Reddit bans 'Fat People Hate,' other subforums under new anti-harassment policy

​Reddit banned the fat-shaming subforum /r/fatpeoplehate from its network on Wednesday, citing their updated rules restricting the harassment of individuals on its site.

The news and social media network's moderators made the announcement in a post on Wednesday, saying it banned five subreddits for violating their updated anti-harassment policies. The post names only /r/fatpeoplehate, saying that it was the only subreddit with more than 5,000 subscribers.

A Reddit metrics page lists /r/fatpeoplehate with more than 151,000 subscribers.

"We want to be open about our involvement: We will ban subreddits that allow their communities to use the subreddit as a platform to harass individuals when moderators don't take action. We're banning behaviour, not ideas," the post reads.

A comment in the ensuing discussion thread lists the other four subreddits, including another fat-shaming forum called Ham Planet Hatred.

Clicking on links to any of these subreddits now brings you to a message reading "This subreddit has been banned for violating the Reddit rules to keep everyone safe."

Reddit updated its anti-harassment policy in May, citing a desire to protect individuals from targeted harassment by other users, while still maintaining its relatively laissez-faire environment for discussion, under the mantra of "promote ideas, protect people."

Move questioned by redditors

Many redditors bristled at the announcement, asking for more specific criteria on which forums would be banned, and when. Many listed other subreddits with subject matter they considered equally offensive or which promoted harassment.

"When we are using the word 'harass,' we're not talking about 'being annoying' or vote manipulation or anything. We're talking about men and women whose lives are being affected and worry for their safety every day, because people from a certain community on reddit have decided to actually threaten them, online and off, every day," wrote moderator krispykrackers.

Moderators did not include details about future plans on what other subreddits, if any, are on a prospective ban list or when further bans might occur.