Reddit is a news aggregator and bulletin board that was founded by two UVA roommates on June 23, 2005,¹⁾ acquired by Condé Nast for $10 million in 2006,²⁾³⁾ went independent under Advance in 2011,⁴⁾ saw its value⁵⁾⁶⁾⁷⁾ and became a public company in 2024.⁸⁾

The heavily centralized discussion megaforum would end up becoming a powerhouse in the 2010s, which is a bit concerning as Google relies on Reddit a bit too much,^9)10)11)12) and it's arguably designed to shape public opinion, given their massive pro-Western Atlanticist bias.

It's a basic website that houses multiple user-created boards (“subreddits”) where users can submit content, discuss, and vote using their overbearing reputation (“karma”) system. However, it doesn't offer much else. You have to remember that most of Reddit's success came at the expense of Digg's downfall in 2010,¹³⁾ in addition to niche communities consolidating at Reddit.

While subreddits may differ, the reputation system usually causes debates and critique to be valued¹⁴⁾ over merriment and simplicity, which might give off a pretentious and unwelcoming atmosphere when users are occasionally snarky, get mad for arbitrary reasons (e.g. bot usage, emoji usage, slang usage), and provide a non-answer just to comment. In other words, a lame website for debate nerds, cynics, and haters.

“Unlike some of the [third-party] apps, we are not profitable.”
– Reddit CEO Steve Huffman¹⁵⁾

The website has a subscription service called “Reddit Premium” (formerly Reddit Gold)¹⁶⁾ that offers ad-free browsing, beta features, custom app icons, digital avatar gear, /r/lounge access, etc. In the past, they had “Reddit Coins” that anyone could use to “gild”/award¹⁷⁾ posts and replies in non-quarantined subreddits, but they retired this to “simplify” Reddit on September 12, 2023.¹⁸⁾¹⁹⁾

In the following month, Reddit would roll out a new “Gold” system on September 25, 2023, launching it with a new “Contributor Program” that may allow contributors to earn cash if eligible for monetization. Unlike their previous system, users do not have a balance, meaning that a transaction must happen when a post is being awarded, and “gilded”²⁰⁾ posts are just highlighted posts that don't come with Reddit Premium.²¹⁾

Reddit's pro-Western bias is unsurprising when U.S. intelligence had been manipulating Reddit since 2013, when the Eglin Air Force Base was revealed to be unusually active,²²⁾ then the company would hire an Atlanticist foreign policy hawk as their Director of Policy.²³⁾²⁴⁾ For 2019, there was a disastrous /r/IAmA for a Uyghur activist²⁵⁾ who works for U.S. intelligence and been to Gitmo.²⁶⁾²⁷⁾

In addition, subreddits for countries that the United States antagonizes present a very curious case. Why is four American think tanks on the moderation team for /r/afghanistan?²⁸⁾²⁹⁾ Why is /r/china full of vitriolic expatriates?³⁰⁾³¹⁾ Why did /r/russia get its entire moderation team³²⁾ purged³³⁾ and immediately quarantined? These sorts of conditions have to be questioned if Reddit wants to shape any public opinion.

See alternative subreddits?

“And instead of using our app, they use that app. Is that not competitive?”
– Reddit CEO Steve Huffman³⁴⁾

Back on February 14, 2009, it was announced that Reddit had launched an official app known as iReddit³⁵⁾ which they charged money for.³⁶⁾ Then on October 15, 2014, they acquired Alien Blue to replace it,³⁷⁾ since it was the most popular third-party app,³⁸⁾ but soon axed it for a new official app on April 7, 2016.³⁹⁾⁴⁰⁾ Despite this, many third-party apps continued to rise⁴¹⁾ which struck a chord.⁴²⁾

“Long story short, my takeaway from Twitter and Elon at Twitter is reaffirming that we can build a really good business in this space at our scale.”
– Reddit CEO Steve Huffman⁴³⁾

On April 18, 2023, Reddit announced API changes,⁴⁴⁾ inspired by Twitter⁴⁵⁾ killing their third-party apps by using a paid API model.⁴⁶⁾ Their first casualty was Pushshift.io,⁴⁷⁾⁴⁸⁾ impacting Reveddit⁴⁹⁾ and Unditt.⁵⁰⁾ Reddit soon revealed their pricing model on May 31, 2023,⁵¹⁾ confirming the aforementioned concerns,⁵²⁾⁵³⁾ and held a disastrous AMA session on June 9, 2023 that did nothing to ease the community.⁵⁴⁾

This led to a two-day to indefinite protest on June 12, 2023.^55)56)57)58) In response, Reddit had threatened protesting moderators,⁵⁹⁾⁶⁰⁾ tried to shift the blame,⁶¹⁾⁶²⁾ then stopped commenting.⁶³⁾ Some users would migrate to alternatives like the Fediverse (i.e. Lemmy & Kbin),⁶⁴⁾⁶⁵⁾ then /r/place reopened on July 20, 2023, arguably as damage control,⁶⁶⁾ though “FUCK SPEZ” remained a constant.⁶⁷⁾

• A throwaway account can be made at old.reddit.com, just click “next” when it asks for an email.
  • Reddit will automatically suggest usernames that contains two words and 2-4 numbers, but people only notice this pattern when botting is being suspected during the /r/place events.
• In the past, you had to use two forward slashes if you wanted to link a subreddit. This was eventually changed around 2015, supporting usage of one (r/) or two (/r/) forward slashes.
• The /r/shitredditsays (SRS) subreddit was infamous in the early 2010s for calling out instances of racism and sexism on the platform, occasionally escalating to brigading, dogpiling, and doxing.⁷¹⁾ It was phased out by the late 2010s for the aptly-named /r/againsthatesubreddits (AHS) subreddit.
  • However, these types of communities did, in fact, point out that white supremacist trolls began to target and invade Reddit by pushing far-right content as early as 2011.⁷²⁾⁷³⁾
  • In 2013, 4chan would reference /r/shitredditsays by setting up a “Shit 4chan Says” ([s4s]) board for their April Fools prank,⁷⁴⁾ though the joke was mostly lost as it became a nonsensical board.
• At one point, it was noted that Reddit has “power moderators”⁷⁵⁾ in 92 of their Top 500 subreddits.⁷⁶⁾
• The Neoliberal Project that allegedly began on r/neoliberal had recently joined the Progressive Policy Institute (Third Way Foundation), an American think tank for Clinton Democrats⁷⁷⁾ which has taken funds from the American Gas Association⁷⁸⁾ and the fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil.⁷⁹⁾
• The /r/legaladvice (and /r/bestoflegaladvice) subreddit is known to be moderated by police officers, so users are advised to DM the original poster if the moderators are trying to get them killed.

• Reddit (Old Reddit) - The front page of Reddit.
  • @reddit and @redditstatus on Twitter - The two official Reddit accounts on Twitter.