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：在当前网络滥用与危害的背景下，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实际效果仍不明确。本研究评估了"大规模封禁行动"的效果——这是一项影响Reddit近2000个社区的大规模去平台化操作。通过分析14个月内17,000名用户发布的1600万条评论，我们展示了该封禁行动预期与非预期效果的细致结果。主要发现包括：15.6%的受影响用户离开了Reddit，留下的用户平均毒性降低6.6%；同时封禁也导致5%的用户毒性较封禁前水平增加超过70%。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，我们多维度的研究结果为去平台化的效能提供了新见解，这些发现可为未来审核干预措施的制定以及在线平台的监管提供参考。