Gaming Reddit’s Algorithm: r/the_donald, Amplification, and the Rhetoric of Sorting

doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102572

Computers and Composition

Volume 56, June 2020, 102572

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2020.102572 Get rights and content

Abstract

From June through October 2016—and beyond—the subreddit r/the_donald periodically took over parts of Reddit, making its content dominant on the ninth largest social media platform in the US. Users of r/the_donald did this by learning how Reddit’s sorting algorithm worked and taking advantage of nuances in the way the platform was programmed. This was not a hack but instead was a strategic manipulation. While r/the_donald is an extreme example of manipulating sorting algorithms, similar usages take place on other platforms as well, from Twitter to Facebook to Google to YouTube. Simply put, sorting algorithms can be used rhetorically to change arguments. Understanding how these usages take place may help users understand how algorithms can “amplify” arguments, making them more dominant on specific platforms and more likely to carry further onto other platforms. It may be useful for researchers to be aware of how algorithms can be used rhetorically so that they are able to critique how content is sorted and hold programmers accountable for programming choices they make. Teachers may be able to help students to see the ways content can be manipulated so that they are more aware of how sorting algorithms may have amplified arguments.

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Section snippets

Sorting Algorithm Rhetoric

At its heart, an algorithm is a series of actions that results in an outcome—a procedure. Chris Ingraham (2014) defines algorithms as “any set of instructions, with specific steps, that lead to certain results” (p. 65), and Gallagher (2017a) defines them as “a set of instructions for performing a task or solving a problem” (p. 25). For the purposes of this article, I’ll be discussing computer algorithms, which “are software programs or computer codes that process data, perform automated

Reddit and r/the_donald

On October 28, 2016, the popular subreddit r/all was completely taken over with posts from a subreddit supporting then presidential candidate Donald Trump (All subreddits, 2016a). This was just 11 days before the presidential election on November 8. Not only was this not the first time this had happened, but r/the_donald content had been dominating Reddit’s front page for several months—despite that subreddit not being overly popular and despite complaints from regular Reddit users. In this

Why Sorting Matters

During the stretch of time from June through October, 2016, the arguments presented by users of r/the_donald were amplified through the manipulation of the Reddit sorting algorithm. At that time, Reddit also had subreddits dedicated to candidate Hillary Clinton (r/hillaryclinton) and the democratic party (r/democrats). In addition, one of the largest and most active subreddits was and is r/politics (with over 5 million subscribers at the time of this writing). Content on r/politics tends to

The Rhetoric of Sorting

Ultimately, I think a single sentence from the introduction to this article can give a clear overview of how we should approach the rhetoric of sorting: “The ways that platforms are designed by programmers and how users interact with those platforms changes the ways that users can make arguments and which other users will see them.” While on the surface, this sentence expresses a relatively simple idea—input changes output—a more nuanced look at these ideas can present us with a greater

What to Do

Algorithms can change arguments, but knowing this is not enough. Users of social media spaces could call for transparency in the choices made when algorithms are programmed and accountability for those choices when things go wrong. When users of Reddit saw a disproportionately large number of posts from r/the_donald (as opposed to, say, r/politics), they could have called for the Reddit administration to justify why content was sorted in this way—to explain to users why this method of sorting

Conclusions

The takeover of Reddit by the subreddit r/the_donald is an extreme example of how sorting algorithms influence the content we see on social media—and how taking advantage of those algorithms rhetorical. As stated above, users should be aware of the way that platforms have structured their content and how interaction with that content changes the way that arguments can be made as well as who will see certain kinds of content. Understanding sorting algorithms can amplify arguments—that is, allow

Ryan P. Shepherd is an Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric in the Department of English at Ohio University. His research focuses on social media, learning transfer, and pedagogy—with a specific focus on the connections between writing in online spaces and other contexts. Ryan’s work has appeared in Computers and Composition, Kairos, Composition Studies, The Journal of Response to Writing, and The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics.

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