Not Everyone Feels the Same: Engagement Profiles and User Reactions to Reddit’s Great Ban

Abstract

Online platforms increasingly function as digital societies, where top-down moderation interventions like subreddit bans aim to regulate user behavior. However, user responses vary widely, and prior research offers mixed evidence of effectiveness. Guided by theories of psychological reactance and rationalization, and drawing on the Social Media Engagement Behavior framework, this study examines how pre-ban behavioral engagement metrics explain changes in toxicity following subreddit bans. Using a dataset of 1,798 disruptive users across 15 banned subreddits, we analyze pre–post toxicity changes via Google’s Perspective API and multiple regression. We conceptualize engagement on Reddit across three levels: platform, subreddit, and activity. Findings reveal that users with higher pre-ban engagement intensity and greater behavioral consistency tend to increase toxicity, while those with exclusive subreddit focus are more likely to reduce it. These results demonstrate the explanatory value of engagement profiles and offer implications for more targeted, data-driven moderation strategies in online communities.