Reddit bans a major alt-right community — and there may be a very good reason

The alt-right is a white-nationalist ideological movement that rose to prominence during the 2016 presidential campaign and that has ties to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, the former head of the far-right website Breitbart News.

The community was known among Reddit for being a hotbed of anti-Semitic and racist conversation.

If you try navigating to the "/r/altright" community, you're greeted with the following message: "This subreddit was banned due to a violation of our content policy, specifically, the proliferation of personal and confidential information."

While Reddit isn't offering any additional context on what specifically brought the ban, the site's very active user community has its own theory. If these rumors are to be believed, users of "/r/altright" were posting links to a site called WeSearchr, despite Reddit leadership warning strongly against it.

WeSearchr bills itself as "a marketplace for information," where users can contribute money toward "bounties." Right now, for instance, a top WeSearchr campaign has raised a $5,353 bounty for the identity of the person (described on the site as a "domestic terrorist") who punched white nationalist Richard Spencer in the face during the protests on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Reddit's rules strictly prohibit revealing anybody's private personal information, and members of "/r/altright" are said to have been warned that even sharing WeSearchr would constitute a violation of those terms.

Meanwhile, WeSearchr cofounder and former Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson, himself a prominent figure in the alt-right, disagrees with Reddit's decision. He likens the WeSearchr site to shows like "America's Most Wanted," where the information obtained via these bounties goes straight to law enforcement, not users. He wrote a statement on the matter that you can read here.

This is just another test of Reddit's struggles to balance safety and free speech, which has long been a big issue for the site.

In late November, for instance, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman confessed to modifying posts from Trump supporters as a form of revenge for the verbal abuse they were slinging his way. Now, users of the "/r/The_Donald" community are afraid that the ban of "/r/altright" is a precursor to more "censorship" on Reddit and a possible ban for themselves.

And in July 2015, Reddit banned a community dedicated to hating fat people.

"There is no single solution to these issues and we are actively engaging with the Reddit community to improve everyone's experience," Reddit said in an emailed statement. A Reddit representative hadn't yet responded to questions about WeSearchr by the time of publication.

Still, the mood on Reddit is largely celebratory following the ban: