READ MORE: Facebook Let an Islamophobic Conspiracy Theory Flourish in India Despite Employees’ Warnings “We are investing now to build and hire for non-English capabilities and add support for more languages.” “When we begin to open in non-English speaking countries, moderation does get more complex,” a Reddit spokesperson said in a statement to TIME. Reddit has acknowledged that its expansion to international markets makes policing its platform more difficult, and some moderators said the company has taken steps in recent months to correct the longstanding problems. But some of its most devoted users-its unpaid moderators-argue that while the company aims to be the “front page of the internet,” it has not invested in the infrastructure to combat vile content that is rife on many of its non-English language pages.
The company was recently valued at $10 billion, is one of the 25 most visited websites in the world according to multiple trackers and has made its international expansion a key aspect of its post-IPO growth strategy. Reddit announced in December that it intends to make an initial public offering of stock in 2022. This all-volunteer corps of moderators, of which there are at least tens of thousands, is only growing in importance for the company. Nearly all of the moderators agreed to speak on the condition that their real names would not be published because they say they have received death threats and other attacks online for their work. TIME spoke to 19 Reddit moderators around the world who shared similar stories and concerns about the San-Francisco-based company’s reluctance to control hate-speech in its non-English language forums. “It’s hard to convey to the company what’s racist and what’s not when the admins are so far from the details and the cultural differences.”
“Anything outside the anglosphere is pretty much ignored, to be honest,” 11th Dimension, a former moderator of r/Portugal who stepped down from his role due to burnout, says. READ MORE: The Subreddit /r/Collapse Has Become the Doomscrolling Capital of the Internet. And members of r/Portugueses regularly traffic in anti-Black, anti-Roma and anti-immigrant sentiment. In subreddits about China like r/sino and r/genzedong, users attack Uyghurs and promote violence against them. Indian subreddits like r/chodi and r/DesiMeta include Islamophobic posts and calls for the genocide of Muslims. Reddit’s problem is a global one, say current and former moderators. “We have no idea if they read our reports, or if there are even Portuguese-speaking people in the company.” “We mostly stopped reporting stuff, because we don’t have feedback,” he says. And asantos3 says that the company itself has repeatedly ignored reports of harassment from him and other moderators. He says his duties have led to him being doxxed-with personal details including his Instagram and LinkedIn profiles posted online- and threatened. Asantos3 spoke on the condition that he would be identified only by his Reddit handle.
As part of his duties, he deletes comments that contain racism, homophobia, sexism and other policy violations, and sends reports to Reddit about hate speech coming from smaller satellite groups like r/Portugeses. The response was disappointing but predictable for asantos3, who has served as a volunteer content moderator for six years. Within minutes, he received an automated response: “After investigating, we’ve found that the reported content doesn’t violate Reddit’s Content Policy.” So, asantos3, who moderates the much larger and more mainstream group r/Portugal, quickly sent a report to Reddit staffers with a link to the thread.
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