Booted From Reddit, an Anti-Trans Group Spreads Online
The TERF group is not alone in seeking, and finding, a new home after being deplatformed by aggressive moderation
In June, Reddit took a step toward scrubbing anti-trans material off its platform when it banned the popular r/GenderCritical subreddit, which promoted trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF) ideology. But now, according to a recent Atlantic story, the anti-trans group has spread to other websites and metastasized.
Members of the banned subreddit have since created their own community called Ovarit, a forum similar to other “free speech” websites that permit hate speech, misinformation, and content otherwise prohibited by mainstream platforms like Reddit and Facebook.
Reporter Kaitlin Tiffany spoke to one of Ovarit’s creators, a 27-year-old engineer named Mary Kate Fain who says that the removal of r/GenderCritical was a form of censorship. Fain told The Atlantic that subreddit members, unmoored by the ban, migrated to a Discord server while seeking a new home for their community. They considered Reddit clones Saidit and Lemmy but ultimately decided on Throat, an open-source platform that allowed r/GenderCritical to become the relatively small but toxic community it is today.
