SandersForPresident Closing: Bernie Sanders Campaign Hub On Reddit Forced To Shut Down After Users Turn On Bernie For Endorsing Hillary Clinton

SandersForPresident is closing down, with the Reddit hub pushing the Bernie Sanders campaign forced to shut down after its members turned on the Vermont senator.

The controversial announcement came shortly after Sanders delivered an address to the Democratic National Convention as a wave of users criticized Sanders for his endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

The announcement came from Aidan King, the SandersForPresident founder, who actually serves as a campaign staffer for Sanders. King recounted the vitriol that had taken over the board in recent weeks.

“That does not change how I feel about the current state of this community. I have seen over two dozen death threats aimed at Bernie, in addition to the HUNDREDS of threats, vulgar attacks, and trollish behavior that’s been flying around for the last month or so. Not to mention the hundred or so death threats aimed at me since the creation of this post. Probably half of our active users each day are here to sow discord, not support.”

It was an unpopular decision, to say the least. Many SandersForPresident users called out King for shutting down the board, which had also turned into something of a hub for pushing other progressive candidates. Others clung to conspiracy theories, claiming that he and other board moderators were secretly working with Clinton’s campaign.

Some even theorized that Clinton herself had called for the board to be shut down.

“THE DNC IS FORCING THEM TO SHUT DOWN THE SUB – IT’S HOW THE CLINTONS OPERATE,” one user wrote.

New tonight: Moderators have shut down /r/SandersForPresident, the Bernie Sanders subreddit, effective immediately pic.twitter.com/3hJMpkqmz4

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 26, 2016

“This is literally the most undemocratic spit-in-the-face of the whole Sanders movement by a small group, stunning beyond measure, nothing but an exertion of imagined authority,” another added.

For months, the site had functioned as an online arm of the Sanders campaign, organizing fundraising drives, spreading the word about voter registration deadlines, and acting as a conduit for tens of thousands of volunteers to make phone calls each day to voters.

But as the primary season wore on and it became clear that Bernie Sanders could not overtake Hillary Clinton, the SandersForPresident subreddit saw a shift toward an ever-growing hatred of Clinton and conspiracy theories about election fraud supposedly committed by Clinton (or by others on her behalf).

That came to a head when Sanders publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton earlier this month, with many calling Sanders a sell-out and claiming that he betrayed the ideals of his campaign.

The speech Bernie Sanders delivered on the opening night of the DNC was also a full-throated endorsement of Clinton, disappointing many of the so-called “Bernie or Bust” crowd who had hoped he would follow the footsteps of Ted Cruz and refuse to endorse his political rival.

Sanders: ‘Clinton must become the next president’ https://t.co/uWsTV0072K | Getty pic.twitter.com/Q12rKPU2ig

— POLITICO (@politico) July 26, 2016

For those unfamiliar with Reddit, its subreddits display a ranking of the top links and posts from members, with the highest-voted submissions at the top. The announcement that SandersForPresident would be closing was met with such opposition that it ended up with a net negative score, pushing it off the front page entirely.

To show the sharp turn the page had taken away from supporting Bernie Sanders and into simply hating Hillary Clinton, the major announcement that the board would be closing ranked below a post admonishing Sarah Silverman for mocking the “Bernie or Bust” crowd and several others calling on attendees at the Democratic National Convention to boo Hillary Clinton and any mentions of her name.

Although SandersForPresident will be closing down permanently, users will have at least a bit longer to push for Sanders and his revolution on the subreddit. The board’s moderators announced that its closure will not go into effect until after the Democratic National Convention comes to a close later this week.

[Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images]