TL;DR: Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a decision reinforcing that the First Amendment prevents governments from interfering with the expressive moderation decisions of online communities while sending the NetChoice cases back to the lower courts.

It’s me, , again, aka Ben Lee, Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer. I wanted to share a quick update on the and cases before the Supreme Court that we . To recap, those cases concerned a constitutional challenge to state laws trying to restrict how platforms – and their users – can moderate content. And we filed an amicus brief discussing how these laws could negatively impact not only Reddit, but the entire Internet. (The mods of and filed their own as well.)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a affirming that the First Amendment prevents governments from interfering with the expressive moderation decisions of online communities, and sent both cases back to the appeals court while keeping an injunction in place that stops enforcement of these laws. In its decision, the majority noted that “a State may not interfere with private actors’ speech to advance its own vision of ideological balance” and that “government efforts to alter an edited compilation of third-party expression are subject to judicial review for compliance with the First Amendment.”

We are encouraged that the Supreme Court recognizes that the First Amendment protects the content moderation decisions on Reddit, reflected by the actions of moderators, admins, and the votes of redditors. They also recognized that these state laws would impact certain sites and apps very differently (although at least one concurring opinion demonstrated a startlingly poor understanding of how Reddit works; you can read more about our approach to moderation and in our ). As with the Texas law demonstrates (we were sued over moderators removing an insult directed at the fictional character Wesley Crusher from Star Trek), laws like these restrict people’s speech and associational rights and incentivize wasteful litigation.

We’re hopeful that the appeals courts will issue decisions consistent with the Supreme Court majority’s guidance. I’ll stick around for a little bit to answer questions.

TL;DR - Awards are back. We’re also expanding the Contributor Program and announcing a make-good program for those who lost coins during the last product iteration. Let’s start with the obvious – we tried something new, it wasn’t great (you called it). And now – it’s time for us to do something about it. So we’re (re)launching awards, not-so-new but definitely improved. Rollout starts today on reddit.com and Reddit’s iOS and Android apps.

We messed up – sorry

ICYMI, last year that we thought would make the experience of rewarding high-quality posts and comments even better. To address feedback that awards were starting to clutter posts and feeds, we replaced legacy awards with a simplified experience where redditors could purchase “new” gold – displayed as a golden upvote – directly with cash, rather than having to purchase coins first.

While the golden upvote was certainly simpler in theory, in practice, it missed the mark. It wasn’t as fun or expressive as legacy awards, and it was unclear how it benefited the recipient.

As part of the launch of the golden upvote, we also introduced in the U.S. The program allows eligible users to earn cash for their contributions, as measured by the gold and karma received. (It’s worth noting that although there were understandable concerns about the Contributor Program leading to karma farming or other spam and fraud issues, we haven’t seen an increase in this behavior since the rollout six months ago.) Unlike the golden upvote, interest in the program has grown… more on that in a second.

Finally, as part of this launch, we sunset coins. We gave those with a balance two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium.

Award upgrades

We realized the golden upvote was the wrong direction, and the right one was the one you were advocating for all along: awards. We went back to the ol’ drawing and created a refreshed experience that captures the original spirit of awards, with a few improvements.

We’ve added:

• An award button back underneath eligible posts and comments

• Refreshed designs of some of your favorite awards, and some new ones (shoutout galaxy brain)

• Updated interface designed to minimize clutter on the posts and in your feeds

• An awards leaderboard that shows the top awards and gold earned for a post or comment

• New safety guardrails. Awards are not available in NSFW subreddits, trauma and addiction support subreddits, and subreddits with mature content

• Reporting so you can report any awards that aren’t being used appropriately for moderator removal

Contributor Program expansion

We want redditors who make the most valuable contributions on Reddit to receive real value; not just internet points.

With growing interest in the Contributor Program, we have expanded the program so that qualifying redditors in 35 countries can now earn cash for their contributions to the community. .

The Evolution of Gold and Coins

Gold has been a lot of things in Reddit history. The term has been used interchangeably in the context of awarding content, Reddit Premium, and more – among other things. With this new version of awards, gold can be purchased to give awards. You can buy it in and spend down your gold balance and/or top it up when giving an award.

Those who had a coin balance when we introduced the golden upvote and sunset coins had two months to spend their coins before we cleared balances and removed the monthly drip as a benefit of Reddit Premium. For the most prolific and helpful among you, who’d accumulated heaps of coins a la Scrooge McDuck, this was, shall we say, a not-so-great experience.

We know we did not adequately communicate why we removed coins or what was coming next. It wasn’t cool of us, we’re sorry, and we want to make it right. If we removed your coins balance, you’ll have access to a number of exclusive awards to give for free. We don’t want our past mistakes to get in the way of you enjoying the new experience.

This is all so new (but kinda old? but also new?) and you may have questions. You can find support in a few places:

• FAQs pinned in the comments of this post

We’ll be hanging around today if you have any questions, so feel free to drop them in the comments.

TL;DR As a host, you can now schedule and promote AMAs ahead of time, appoint co-hosts, and announce when your post is done. Attendees can now sign up for reminders ahead of time, get notified when the AMA starts, and quickly jump to questions that the host has replied to.

You can’t throw a virtual rock on Reddit without hitting an AMA (ask me anything), where an . Historically, AMAs have been regular text posts with certain elements that make it an AMA post: a proof photo that shows that you are who you say you are, a brief bio, and of course the iconic “AMA!” in the header.

Now, we’re supercharging these special posts. Using the new AMA tab in the web composer (coming soon to mobile) unlocks a suite of special tools that make it easier to spin up and participate in an AMA post.

Quick note that this feature is in limited release right now, but you can expect it to roll out to more redditors in the coming weeks.

If you’re hosting:

Schedule and promote your AMA ahead of time - No more creating two separate posts for an AMA: one to announce it, and one for when it actually starts. With the new AMA post feature, you can now schedule an AMA up to 21 days ahead of the event, and this scheduled post can be promoted and used to capture questions ahead of time, so you can hit the ground running when it starts. Currently, this new AMA post creation is only available on desktop, but will be available on mobile soon.

Add co-hosts - While there is still only one OP, a host can now bring in up to five co-hosts, from friends to mods to publicists to cats. Co-hosts can reply to questions, and their responses will be highlighted in the same way as the OP’s.

End an AMA with a link and a note - When hosting, you can now gracefully exit with a thank you note that includes a link if you want to share more details to mark the official end of the AMA. No more sad questions wondering “Is OP even still here?”

If you’re viewing an AMA:

Get reminders for upcoming AMA posts - If you come across an AMA that hasn’t started yet, you can now hit that Remind Me button and get a push notification 24 hours before the AMA begins, and right when the AMA starts. Reminders will also go to your Inbox under “Activity,” and the posts will show up in your Home feed.

Filter on answered/unanswered - Viewers can easily switch between three views: one containing all the comments on a post, one that just shows where the OP and co-hosts have replied, and one that shows where they haven’t replied yet. This is a great place to check and see if your question has already been asked– and if not, we hope you jump in.

This is just the start of our journey for giving AMA posts the love they deserve. We’ll be hanging around all day for your thoughts, so let us know what you think in the comments!