Reddit has continued to ignore calls to ban the notorious Trump-supporting board The_Donald as users compile instances of threats hate speech, and now an investment in Reddit from a firm led by Jared Kushner's brother is drawing even greater scrutiny.
The company was swept up in controversy this week after admitting that it had been a target for Russian propaganda during the 2016 presidential election and had purged "a few hundred" accounts believed to be spreading this propaganda. There had already been evidence that the Donald Trump supporter subreddit, The_Donald, had been flooded with Twitter posts and other material now identified as Russian propaganda, and a post from Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman was the first public admission that the site was indeed a target of Russian election meddling.
But The_Donald has been a flashpoint for criticism even before it was identified as a haven for propaganda. Users have compiled instances of threats and hate speech rampant on the Trump-supporting board, and there is even a petition calling on Reddit to ban The_Donald as it had with other subreddits identified as harboring hate speech.
There is a long collection of death threats against political opponents, anti-Semitism, racism, and its users have worked offline to create a database of the names and phone numbers of Trump opponents. There have even been subreddits created to track these instances, but Reddit has thus far refused calls to have the board shut down.
