Reddit’s recent refusal to take a stronger stance against COVID-19 disinformation has prompted a pair of subreddits—devoted to Pokemon Go and Star Trek, of all things—to go dark in protest.
The subreddits, known as r/pokemongo and r/startrek, collectively have over 3.5 million members. But on Monday, both communities decided to go private—thus barring non-members from entering the forum—until Reddit does more to remove COVID-19 misinformation.
“The first duty is to the truth,” wrote a post from r/startrek. “It is our position that it is unethical and irresponsible to continue as a public forum on Reddit so long as nothing is done to combat the spread of deadly propaganda.” Several subreddits related to the sci-fi franchise also joined in on going private.
Meanwhile, r/pokemongo notes it opposed Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s recent decision to shorten the physical distances necessary to play the mobile game, despite COVID-19. In response, Niantic last week extended the distance to interact with a virtual Pokestop in the game from 40 meters back to 80.
The protest arrives days after hundreds of forums across Reddit wrote an open letter demanding the site crack down on the “dangerous medical disinformation” that allegedly circulates across the site, including falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccines.
“There can be no room for leniency when people are dying as a result of misinformation on this platform. Reddit as a global platform needs to take responsibility here,” the letter says.
However, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman rejected the open letter, citing the need to protect free speech. “Dissent is a part of Reddit and the foundation of democracy,” he wrote. “Reddit is a place for open and authentic discussion and debate. This includes conversations that question or disagree with popular consensus. This includes conversations that criticize those that disagree with the majority opinion.”
Inevitably, Huffman’s refusal has caused the volunteer moderators behind the open letter to mull taking stronger action. A group of them told PCMag last week they were particularly concerned about conspiracy theories touting ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19 when the drug is often used to treat farm animals for parasites.
“To allow people to convince others that they need to go to a feed store and purchase said paste because their doctors won’t prescribe ivermectin to them is irresponsible. It gets people potentially hospitalized or worse,” one moderator said. (The CDC has warned ivermectin misuse can be poisonous to humans.)
The forums r/pokemongo and r/startrek are now calling on Reddit to specifically ban a subreddit called r/NoNewNormal, which has 120,000 members. It’s devoted to discussing societal changes brought on by COVID-19, but has also been criticized for allegedly spreading falsehoods around COVID-19 and the vaccines. The forum’s content prompted Reddit this month to place r/NoNewNormal under quarantine, meaning you have to go through a warning page before you visit it for the first time.
“Other subs (subreddits) such as Conspiracy and Conservative need to be reined in to their original intent, and prohibited from endangering the lives of others through their words,” a moderator for r/pokemongo forum wrote in a letter to the public.
As a result, the issue could fragment the social media platform along political lines, especially if more subreddits decide to go dark. In the meantime, users in the subrreddit r/NoNewNormal are already calling out the protest action as censorship.
“So they are protesting this sub by advertising it and restricting access to their sub for newcomers? Seems counter productive, but alright,” added one user.
PCMag contacted Reddit for comment, but the company merely repeated the main talking points from Huffman’s earlier response. “Reddit is a place for open and authentic discussion and debate. This includes conversations that question or disagree with popular consensus. We will continue to action content and users that violate our policies, and provide users with authoritative resources when viewing communities that may warrant additional scrutiny,” a spokesperson said.
“Throughout the pandemic, we have also provided COVID-related resources to support our volunteer moderators, users, and communities, including a dedicated AMA series connecting users with authoritative experts on coronavirus and vaccines, as well as deploying homepage and search page banners directing users to the CDC and r/Coronavirus,” they added.
