Overview

The Reddit "92 of the Top 500" Moderators List refers to an ongoing controversy over a viral image showing five of Reddit's most prominent moderators overseeing 92 of the top 500 subreddits. Some users on the website believe that this centralization of moderation duties undermined the site's interest in independent moderation. Since the release of the list, the named moderators have claimed that they have been the victims of abuse and harassment via death threats and other forms of online bullying.

Background

On March 19th, 2020, a Redditor^[1] whose account has since been deleted published the thread "92 out of top 500 subreddits are controlled by just 4 people. 'Was taken down and deleted to cover it up. Dont let this happen.'" The post, which has also been deleted received more than 3,700 points (98% upvoted) and 330 comments in less than two months (shown below).

Developments

Redditor Response

Over the next two months, Redditors continued to share the list of moderators. On April 1st, Redditor^[2] Slimeyzilla shared the list on the /r/conspiracy subreddit, receiving more than 2,100 points (97% upvoted) and 200 comments in less than two months. On May 12th, Redditor^[3] rootin-tootin_putin posted the list in the /r/ThatsInsane, which received more than 13,000 points (99% upvoted) and 600 comments in less than two weeks.

Two days later, Redditor^[4] BruhMoment posted the list on the /r/ThereWasAnAttempt subreddit. The post received more than 115,000 points (92% upvoted) and 6,200 comments in less than one week.

The list spurred a backlash against the mods listed. For example, a subreddit calling for the removal of moderator Gallowboob, ^[6] who is also Reddit's top user (screenshot below, left). On May 16th, another subreddit, /r/opposinggallowboob^[7] was banned for violating "Reddit's content policy against harassing content" (screenshot below, right).

Moderators Response

Following the /r/therewasanattempt post, Reddit^[5] administrator sodypop responded to the post saying that they were seeing "an unacceptable amount of large-scale harassment being directed at [moderators on the list]."

These posts have been getting traction across multiple subreddits for the past few days. We're seeing an unacceptable amount of large-scale harassment being directed at these people.

While in general, individuals (whether they are mods, admins, or regular people using Reddit) are not above reproach when it comes to criticism. Respectful discussion is allowed and will not be removed. However, this situation has gone far past the point of criticism and is now generating targeted harassment of numerous people, some of whom are concerned for their physical safety.

Regardless of how you feel about certain people on Reddit, it is 100% against our policies to threaten them. We expect our users and moderators to abide by our site-wide rules and will continue to take action against anyone breaking these rules.

GallowBoob, whose real name is Robert Allam, told The Daily Dot ^[8] that he has received "death threats and hacking attempts against him." As a result, he plans to "step back from the site."

After this, I am personally done with supporting the platform when it doesn’t support us back or doesn’t do enough to safeguard our security.

[…]

This has been actually a nightmare to deal. When I get messages on social media, I’m not sure if someone’s trying to fake it to trick me, when I get a link sent my way I don’t want to click on it directly, because I don’t know if they’re trying, you know, [to] get my IP. It’s nothing I would wish on anyone.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References