It can be difficult to know where and how to get your information online. The internet is a constant barrage of information and not all of it seems true, even worse, not all of it is true. In the era of fake news and conspiracy theories, Facebook and Twitter posts have become less and less believable and sometimes you need to find a proper source or at least a proper forum of discussion to figure out what’s what.
This is where Reddit comes in, nowadays a lot of people turn to Reddit for their news and information, but why? Let’s dig a little and figure out what in Reddit’s format makes it people’s new form of trusted information.
When it comes to news, the Reddit front page is filled with it! Articles, op-eds, and breaking news always make their way to the top, whether through engagement or being pinned. Often these posts highly upvoted posts will offer links to the original article or the current live coverage of what’s happening. The Associated Press for example is very often linked as the best source to verify the news.
With millions of users perusing the website at every moment, fake news gets verified rather rapidly and sources are often dug up in a matter of minutes, so the truth is never far behind if lies start trending on the platform. Reddit is also dedicated to protecting the truth.
As such you might well know that Reddit has a great many subcategories on its website, well many of those are dedicated to fact-checking. Some of those subcategories are dedicated to niche fact-checking such as social media news, medical news, or political news. Users on this subreddit will basically do a job similar to Snopes fact-checkers by cross-referencing articles and news to find the real truth at the bottom of potentially fake news.
Some of these users will often also make sure to crossover with other subreddits that might be posting this fake news and spreading false information to make sure that the correct news and information makes its way to users who read it.
Following the massive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reddit had to crack down on misinformation-spreading subreddits. While the CEO initially stated he had no intention to, the company backtracked that statement rapidly seeing the damage caused by COVID-19 misinformation. They then proceeded to ban many of the COVID skeptic communities for their harassment campaigns and what Reddit users call brigading.
Brigading is the action of coordinating an effort to harass and deplatform someone through bullying and fear. This also echoed the action taken against right-wing subreddits that encouraged doxing and violence against people who did not support or disparaged former president Donald Trump. Doxxing is the action of revealing someone’s personal information online to cause them harm.
People have learned to trust a lot of information on Reddit because there is dedicated volunteer moderation on a lot of subreddits that can often verify the credentials of specialists posting on the website. For example, scientists and celebrities who post on the website will get a flair to properly identify them and show everyone that they are indeed who they claim to be.
Therefore the information they share is verified in the same breath, especially if for example someone like Neil DeGrasse Tyson is posting about the Cosmos or a medical doctor is posting about covid. Obviously, you should keep an eye on if the subreddit itself is verified but if it is chances are the users with specific flairs could definitely be good sources.
Reddit has become a very mainstream internet space, which leads a lot of large news outlets and well-known figures to participate in the internet forum on whatever subreddit they judge the most fitting for their activities. Reddit being the cultural zeitgeist makes it seem much more trustworthy as it has the seal of approval of many people public figures people trust and it also has an association with many programs and companies people do trust as well.
Though the business aspect makes people wary of private interests who buy Reddit upvotes to spread their message, people know to fact-check and verify their information even if they trust the platform.
As you can see through the many years especially since 2016 and the large phenomenon of fake news, Reddit has learned to earn people’s trust. It has built a solid platform and a solid public image that people are ready to put their trust in for news and information regarding any subject of their interest.
