What's going on with the 50501 subreddit?

This week, /r/50501 was unexpectedly closed for submissions/posting a number of times. A strange series of events followed. This is my attempt to document what happened in one place because many posts have been deleted and there is a lot of conflicting information.

I have used archive.org where possible, but the website I am using to find deleted posts cannot be archived. You can use this website yourself to verify posts, but I will link to screenshots of posts for posterity. If you find broken links or have a better solution, do let me know. There’s also a lot of pieces so it’s possible I’m mistaken about details or the timeline, so this is probably not perfectly linear.

ETA 4/28: I have posted an update.

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The original 50501 subreddit was created by a user named Evolved_Fungi (henceforth referred to as EF). From my perspective as a casual reader of the subreddit, he had ignited the whole thing but hadn’t done as much organizing past that point after it grew legs and became more complex. This week, I noticed a strange post on the 50501 front page in which EF claimed that he had been threatened, but did not give any other details.

This was accompanied by a post from user StrWtchng which claimed to be written by EF, and which EF himself referred to in his post. In this post, EF claims that he was approached by people who had already attempted to trademark 50501 to prevent bad actors from misusing the brand, and offered to transfer it to EF. When EF brought this to the 50501 National organizers, they were strongly against the idea. From what I understand, EF wanted to move forward with it because these organizers had already started fundraising significant amounts of money, and moving forward with the legal structure would ensure more transparency and legal protections. After this, he noticed that the original 50501 FB page which he’d created years ago had been transferred to new ownership, which he was not aware of, and he was then doxxed. Discussions spiraled from there, and EF chose to pause the subreddit.

Notably, this post has comments from user NoOneEveryOne678 (NoOne), who claims to be a cofounder, and alleges that EF is being slandered. NoOne claims that the national organizers engaged in toxic behavior and threatened to doxx them.

While the subreddit was still closed, some moderators claiming to be from 50501 National started a new subreddit called /r/50501Movement so discussion could continue, as well as /r/50501ContentCorner for memes, protest sign pics, etc.

User 50501California (California) posted on /r/50501ContentCorner/ a couple days ago saying that /r/50501 was unpaused and EF is no longer on the team, which aligns with EF’s claim that there was a power struggle over who was on the mod team, and that he and his cofounders were kicked out.

Some users expressed concerns about transparency and wanted an explanation for what happened, which California said was forthcoming. California expressed wanting to put the drama behind them and move on. But after having read the old mods’ explanations, the new mods’ insistence that it was just typical mod drama and they wanted to move on felt off to me. I felt as if they were trying to brush something under the rug and get people to forget about it, which did not feel right, given the severity of what EF and the two others had alleged. Several users pressed for an explanation and were dissatisfied with the new mods’ explanations, which included an allegation of sexual impropriety. This ballooned into some commenters saying EF was a sexual predator (which the new mods did not shut down). Given that EF himself was open about the allegation, which appeared to be a misunderstanding of some kind and not at all close to predatory behavior, this also felt off to me.

Meanwhile, another of the new mods, greenascanbe, posted and deleted some strange things, alleging that EF was a pervert who wanted to profit off of the movement. Many users were also put off by this person’s unprofessional and sometimes snide way of responding to concerns, since they had positioned themselves as a steward of the subreddit. They then made a post which was quickly deleted titled “The wait is almost over!” Some interpreted this as a promise that an explanation was forthcoming, which greenascanbe said would happen Monday. However, if you read the comments of this post, it is clear a lot of people were baffled by the situation and had lost trust in the mods.

Personally, I was still willing to reserve judgment, considering the only evidence we have so far is hearsay, but then the 50501 Veterans group released a statement expressing concern about the National leadership. Given the clarity of their explanation and the integrity displayed in putting their names on it, many people accepted this as the best evidence thus far that anything shady has happened. An additional month-old post from someone claiming to be involved with 50501NYC corroborates that questionable activities were taking place.

And that is where we are today. Some users are labeling this event as a hostile takeover of 50501, which from what I’ve interpreted from all this, has some validity. I don’t believe that any individuals named here are nefarious because frankly, there is still a ton that we don’t know. But at this point, many people are clamoring for transparency, given that we have much of EF’s point of view and not the new mods. We shall see what happens.

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Why does this matter? Why am I putting effort into chronicling this? You may disagree with my reasons, but here they are:

• Leftist movements notoriously attract bad actors (including the US government) who aim to sow discord, splinter groups, and otherwise undermine the movement. I think when red and yellow flags pop up in situations like these, it is important to slow down to examine what is happening instead of accepting it as “just drama.”

• I was personally sketched out by the new mods’ insistence on moving quickly and forgetting about this event. As one other user commented (paraphrasing), “if I am talking to someone and I get more confused by what they’re saying, I assume I am being manipulated.” The vagueness of the new mods’ replies to peoples’ straightforward questions did not inspire confidence.

• I think that how movement organizers treat other people is important. I don’t want to organize or even be associated with people who exhibit toxic behavior which undermines solidarity, not just because of my principles, but also for reasons of self-preservation. It’s true that the subreddit itself is not the end all, be all of organizing. But as another user put it, the mods have put themselves in the position of being stewards of a channel of communication, and there are responsibilities that come with that, especially since a not insignificant number of people find value and community in the subreddit.

ETA 4/28: I have posted an update.

Photo by Hiếu Trọng