Dear

Sir,


In light of the recent twitter censorship and abuse, I want to bring to your attention another
social network website where censorship, fake news, hate and anti-India propaganda being
spread on a daily basis - the site www.india.reddit.com

Introduction to Reddit

Reddit is a social network site similar to twitter and facebook, however it is frequented a lot
by students and generally youngsters.

Reddit allows users to create separate communities, and www.india.reddit.com (more
popularly known as r/India) is one such community. Each community has its own set of
moderators and rules. The r/India community rules specify that it is a general community to
discuss topics related to India. Users can submit text posts, videos, images etc, and each
post can be discussed in the comments.

However, for the last year or so, the moderators of r/India have been blatantly indulging in
an anti-India and anti-right wing propaganda and censorship. Any post that praises the work
done by the current government gets censored and deleted, and often the users who praise
the current government are banned right away. On the other hand, posts that portray the
government in a bad light or posts in support of alternate governments (Congress, AAP, etc)
are allowed, and encouraged. In the comments section, any post clarifying and taking a pro-
government stance get censored immediately.

Many users who have been around on reddit for 3-4 years feel that this is an attempt by
international agents to suppress content and promote fake news and communal
disharmony. To support this argument, a study was done that showed 75% of visitors to
https://india.reddit.com/ were from outside India.

Link to report: https://
reddit.com/r/indiadiscussion/comments/8mtho0/breaking_news_reddits_traffic_data_reve
als_around/

Incidents of censorship and bias:

For instance, during the recent Rafale controversy which has been going on for several
months now, almost every news that has eventually been debunked as fake gets discussed,
and the comments are alarmingly biased and furthermore anyone even attempting to clarify
the issues get censored and banned.
Here is yesterday’s post about the Rafale-Ambani e-mail leak:
https://reddit.com/r/india/comments/apoqer/two_weeks_before_rafale_announcement_a
nil_ambani/

As you can see, almost all the comments are anti-government, while any explanations
offered are “downvoted”. The downvoting system is usually reserved for comments that are
trolling, however in the r/India community, downvotes are used to suppress facts.

Also several comments are also deleted. The deleted comments can be identified on a
separate tool called “ceddit” the “r” in the URL is replaced by “c”:
https://ceddit.com/r/india/comments/apoqer/two_weeks_before_rafale_announcement_a
nil_ambani/

Infact the censorship and bias is so apparent that a separate community r/IndiaDiscussion
has been formed just to discuss the manipulation and censorship on r/India -
https://www.reddit.com/r/indiadiscussion/ (this community exposes the censorship on
r/India)

A perusal of the top posts of r/IndiaDiscussion clearly shows the rampant nature of
moderator enforced censorship and bias that is prevalent on r/India.

In another incident, during the recent Mamata Banerjee controversy, all users who spoke in
favour of the Central Govt were censored and banned, and the actions of Mamata Banerjee
were hailed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/indiadiscussion/comments/amt7m9/wow_mamata_was_getting
_trashed_in_the_thread_yet/


Today, the news that Indian Govt had approved 7.47 lakh rifle plant had been immediately
censored by the moderators:
https://ceddit.com/r/india/comments/aqa666/centre_today_cleared_747_lakh_assault_kal
ashnikov/

This kind of selective moderation has resulted in a large scale systematic brainwashing of
the younger generation internet users (who are more likely to be reddit users given its
target audience) who immediately believe what they read on this site, without bothering to
look into its source and accuracy.


Violation of IT Act - Intermediary Guidelines Rules by Reddit:

As a social networking site, Reddit is mandated to follow Information Technology
(Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011, and the provisions contained therein; especially
Rule 3(11) relating to appointment of Grievance Officer and publishing the contact
information of such person on the social media website.

However, the same has not been done. Emails sent to reddit both on contact@reddit.com
as well as on reddit’s “Support portal” asking about grievance officer details remained
unanswered.

Support link: https://www.reddithelp.com/en/submit-request

Meanwhile several regular users have also complained to reddit regarding the rampant
abuse of moderation powers on https://india.reddit.com/; however, no action has been
taken by reddit in this regard.

Not appointing a grievance officer is also in violation of Indian Court orders.

The Hon’ble Delhi High Court has held in K.N. GOVINDACHARYA vs UNION OF INDIA and
ORS1 regarding appointment of grievance officer by social media network as below:

“On going through the above, sub rule (11), we feel that it should be directed that
intermediaries, including the social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut,
should immediately publish the names of the respective Grievance Officers on their
websites alongwith contact numbers as well as the mechanism by which any user or
any victim who suffers as a result of access or usage of computer resource by any
person in violation of rule 3, can notify their complaints against such access or
usage.”

The social networking site Reddit is in direct violation of this order; yet it continues to
operate in India without any heed to the statutory laws of the country.

Promotion of pornography:

Reddit also allows blatant pornographic images and videos to be shared on its site, despite
pornography being banned in India.

Link 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/gonewild/

Infact users can even buy and sell pornography videos and items, which is illegal under
Indian laws.

https://reddit.com/r/sexsells/

There are also India specific communities where people share and trade porn videos, in
blatant violation of laws of the country.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiansGoneWild/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianPorn/

All the activities are done anonymously, thus it is extremely difficult to track perpetrators.
Some miscreants even use reddit to post blackmailing content.

There are hundreds of such communities. I have only selectively shared a few above.

1
W.P.(C) 3672/2012 and CM Nos.7709/2012, 12197/2012 and 6888/2013, Delhi High Court



Reddit Payment System – in violation of RBI’s Data Localization rules:

Furthermore, Reddit also runs a virtual payment system called “Coins” where users can
transact between one another. As per the Reserve Bank of India norms2, every company
that offers payment services in India must store data and information locally. This has even
been complied with by large international operators like Visa and Mastercard.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/coins/

Using the above “coins” service, one can transact among reddit users, and even use “coins”
to buy and sell illegal content like pornography, pirated movies, etc.

However, Reddit Inc does not comply with this regulation as well. Reddit maintains no office
or data warehouse about payment information in India.

Reddit Coins feature enables users to anonymously transact without any KYC, thus aiding in
illegal activities like buying and selling pornography content and items.





Considering the above aspects, therefore it is humbly requested that this blatant abuse of
internet resources, trolling, and sharing of fake news to brainwash gullible youngsters on
https://india.reddit.com be investigated. Further, it is also requested that reddit be asked to
appoint a grievance officer which is mandatory for any social network.

I am attaching screenshots of some of the shocking content that is regularly discussed on
r/India, including threats to “lynch” elected members of legislature, crowdfund to lynch
Hon’ble PM, threats to lynch government employees, generic hate messages against India,
all of these which are shared on a forum that is meant to discuss India.

Please feel free to reach me for any additional information.


Thanking you and sincerely,
[---------redacted-----]



2
RBI/2017-18/153 - DPSS.CO.OD No.2785/06.08.005/2017-2018
https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=11244&Mode=0



Attachments:
1. Screenshots of hate messages / posts/ comments shared on www.india.reddit.com