Ireland’s dedicated subreddit, r/Ireland, has just been forced into lock down. This comes as a result of what the r/Ireland Mod Team is calling “DEFCON 2”, restricting the sub to no new posts, and comments only from established users. The Mods have stated that the “brigading seems to be coming from accounts spreading disinformation/hate”.
What is r/Ireland?
Most countries have a dedicated subreddit on Reddit to discuss everything and anything relating to that country. What makes Ireland’s subreddit somewhat unique is the high number of users versus the country’s population.
Partially because Irish people love Reddit, but also because we have a massive number of people who claim to be Irish (glares at USA).
Some of the most popular content discussed by the subreddit’s 1.2 million users news, culture, and memes with r/AskIreland taking up advice and questions instead.
There have been several posts to r/Ireland in the past few days following emerging news of attacks on people of Indian descent, living in Ireland. Prior to the lockdown there was also an article shared relating to a Syrian national attacking a woman out jogging in Dublin.
Why is r/Ireland Locked?
Both the attacks and the assault have brought wide condemnation from people around Ireland and indeed in the comments on r/Ireland.
However, shortly after the most recent article was shared, r/Ireland was locked down, with the mods citing brigading
What is Brigading on Reddit?
Brigading, in terms of Reddit, refers to a coordinated effort by a group of people to manipulate voting, comments, or other interactions on a post or subreddit. Often with the intent to promote a specific viewpoint, silence dissent, or harass other users.
Essentially it’s a form of online harassment where a “brigade” of users targets a specific post or user, usually by downvoting, flooding with negative comments, or engaging in other forms of disruptive behaviour.
In this case, the term relates to a subreddit or perhaps a race of people. The actual details have not been shared.
The r/Ireland Mod Team decided around 12am to lock the subreddit from new posts, and limited comments to regular posters, stating “the brigading seems to be coming from accounts spreading disinformation/hate”.
In the event that Reddit believes a mod team is not effectively moderating hate, disinformation, or brigading, Reddit admins can take further action against the r/Ireland subreddit. This includes, but isn’t limited to, issuing warnings, forcing changes, restricting, suspending or banning the subreddit.
The r/Ireland Mod Team has also referenced some posts being created from “bad actors”. These are relatively new accounts “posting rage bait”, posing as “as immigrants asking questions on housing”.
Does this Matter?
As I said, r/Ireland has over 1.2 million users. Many internet users, myself included, have jumped ship from sites like Twitter and Boards.ie has, by its own admission, struggled in recent years. Reddit is a massive source of news and it one of Ireland’s biggest online communities.
r/Ireland is often home to real-time reactions to news, social issues, and cultural moments in Ireland. While the lockdown seems to be temporary, we’ve lost that platform of discussion for now. Seemingly, because of a hate-fuelled targeted attack. Something which seems to be growing as a regular occurrence these days.
I do expect to see r/Ireland back up and running in no time, but it’s worth us all inspecting these events., Who is behind these targeted attempts to divert or distract our attention. This post about Galway is very interesting, showing how WhatsApp groups from certain groups can influence people.
