Reddit bans anti-vaccine community after protests over COVID misinformation

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reddit Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Reddit has banned a assemblage linked to misinformation astir the COVID vaccine pursuing a bid of protests from different subreddits.

In a station Wednesday, Reddit said it has permanently banned the subreddit NoNewNormal, which described itself arsenic providing "skeptical discussion" related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reddit said the assemblage engaged successful aggregate instances of "brigading," wherever users of a subreddit effort to interfere with different community. According to Reddit, users of NoNewNormal targeted communities with "more mainstream views connected COVID oregon location-based communities that person been discussing COVID restrictions."

The level said 54 different COVID denial subreddits person been placed nether quarantine, which means their contented won't look successful searches oregon recommendations, and transportation a informing requiring users to o.k. viewing the subreddit.

The determination followed respective fashionable communities going acheronian to protestation Reddit's inaction against the dispersed of COVID-19 misinformation.

"Weaponized misinformation is simply a cardinal occupation shaping our Future," work a connection Tuesday connected the subreddit Futurology, which has much than 15 cardinal members. "Reddit won't enforce their policies against misinformation, brigading, and spamming."

Tech platforms proceed to wrestle with however champion to curb the dispersed of misinformation related to COVID and the vaccine.

On Wednesday, Amazon said it was blocking immoderate autocomplete results related to searches for ivermectin, an anti-parasite attraction for humans and animals misused by immoderate radical to dainty COVID-19. When users benignant "iv" successful Amazon's hunt bar, it would automatically propulsion up respective results for ivermectin.

Twitter has accrued crackdowns connected COVID misinformation, including applying labels to tweet they deem "misleading." In August, Twitter suspended the relationship for U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for a 2nd clip successful 2 months owed to a COVID-19 vaccine tweet they labeled "misleading."

Meanwhile, lawmakers introduced a measure successful July to clasp companies specified arsenic Facebook and Twitter accountable for dispersed astir a nationalist wellness exigency similar the COVID pandemic.



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Citation: Reddit bans anti-vaccine assemblage aft protests implicit COVID misinformation (2021, September 2) retrieved 2 September 2021 from https://techxplore.com/news/2021-09-reddit-anti-vaccine-protests-covid-misinformation.html

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