Trump subreddit r/The_Donald quarantined by Reddit for inciting violence

After years of calls to ban the community r/The_Donald, Reddit is cracking down on the infamous subreddit by quarantining it, a feature that was revamped in 2018.

The quarantine comes after Reddit observed "repeated rule-breaking behavior" and an "over-reliance on Reddit admins to manage users and remove posts" that violated content policies. In a post on Wednesday, the announcement also noted that violations included "content that encourages or incites violence," particularly toward law enforcement and politicians in Oregon.

The statement is referring to the 11 Republican state senators who fled Oregon to avoid voting on a major climate change bill. Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, sent state police to track down the senators on the run, who face fines of $500 for every day there isn't a quorum in the state senate. Upset at the governor and at police, members of r/The_Donald encouraged violence against both.

"As we have discussed in the past, and as detailed in our content policy and moderator guidelines, we expect you to enforce against rule-breaking content," the letter to the unpaid moderators of the subreddit continued. "We recognize that you do remove posts that are reported, but we are troubled that violent content more often goes unreported, and worse, is upvoted."

A quarantine is not the same as an outright ban — it's essentially a warning for communities to shape up. Reddit says it quarantines subreddits to "prevent its content from being accidentally viewed by those who do not knowingly wish to do so" and has users explicitly opt-in to view quarantined subreddits. A quarantine also excludes subreddits like r/The_Donald from showing up in searches or recommendations.

Members of r/The_Donald have accused Reddit of suppressing their freedom of speech, while other users wondered why it took so long for the site to finally take action against the subreddit. A Reddit spokesperson responded to both claims in a statement to Mashable:

"We are clear in our site-wide policies that posting content that encourages or threatens violence is not allowed on Reddit. As we have shared, we are sensitive to what could be considered political speech, however, recent behaviors including threats against the police and public figures is content that is prohibited by our violence policy. As a result, we have actioned individual users and quarantined the subreddit."

The announcement posted in r/The_Donald also sets guidelines for the quarantine to be lifted, stipulating that its moderators "unambiguously communicate that violent content is unacceptable" and tell its members that "reporting is a core function of Reddit and is essential to maintaining the health and viability of the community."

If the moderators do not follow through, Reddit warns, r/The_Donald could be banned for good.

The moderator who posted the message from Reddit did share the announcement as requested, but also complained that the site stripped most of their permissions.

"It would seem they've set up an impossible standard as a reason to kill us before the 2020 election," moderator shadowman3001 whined.