One month ago, I messaged reddit admins about the presence of a pro-terrorism subreddit on reddit. /r/me_ira, a sub that supports dissident republican terrorism. Making note of the fact that the sub's explicit purpose was to support terrorist groups, I informed the admins not just about how the content of the sub breaches the rules of reddit, but also how it could land reddit in legal hot water due to potential connections with terrorist groups.

This does not appear to have come to anything.

[Last night, a Journalist was murdered.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47985469) Current reporting suggests this happened because a masked gunman opened fire on police. The Journalist, who was stood near the police, was killed by this. Dissident republican terrorists are the prime suspect in what is being treated as a terrorist incident.

I would not usually post here, but the sidebar indicates that this discussion is clearly on mission. "The purpose of this community is to draw attention to reddit's contributions to the growing problem of radicalization on social media. We call for moderators and admins to take responsibility for their roles in the memeification & normalization of bigotry, hate, and violence." /r/me_ira is a clear example of this, hence I have posted here about it.

That /r/me_ira was one of the clearest examples of a violation of site-wide rules on the promotion of violence was always the case. Indeed, there is no "new" reason to ban the sub, the reason was always there and remains the same. However, the Reddit admins have inexplicably chosen not to. Thus, perhaps the only thing that will lead to it being banned is a wake-up call of the real world results of promotion of Terrorism. Failing that, pressure from mass media or even legal pressure as a result of investigation into the sub's potential connections with terrorism may prompt Reddit admins to close the sub.

I have included below the message to the admins I sent a month ago.

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/r/me_ira is a subreddit that promotes republican terrorist groups involved in the troubles and the continued dissident republican campaign in the UK and Ireland. While the former has ended, there are still terrorist attacks taking place frequently as part of the latter.

In addition to the variety of posts in support of these terrorist groups, promotion of their past terrorist attacks, and advocacy for future attacks, the subreddit's rules endorse terrorist groups. To quote from the sidebar:

>Posts about all republican paramilitaries and their allies overseas welcome.

Given your no doubt heightened awareness, due to recent events, of the problems of providing spaces for terrorism promotion online, I want to raise awareness of this particular subreddit to you.

With regards to whether the various self-identified IRA groups are terrorists, I have provided further information on which are on the FTO list compiled by the US Department of State and the equivalent Proscription list for the UK.

**Foreign Terrorist Organizations supported by the subreddit**

* Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA)

* Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA)

**Proscribed Organisations in the UK**

* Continuity Army Council

* Cumann na mBan

* Fianna na hEireann

* Irish National Liberation Army

* Irish People's Liberation Organisation

* Irish Republican Army (which covers multiple groups that have adopted this name)

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I realise it can be difficult for a US-based organisation to rule correctly on support for terrorist groups that are rarely relevant news in the US. It's even more complicated because of past support both rhetorical and financial, from certain sections of the US, for these terrorist groups. However, the US Government, UK Government, and Irish government are now in agreement, to an extent, that some or all of these groups are terrorist groups.

As membership of proscribed groups is illegal in the UK, and some of those active in that subreddit may be members, I may be passing information about this subreddit to legal authorities in the UK during the work week. While there is no evidence of membership of a proscribed group for most users of the subreddit, a few have actively stated that they're members. Of course, whether they actually are or merely claiming to be for prestige reasons is hard to say, but it is still a matter for legal authorities.