Reddit bills itself as “the front page of the Internet,” which inevitably mean there are a lot of Hitler and Nazi references. However, you probably didn’t know the extent of just how many times they are mentioned on the content sharing site.
In data obtained using the Reddit dataset on Google BigQuery, it is stated that in threads with 1,000+ comments, Hitler and Nazi references are made 78% of the time, not including references made in history subreddits. For a popular thread with over 4,000 comments, the probability of a Hitler/Nazi reference increases to over 90%. Even in threads with as little as 100 comments, these references are made 10% of the time.
An analysis posted by CuriousGNU revealed that outside of history subreddits, among the most likely subreddits to reference Hitler and Nazis were socialism, GamerGhazi and Anarchism. In terms of subreddits that relate to modern day politics, two Donald Trump subreddits featured in the list: AskTrumpSupporters and The_Donald. Other subreddits to make these references include ShitAmericansSay, BestofOutrageCulture, exmuslim and ImGoingtoHellForThis.
Check out the graph below:
Image Credit: CuriousGNU.com
Popular Internet adage Godwin’s Law asserts that “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” A statement originally made in relation to Usenet newsgroup discussions by attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, it has frequently been said that this applies to the Internet as a whole.
While this analysis doesn’t target comments abiding by Godwin’s Law specifically, it is still an insightful look at just how much online conversation eventually reverts to references towards Nazism.
