Balancing Brand Safety and User Engagement in a Two-Sided Market: An Analysis of Content Monetization on Reddit

Figures & data

Table 1. A review of various “unsafe” advertising environments as defined by advertising industry groups.

Category	GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media)	4A’s Advertiser Protection Bureau (APB)
Crime & Harmful Acts to Individuals and Society and Human Rights Violations	Graphic promotion, advocacy, and depiction of willful harm and actual unlawful criminal activity—explicit violations/demeaning offenses of human rights (e.g., human trafficking, slavery, self-harm, animal cruelty), targeted harassment of individuals and groups.	Unlawful criminal activity—murder, manslaughter, and harm to others. Explicit violations—trafficking and slavery.
Debated Sensitive Social Issues	Insensitive, irresponsible, and harmful treatment of debated social issues and related acts intended to demean a particular group or incite greater conflict.	×
Sensitive Social Issues/Violations of Human Rights	×	Disrespectful and harmful treatment of sensitive social topics (e.g., abortion, extreme political positions). Acts, language, and gestures deemed illegal, not otherwise outlined in the framework (e.g., harm to self or other and animal cruelty). Targeted harassment of individuals and groups.

Table 2. The top 50 most toxic subreddits as derived by average toxicity score.

subreddit	Avg_Inciv	Identity_Attack	Profanity	Threat	Insult	Toxicity	Ads present?	Submissions	Subscribers
bitchimabus	0.62	0.43	0.85	0.27	0.79	0.78	1	140	201,081
nocontext	0.34	0.23	0.41	0.34	0.32	0.39	1	114	371,208
Sexy	0.29	0.16	0.41	0.27	0.25	0.38	0	12,425	394,793
FiftyFifty	0.29	0.19	0.32	0.40	0.24	0.28	0	451	2,077,050
racism	0.28	0.40	0.21	0.20	0.29	0.28	0	248	41,447
sex	0.27	0.19	0.39	0.22	0.22	0.35	0	12,166	2,172,105
rant	0.27	0.22	0.31	0.22	0.30	0.31	0	3,272	256,761
confession	0.27	0.20	0.29	0.33	0.23	0.29	1	3,641	3,271,849
emogirls	0.26	0.16	0.34	0.25	0.24	0.32	0	2,750	396,098
confessions	0.26	0.21	0.29	0.29	0.22	0.28	1	5,191	951,712
circlejerk	0.25	0.20	0.29	0.24	0.26	0.28	0	960	459,519
TwoXSex	0.25	0.18	0.36	0.20	0.20	0.33	0	222	120,703
FloridaMan	0.25	0.29	0.19	0.34	0.25	0.19	0	219	751,364
exmuslim	0.25	0.36	0.19	0.22	0.23	0.23	1	1,739	115,915
bigdickproblems	0.25	0.15	0.35	0.18	0.23	0.32	0	842	234,694
askgaybros	0.24	0.25	0.27	0.19	0.24	0.27	0	5,930	325,292
ProRevenge	0.24	0.15	0.21	0.33	0.24	0.27	1	125	1,279,959
IdiotsFightingThings	0.24	0.16	0.24	0.31	0.25	0.26	1	140	1,016,928
JessicaNigri	0.24	0.19	0.32	0.19	0.22	0.26	0	308	224,614
Hot_Women_Gifs	0.23	0.15	0.31	0.28	0.19	0.24	0	132	97,189
GunsAreCool	0.23	0.17	0.13	0.51	0.17	0.19	0	288	43,802
straya	0.23	0.17	0.29	0.20	0.25	0.25	1	209	81,539
shittyaskreddit	0.23	0.16	0.26	0.21	0.25	0.27	0	424	68,185
tifu	0.23	0.15	0.23	0.27	0.19	0.29	1	3,183	18,016,834
Bad_Cop_No_Donut	0.22	0.20	0.16	0.37	0.21	0.19	0	640	531,305
pranks	0.22	0.16	0.22	0.27	0.24	0.22	1	151	34,365
gay	0.22	0.25	0.23	0.19	0.21	0.22	0	1,421	309,064
shittyama	0.22	0.16	0.27	0.20	0.21	0.25	1	164	45,268
MensRights	0.21	0.26	0.16	0.22	0.22	0.20	0	1,190	332,028
atheism	0.21	0.31	0.16	0.20	0.20	0.19	1	2,534	2,731,332
fightporn	0.21	0.15	0.20	0.31	0.19	0.21	0	878	1,546,778
howtonotgiveafuck	0.21	0.13	0.28	0.17	0.23	0.25	1	244	663,684
SuicideWatch	0.21	0.13	0.20	0.36	0.16	0.21	0	10,466	361,074
pettyrevenge	0.21	0.13	0.19	0.28	0.21	0.23	1	510	1,722,438
happygirls	0.21	0.12	0.28	0.21	0.18	0.26	0	222	196,862
Feminism	0.21	0.27	0.16	0.22	0.20	0.19	1	512	241,308
fitnesscirclejerk	0.21	0.14	0.23	0.20	0.24	0.23	0	214	33,211
ShittyLifeProTips	0.20	0.14	0.18	0.26	0.24	0.20	1	624	1,633,791
offmychest	0.20	0.16	0.21	0.25	0.18	0.21	0	18,808	2,761,944
nottheonion	0.20	0.20	0.16	0.28	0.19	0.18	1	3,243	21,549,277
Palestine	0.20	0.28	0.12	0.27	0.16	0.17	0	432	123,686
bigboobproblems	0.20	0.12	0.27	0.18	0.17	0.26	0	218	125,562
popping	0.20	0.15	0.19	0.24	0.19	0.21	1	655	530,202
transgender	0.20	0.29	0.15	0.18	0.18	0.19	1	239	143,201
serialkillers	0.19	0.15	0.12	0.33	0.19	0.17	0	218	559,157
actuallesbians	0.19	0.24	0.19	0.17	0.18	0.19	1	2,621	412,956
TwoXChromosomes	0.19	0.19	0.18	0.24	0.18	0.18	1	4,455	13,388,528
SubredditDrama	0.19	0.18	0.16	0.22	0.21	0.18	1	393	868,011
trailerparkboys	0.19	0.13	0.24	0.17	0.21	0.20	1	270	218,214
gaybros	0.19	0.21	0.19	0.17	0.18	0.19	0	1,308	348,761

Table 3. Mean toxicity scores across ad-friendly and ad-blocked subreddits.

	Ad-friendly	Ad-blocked
Toxicity Attribute	MP	MP	d
Identity Attack	0.10 (0.11)	0.13 (0.14)	0.28
Threatening Language	0.16 (0.15)	0.20 (0.18)	0.26
Profanity	0.10 (0.14)	0.17 (0.23)	0.43
Insulting Language	0.11 (0.14)	0.15 (0.18)	0.26
Toxicity	0.10 (0.13)	0.16 (0.20)	0.46

Notes: M_P= mean probability score for group; d = Cohen’s d; standard deviations are in parentheses next to group-level means; all p values < .001.

Table 4. Mean engagement scores across ad-friendly and ad-blocked subreddits.

	Ad-friendly	Ad-blocked
Engagement measure	M	M	d
Number of upvotes	130.00 (1694.00)	46.60 (396.00)	0.05
Number of responses	16.50 (173.00)	11.30 (67.60)	0.03
Number of crossposts	0.04 (0.65)	0.02 (0.26)	0.04

Notes: M = mean score for group; d = Cohen’s d; standard deviations are in parentheses next to group-level means; all p values < .001.

Table 5. Correlations between subreddit attributes and toxicity factors.

	Number of subscribers	Number of posts
Identity attack	.06***	.04*
Threat	.08***	.06***
Profanity	.06***	.07***
Insult	.07***	.08***
Toxicity	.06***	.09***

Notes: estimates are τ correlations; *p < .05, ***p < .001.