Reddit has long been a forum where members could freely express their thoughts and ideas, no matter how controversial. But that openness also made it a place where harassment can run rampant.
The social media firm is now taking a new step to address that problem. Reddit announced Wednesday a new tool that lets users more completely block other accounts. In the past, Reddit’s blocking feature focused on the site’s direct messaging tool.
Once a Reddit user blocks another account, that person’s profile, messages and comments will no longer be visible to the user who deployed the block. The ban is silent, meaning the person who has been blocked will not be aware of it. Still, users blocked on social media have been known to circumvent the block by simply creating a new account.
Reddit’s free-wheeling nature has led to controversy in the past. Most infamously, a small number of the site’s users traded explicit photos of celebrities, some underage, obtained in an iPhone hack back in 2014. The company eventually decided to ban the forums where that activity was taking place, but the site remains home to other forms of questionable, if not outright illegal, activity.
- How an Alleged Spy Balloon Derailed an Important U.S.-China Meeting
- Effective Altruism Has a Toxic Culture of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Women Say
- Inside Bolsonaro's Surreal New Life as a Florida Man—and MAGA Darling
- 'Return to Office' Plans Spell Trouble for Working Moms
- 8 Ways to Read More Books—and Why You Should
- Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?
- Column: Elon Musk Should Not Be in Charge of the Night Sky
- How Logan Paul's Crypto Empire Fell Apart
- 80 for Brady May Not Be a Masterpiece. But the World Needs More Movies Like This