Reddit has made a controversial decision to ban several very notable news sources- sources that make up a large portion of their content pool- after reports that the domains have been engaging in behavior prohibited by the site’s Terms of Service.
Among the casualties of Reddit’s new multi-site ban are respected news sites BusinessWeek and The Atlantic, as well as Phys.org, ScienceDaily, GlobalPost and PhysOrg. Reddit’s new banned domain practice first drew attention on a post in the aptly named subreddit r/banneddomains, in which user violentacrez posted earlier today:
“Sometime in the last 24 hours, reddit admins enabled a new feature where links from domains on a secret list cannot be posted, even by moderators, even in their own reddits. Among the initial list are[:]
- [1] BusinessWeek.com
- [2] Phys.org
- [3] ScienceDaily.com
- [4] TheAtlantic.com
“As the list of domains becomes known, they will be posted in [5] /r/BannedDomains for individual discussion.”
The decision handed down from Reddit has caused significant waves among social media users as well as news sites, prompting a mixed reaction from users as well as publishers. On one hand, the policy to keep content and promotion on the site pure and un-influenced by more powerful users and sites is to be commended if it is how it looks like.
On the other, Reddit’s decision has sparked some confusion in that the policy itself and the banned sites are not very openly detailed or shared, and the fingering of The Atlantic’s social media editor Jared Keller at the center of the domain banning controversy has created additional confusion about the policy.
Of the few things solidly known about the new Reddit bans on high-level domains is that, per Reddit GM hueypriest, the banninations are temporary .
