Most moderators on our teams have been called disgusting and racist names, threatened with physical violence, and some have been subjected to doxxing attempts. Many times, our female moderators have endured rape threats in public comments and private messages (though it’s not always limited to women). The things people say online with or without a connection to their real identity provides a disturbing glimpse into some of the darker parts of humanity. This is a great step, as combating it on our own is untenable. In the wake of the recent upheaval with Reddit, the new leadership has committed to helping the moderators mitigate these types of speech. For simplicity’s sake, we will refer to communities that support racist or otherwise discriminatory viewpoints as hate speech communities. But where there are people on the Internet, there is also horrible, negative commentary.
