization.

“It may seem like a crazy thing to say about the internet today, but humans on average are actually pretty good. If you look at Reddit at scale, people are creative, funny, collaborative and derpy - all the things that make civilization work,” he told TechRadar Pro.