The Bureaucratization of the Internet: Analyzing the Diffusion of Governance Regimes on Reddit (2011--2023)

Abstract

As online platforms scale, distributed communities must develop complex governance structures to maintain order. Reddit represents a unique experiment in this process: millions of subreddits manage their own digital commons, yet together they form an interconnected ecosystem of platform governance. Using a historical dataset of subreddit rules from 2011 to 2023, we apply computational methods to characterize that ecosystem and identify mechanisms driving change. We identify seven distinct governance regimes and document a platform-wide drift toward irreversible bureaucratization operating through two reinforcing dynamics: a ratchet effect among existing communities and a cohort shift in which new communities increasingly launch with pre-packaged regulatory frameworks. Using Dyadic Event History Analysis, we find that community scale is the dominant and universal predictor of rule adoption, independent of network exposure. Diffusion flows through two complementary channels: normative transmission via shared moderator networks and mimetic transmission among topically similar communities. However, mimetic copying is selective: it drives adoption of content rules addressing shared topical challenges while communities resist copying operational and behavioral rules. Additionally, communities with overlapping user bases differentiate rather than converge, consistent with ecological accounts of niche competition, and prestige-based contagion is firmly rejected. Together, these findings reveal decentralized platform governance as a stratified ecosystem in which lateral coordination, scale pressure, structural inertia, cohort effects, and episodic platform coercion jointly produce irreversible formalization with direct implications for platform management.