Reddit is the vestige of a now very old-fashioned and tragically half-dead web ideal: low-stakes anonymity

The Antisocial Network fiasco involving GameStop, Melvin Capital , and the New York Stock Exchange in January 2021 was a front-page financial fiasco involving amateur traders from Reddit.

This was a righteous troll for the history books and a startling demonstration of the breakneck pace of social media mobilizations, says Frida Ghitis .

Ghitis: For many years Reddit suffered an overstated reputation as a social media platform preferred by edgelords and morons.

In the decade since r/TheFappening, Reddit has cleaned up its act and at long last ingratiated itself into mainstream web culture.

It is no longer the “weird” social media platform, flattered only by comparisons to its obnoxious cousin, 4chan .

Reddit may well be a vestige of some lofty ideals about anonymity and democracy, but it’s now clearly succumbing to the reality of social media platforms as for-profit enterprises.