In the current landscape of online abuses and harms, effective content moderation is necessary to cultivate safe and inclusive online spaces. Yet, the effectiveness of many moderation interventions is still unclear. Here, we assess the effectiveness of The Great Ban, a massive deplatforming operation that affected nearly 2,000 communities on Reddit. By analyzing 16M comments posted by 17K users during 14 months, we provide nuanced results on the effects, both desired and otherwise, of the ban. Among our main findings is that 15.6% of the affected users left Reddit and that those who remained reduced their toxicity by 6.6% on average. The ban also caused 5% users to increase their toxicity by more than 70% of their pre-ban level. However, these resentful users likely had limited impact on Reddit due to low activity and little support by peers. Overall, our multifaceted results provide new insights into the efficacy of deplatforming. Our findings can inform the development of future moderation interventions and the policing of online platforms.

翻译：当前网络滥用与危害频发的环境中，有效的内容审核对于营造安全包容的网络空间至关重要。然而，许多审核干预措施的有效性仍不明确。本研究评估了影响Reddit近2000个社群的"大封禁"这一大规模去平台行动的成效。通过分析14个月内17,000名用户发布的1600万条评论，我们提供了关于该封禁措施预期与非预期效果的细致结果。主要发现包括：15.6%受影响的用户离开了Reddit，而留下的用户毒性平均降低了6.6%。该封禁还导致5%用户的毒性较封禁前水平增加了70%以上。然而，这些心怀不满的用户因活跃度低且缺乏同伴支持，对Reddit整体影响有限。总体而言，我们的多维度结果为去平台行动的有效性提供了新见解，这些发现可为未来审核干预措施的制定及在线平台治理提供参考依据。