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Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

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Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#71

Post by eljimmy »

KGIII wrote: post #6

It's really, really not easy to stand up for the rights of Nazis. If you're a Nazi, you can use voat.co as they are very free speech oriented. You don't have to be a Nazi to participate, but it's a good idea to have a thick skin if you do go there. I go there and talk to the White Nationalists. They are pretty much Nazis. They know I'm not white and that I don't agree with them. They don't scare me. They are scared a…

I thought voat.co was good in theory, a place like Reddit without limitations.

Went back the other day after a few months of not visiting and read through some threads. The amount of racism was really noticeable. Seems to be descending into a place where an individual can let their ignorance and bigotry fester among like-minded peers.

I suppose that's the ugly side of having freedom of expression.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#72

Post by sighwhatnow »

KGIII wrote: post #31
michaelchisari wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's a better way to deal with the mentally ill and disenfranchised Enabling them is not a good way to deal with them. Allowing easily discoverable safe spaces with which to reinforce their neuroses and paranoia only adds to the problem as new users can more easily be recruited, preyed upon, etc. This goes for much more than just violent white supremacists, it also applies to things like pro-ana, which creates an…

I'd argue they have no moral obligation to do any such thing. However, they should probably make a pretty clear warning sign. I fear we will digress too far. In short, I'm very pro freedom of expression. I'm glad voat exists, for example. The people there are often horrible, that is true. But, they still deserve to express themselves freely.

> But, they still deserve to express themselves freely.

Um, why. What makes you think this. If someone's opinions are stupid and abhorrent, why should they not experience an immediate and firm response, in ban-hammer form.

Why do you want to give ignorant idiots a platform to spread their ignorant idiocy to other ignorant idiots (and e.g. provoke easily influenced mentally ill idiots who might want to drive cars into crowds).

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#73

Post by jdoliner »

blfr wrote: post #13

Why has free speech fallen out of favour with SV? Ironically, it happened rather silently. It's not just an Eternal September-like phenomenon. The very same people who used to support it not only don't any more but pretend they never did in the first place. Speaking of the founding fathers, I ask him what he thinks they would have thought of Reddit. "A bastion of free speech on the World Wide Web? I bet they would li…

> Why has free speech fallen out of favour with SV?

Because Silicon Valley has made its foray into politics. I guess it started all the way back with the first Obama campaign when Google cozied up with him as a candidate. It seemed innocent enough at the time, Google just wanted to get more involved and Obama was the perfect candidate. Then came the lobbying, the healthcare.gov bailout all seemingly innocent enough. Google's just trying to use their influence to be part of the solution, right? Right. But what Google, and SV in general, fails to realize is that politics is never a 1 way street, there is no valve. As SV got involved in politics, politics got involved in SV.

If you'd like another example of this academia is a good place to look. It's hard for us to imagine an apolitical academia, especially since so many fields are political by design, i.e. public policy. But pre WWII these fields didn't exist and you saw a much less political, much more independent academia.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#74

Post by untog »

blfr wrote: post #43
liberte82 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is easy - because people came face to face with the downsides of free speech, and also how it has been gamed to promote the very worst of humanity, culminating in the election of the most dangerously, maliciously unqualified person to ever lead America. New evidence can lead to reevaluating opinions.

But there was no reevaluation. It was just silently dropped in favour of "safety." And of course free speech is being used to promote the worst. You don't need much protection to discuss your favourite brand and their amazing products.

How can there not have been a reevaluation? Any changed policy is the result of reevaluation.

These debates have been happening for a long time on places like Twitter, where the safety vs freedom debate has raged for a long time. And there's a "Reddit bans community" outrage pretty much every year.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#75

Post by neo4sure »

briantakita wrote: post #61
KGIII wrote: post #6

It's really, really not easy to stand up for the rights of Nazis. If you're a Nazi, you can use voat.co as they are very free speech oriented. You don't have to be a Nazi to participate, but it's a good idea to have a thick skin if you do go there. I go there and talk to the White Nationalists. They are pretty much Nazis. They know I'm not white and that I don't agree with them. They don't scare me. They are scared a…

> I go there and talk to the White Nationalists. They are pretty much Nazis. Nazi is a term loosely used today. Actual 3rd Reich Nazis commandeered by America & the Soviet Union after WW2. Wernher von Braun was a committed Nazi & was allegedly a willing participate in WW2 war crimes. See Operation Paperclip for more info. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Operation_Paperclip > They are scared and powerless, looking for mea…

Hmmmmm weren't we talking about Nazis, not identity politics...

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#76

Post by rodgerd »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #57

Twitter has banned over 350,000 ISIS accounts in the last year or two, and that's happened without Hacker News noticing, as far as I can tell. There's not any stories about it that come up in HN search with as many points as this has now. How is this situation different?

A loud group of HN users are, apparently, very very sympathetic to the wellbeing of violent racists.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#77

Post by oh_sigh »

_euac wrote: post #26
oh_sigh wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're still there, and no, everyone who disagrees with you isn't a Nazi. > we will take action against any content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people This also means that people who encourage you to "punch a Nazi" or that there's nothing wrong with punching a Nazi/racist should also be banned.

r/the_donald is not just about "disagreeing" it's literally the worst kind of ecochamber of conspiracy theories, veiled (and sometimes not-so-veiled) racism and constant calls to action against "the left". They are such an ecochamber that 90% of the time they speak on memes that nobody else understands (or cares to understand.)

Communities developing their own language and shared understanding is nothing new.

Yes, sometimes racist things are said, but are frequently downvoted or pushed back on. Unless, of course, if you considering being, say, anti-Islam as "racist".

The most common thing I see is that T_D users accept all races and immigrants, but only if they conform to western ideals(say, by not killing gay people or stoning women) and american culture.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#78

Post by likpok »

KGIII wrote: post #6

It's really, really not easy to stand up for the rights of Nazis. If you're a Nazi, you can use voat.co as they are very free speech oriented. You don't have to be a Nazi to participate, but it's a good idea to have a thick skin if you do go there. I go there and talk to the White Nationalists. They are pretty much Nazis. They know I'm not white and that I don't agree with them. They don't scare me. They are scared a…

There was a study a while back that suggested that reddit's banning of hate groups really did reduce the amount of hate on reddit. That is: GreatApes didn't go and infect other subreddits, and there was a real reduction in the hate on reddit.

That doesn't mean that everyone didn't go off to voat or whatever, but then they have to rely on voat for growth, and can't piggyback on reddit's MAUs.

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#79

Post by acuozzo »

arkona wrote: post #25
pknopf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That place promotes violence and hate on a daily basis.

Care to give some evidence for your claims?

1. https://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/contentim...

2. https://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/contentim...

Re: Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

#80

Post by oh_sigh »

_euac wrote: post #36
tripplethrendo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by hate you mean people with dissenting opinions.

This has some examples: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/53d5xb/what-is-rt... Every time I've been to that subreddit, it only takes perusing the comments for 5 minutes to find way worse stuff. From people being openly racist, to people calling for Hillary Clinton to be raped, etc. Bunch of great people, really :\

I browse T_D frequently and I have not once seen someone calling for HRC to be raped. I'm not saying it never happened but I'm curious 1) how upvoted the commment was and 2) how you've glanced at the site for 5 minutes and saw something that I missed after having browsed the site since 2015
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