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Reddit's latest transparency report shows a sharp jump in account bans for repeat copyright infringement, while the number of banned subreddits dropped significantly. The data, covering the latter half of 2025, also shows rightsholders reported 425,471 pieces of allegedly infringing content, of which Reddit removed roughly half.
With over 120 million daily users, Reddit is undoubtedly one of the most visited sites on the Internet.
The community-oriented social sharing platform, founded twenty years ago, has since transformed from a hobby project to the publicly traded multi-billion-dollar company it is today.
This growth also brought added responsibility. In addition to the billions of casual, insightful, and heartwarming messages, Reddit’s popularity was also embraced by those who color outside the lines of the law, including copyright infringers.
Reddit’s Transparency Report
To show the public how it responds to copyright complaints, takedown notices, and other removals, it publishes a biannual transparency report. The latest version, covering the second half of 2025, shows some interesting new trends.
Overall, the transparency report reveals the massive volume of content that’s added to the site. In just six months, Redditors shared over 2.2 billion posts and comments. More than 150 million of these were removed by moderators and site admins for various reasons.
In addition, Reddit received 69,154 DMCA takedown notices from rightsholders, identifying 425,471 pieces of allegedly infringing content. Reddit removed 217,787 of those, which is an actionability rate of 51% on all reported content.
Reddit’s H2 2025 takedown overview
These DMCA takedown numbers are roughly on par with previous years and down significantly from the 2022-2023 period, as seen below.
Copyright takedown notices trend
Bans Shift From Subreddits to Users
While the overall takedown volume remains relatively steady, the number of accounts and communities banned for repeat infringement reveals a notable change.
In the second half of 2025, Reddit banned 1,595 user accounts for repeat copyright violations. That’s a 90% increase compared to the first half of the year, when 837 user accounts were terminated.
The number of subreddits banned for repeat copyright violations went the other way. Reddit banned 563 subreddits in the second half of 2025, down 25% from the 709 subreddits removed in the first half.
The pattern flips the picture from six months ago, when subreddit bans more than doubled year-over-year while user bans grew at a more modest pace. This time, it’s the user bans that surge while subreddit takedowns are lower.
Reddit doesn’t explain the divergence in its transparency report, but today’s user and subreddit bans remain well below the 2022 peak. In the first half of 2022, 3,859 user accounts and 1,543 subreddits were banned for repeat copyright violations. That’s more than double the current numbers in both categories.
Notable Refusals and Fair Use
In addition to these headline figures, Reddit’s transparency report flags several takedown requests it declined to act on.
For example, someone representing an Indian religious leader filed a takedown notice targeting an AI-animated video that showed them being showered with money, paired with a post title hinting at greed. Reddit didn’t take action, characterizing it as fair use.
Another fair use call involved a mobile app developer who tried to take down a post sharing a screenshot of the app’s source code. Since the post was meant to warn that the app was quietly sharing user data without permission, Reddit refused to remove it.
Notable Examples
The examples Reddit shared are meant to illustrate that the company doesn’t take down content blindly, but that it makes fair use calls when it sees fit.
Some of the granted removals are also worth a callout. Reddit highlights, for example, that it removed multiple posts that shared social media recruitment videos for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These posts were taken down because they used music from MGMT without the band’s permission, as was widely reported in the media last year.
Reddit’s full breakdown, including notable government and law enforcement requests, is available in the report linked below.
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A copy of Reddit’s H2 2025 transparency report is available here (pdf).
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