Brigading
what it means
Distinct from organic criticism because it's organised elsewhere first. Most platforms have explicit rules against it, and most struggle to enforce them.
A coordinated group descending on someone's post or account to attack it.
the origin story
Reddit vocabulary from the early 2010s, describing users from one community mass-voting or commenting in another.
It became one of the central moderation problems of the social platform era, and "brigade" is now standard vocabulary in trust-and-safety work. The difficulty is that coordinated abuse and genuine widespread disagreement can look identical from the outside.
in the wild
Her replies went from twelve to four thousand in an hour.
She's being brigaded.
The thread got locked.
Mods do that when brigading starts.
how to use it
- Describing coordinated online attacks
- Discussing platform moderation
- Community management contexts
- To describe ordinary widespread criticism
- As a shield against legitimate pushback
- Without evidence of coordination
related terms
receipts
Community feedback
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