US based social media platform, Reddit, has released it latest transparency report. This report covering the period between July 1st and December 31st 2023 shares numbers on legal removal requests received by Reddit. The platforms legal removal requests are usual received from governments, law enforcement agencies, and private parties. Legal requests are submitted to remove content on Reddit either via court order or some other type of request.
For the entire second half of 2023, no such request was lounged by an African state or African legal agency. The social media company received 121 requests from a total of 19 countries. Russia, currently engaged in a war with Ukraine topped the list with a total of 25 requests. Second on the list is the UAE that made 23 requests.
Nature of Legal Removal Requests
India often termed “the world’s largest democracy” was third with 17 requests. Not surprising, as the Asian country often has reports of internet disruptions and restrictions initiated by its government. In 75% of the cases, Indian authorities wanted the content removed and the user’s identity revealed. However, reddit claims it did not cede to the requests of revealing user identities.
Reddit responded to India requests by removing 76% of the content reported. Alarmingly, 44% of the content removed was for violating non-consensual intimate media policy. Of the remaining requests, 11% of content was blocked in India for local law violations, while 13% were already deleted or vague content.
The United Kingdom (UK) is fourth on this list. UK was just behind its former colony India, making 16 legal removal requests. USA made 7 legal requests with 63% honoured by reddit. 60% of the removal requests from US were from law firms who wanted their clients’ names removed from mentions. South Korea made the same number of requests as USA.
Of the 19 countries, 8 were from Europe, 9 from Asia, then the USA and Australia. There were no legal requests from South American, Caribbean, and African states. In total, there was a 6.4% decrease in overall removal rate by Reddit. This marks a trend in removal rate decline from a high of 95% in 2021 to 81% in 2023.
Reddit User Numbers in Africa
The platform is one of the most popular users generated content (UGC) forums in the world. As it puts user content first, people turn to the platform when looking for information. United States has the most users. The United Kingdom and Canada come second and third in terms of Reddit users. Australia is responsible for about 3.9 percent of all Reddit users, while Germany is responsible for about 3.4 percent of all Reddit users.
Perhaps the number of legal removal requests is representative of active usage. A Geopoll study in 2023 revealed that across Africa, Reddit only has 6% user rate. This places the platform bottom of the list of major social media platforms. In fact, in a recent survey by Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Reddit did not get featured.
Data shows Reddit gets 12 million active visits from Kenya per month. This accounts for just 0.23% of the platform’s total traffic. Nigeria is not far off with 14 million (0.26%) active monthly visits, South Africa 18 million active visits. Egypt fairs a bit better with 20 million active visits per month. This accounts for 0.36% of the total monthly traffic.
Reddit removed 877 pieces of terrorist content from the platform, resulting in 854 accounts deleted. However, majority of this was from the Middle Eastern region.
Further, Reddit’s latest transparency report shows a dramatic jump in user bans for copyright infringement during the second half of 2023. According to Reddit, this 258% increase is due to better tools for finding copyright violations and a bigger team to handle them. Interestingly, the number of items taken down following copyright complaints actually went down, dropping to just over 500,000. Most takedowns are rejected simply because the content has already been removed.
