Transfer of Voat’s Toxic Norms to Subsequent Alt-Tech Platforms

Determine whether the toxic discourse norms acquired through egalitarian diffusion within Voat’s generalist communities propagated to subsequent alt-tech platforms such as Parler and Gab following Voat’s shutdown in December 2020.

Background

The paper analyzes how successive Reddit ban waves (2015–2020) reshaped generalist communities on Voat, identifying two regimes: an initial hostile takeover through peripheral volume and a later toxic equilibrium through integration. The authors show that Voat’s generalist spaces became substantially more toxic, with transformation driven by peripheral dynamics rather than hub capture.

As Voat shut down in December 2020, users dispersed to other alt-tech platforms. The authors explicitly highlight uncertainty about whether the toxic norms formed on Voat transferred to these subsequent destinations, framing this as an open question for future research.