Reddit Bans r/Incels (2017) and Successor r/Braincels (2019)
2017–2019
On November 7, 2017, Reddit banned the ~40,000-subscriber r/Incels community under a newly updated policy prohibiting content that encourages or glorifies violence. The incel community regrouped on r/Braincels, which Reddit quarantined in September 2018 and banned in late 2019.
What happened
In October 2017 Reddit updated its content policy to prohibit content that 'encourages, glorifies, incites or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or group of people.' On November 7, 2017, the company applied that rule to r/Incels, a roughly 40,000-subscriber forum for self-described 'involuntary celibates.' While nominally a support space, the subreddit had become a hub for misogynistic 'black pill' ideology, with posts that condoned or advocated rape and violence against women and glorified mass shooter Elliot Rodger.
The ban relocated rather than dispersed the community. r/Braincels was created as a near-identical successor and quickly became the most popular incel subreddit. After the April 2018 Toronto van attack, some users praised perpetrator Alek Minassian before moderators deleted some posts.
Reddit took graduated action against r/Braincels: administrators quarantined it on September 28, 2018, citing 'the high degree of misogyny present in this subreddit,' then banned it in late September/October 2019 for violating the policy against content that harasses or bullies. After the ban, incel discussion largely migrated to dedicated standalone forums.
The episode sits within the documented link between online incel communities and real-world violence, including Elliot Rodger's 2014 Isla Vista killings and Alek Minassian's 2018 Toronto van attack, both of which incel forums repeatedly referenced.
Impact
The two bans became a frequently cited test case for whether deplatforming reduces online hate or simply displaces it. The 2017 removal pushed activity to r/Braincels almost immediately, and the 2019 ban pushed users onward to independent incel websites beyond Reddit's reach, illustrating the limits of single-platform enforcement. The cases highlighted the tension between Reddit's hands-off ethos and pressure to act on content connected to mass-violence ideology, and are now a standard reference point in research on incel radicalization.