An Agent-Based Model of Reddit Interactions and Moderation

Abstract

Among popular social media platforms, Reddit stands out for its decentralized approach to moderation and community management. Due to this and its community-based network structure, Reddit provides a unique environment for studying the diffusion of knowledge and beliefs over social media. While assortativity, polarization, and user behavior have been examined within empirical contexts, having the ability to model the impacts of different moderation policies and rules across communities could provide useful insights for limiting the spread of misinformation. In this work, we introduce an agent-based model of Reddit interactions and moderating actions. By simulating interactions at the user level and specifying user-specific attributes, our model allows practitioners to conduct experiments with various types of actors and moderators and study their potential impact on Reddit-facilitated discussions and information diffusion. Additionally, subreddit-specific attributes enable communities to have different standards and thresholds for user conduct. To validate this model, we rely on an empirical dataset of over 100K posts and 800K comments across three U.S. political events in addition to user surveys and studies.