Upvoting Extremism, Part I and Part 2 : An Assessment of Extreme Right Discourse on Reddit.
Vox Pol Blog, December 5, 2018
By Ryan Scivens, Tiana Gaudette and Garth Davies
In Part 1 of this two-part series, we explore how Reddit’s upvoting algorithm and content policy may encourage extreme right-wing discussions on the site, with a particular focus on ‘r/The_Donald’, which is one of the most popular right-wing extremist subreddits. In Part 2 of this series, we will present the results of our analysis of r/The_Donald, which will include an in-depth assessment of the posts that were made in response to Trump’s anti-Muslim tweets between 2015 and 2017.
The Part 2 of this two-part series explores (a) the nature of the discussions on the r/The_Donald that are associated with Trump’s anti-Muslim tweets, and (b) the role(s) that Reddit’s upvoting features may play in both promoting and encouraging hateful rhetoric within this far-right community.
