Multiple users on here have accused /r/MarchAgainstTrump (MAT) of being run by Trump supporters. I wanted to investigate further, because this concerned me. I didn't want to be swindled into supporting Trump.

There are four main claims to the rumor of MAT's malice:

• The top mod also mods me_ATM, which he has claimed is "run by Trump supporters"

• One mod is a brand new account.

• The top mod is sitting on several subs with no content.

• Claims that people have been banned for asking questions.

Addressing these points 1 by 1:

• me_ATM does have several mods who have recent posts in The_Donald. Two of the mod accounts are suspended, so I can't see their history. None of these mods are linked to MarchAgainstTrump. At least, not visibly. The top mod (hazardnipt) (creator of MAT) has no searchable posts in The_Donald. In fact, most of the posts come from progressive/anti-trump subreddits (s4p, hillaryclinton, politics, ETS, etc.).

• The second mod account (HandSanitizerForHate) is brand new with one post. I'm going to guess that it was created by hazardnipt. It is not suspicious or unusual for a mod to create alternate accounts to moderate a subreddit. This is a common practice and in every other place it's done, there is no suspicion of wrongdoing. For example, I started a sub with an inappropriate username. When the sub got popular, I made a more appropriate one and abandoned the other name. Both names are still mods on that subreddit. Nobody batted an eye.

• The creation of several empty subs is a little unusual, yes. However, there is no benefit to doing this if you're starting any community (out of altruism or malice). At best, it would split your community five ways, unnecessarily. Plus, even if that was done, anybody can click hazardnipt's profile and the whole charade is blown. All communities that he/she mods are listed on the right hand side of his/her profile. Also, it's very easy to create subreddits and to leave them empty. I have several old accounts that are sitting on tons of empty subs... or subs with one post.

• I was unable to find links to specific instances of someone being banned for asking questions, so I can't verify this claim. Even if this was true, the sub saw a MAJOR influx (read: 100+ PMs and probably that many posts on the subreddit) of The_Donald spam. The Discord channel did, as well. Mistakes may have been made in banning. If you message the moderator team to contest your ban, they should be able to look into it. However, please beware that the sub grew VERY fast and there's only 2 or 3 apparent mods (at the time of this writing). Understand that they might not get to your message right away.

IN CONCLUSION: The best connection between The_Donald and /r/MarchAgainstTrump is a common mod with me_ATM, which does have a few Trump-supporting mods. However, the Trump-supporting accounts have no obvious connection to MAT or any other anti-Trump communities. Beyond this, there is little basis to conclude that MarchAgainstTrump is run by Trump trolls.

Please be skeptical of any post that accuses /r/MarchAgainstTrump of trolling--unless those posts offer new information on the subject.

Thank you.