Reddit has put the r/Russia subreddit into quarantine because of the amount of misinformation being spread over the invasion of Ukraine.
Adding a subreddit to the quarantine list means it does not appear in search results and a warning message is flagged to any user attempting to view it.
If a quarantine proves insufficient, Reddit can take the decision to fully ban a subreddit – as it did with the r/The_Donald subreddit in 2019.
Any visitor to the r/Russia subreddit is now met with a page stating: ‘This community contains a high volume of information not supported by credible sources.’
Even if users click through to view the subreddit, the warning stays at the top of the page.
Before the subreddit page went dark, it boasted 265,000 members. Some of the posts on the group included images of the Ukrainiuan flag in flames and claims the Ukranian government had inflated the number of casulties it had suffered.
Other posts accused the Ukrainians of using human shields and refusing to negotiate with the Russians.
Reddit states that a quarantine is required to ‘prevent [a subreddit’s] content from being accidentally viewed by those who do not knowingly wish to do so, or viewed without appropriate context’.
Another subreddit, r/RussiaPolitics, has been given the same treatment.
