Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#291

Post by easterncalculus » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

rjbwork wrote: post #213

samfriedman wrote: post #159

The title should be updated, as T_D was just one of a large number of subs banned today; even then, it has been largely irrelevant since the admins' earlier decision to quarantine it and impose other restrictions. Other larger banned subs include /r/GenderCritical (anti-Trans) and /r/ConsumeProduct which was ostensibly for criticism of consumerism and product promotion, but hid a large strain of antisemitism below th…

>In my own opinion this was a long time coming, and Reddit has long since shown that the original hands-off model is woefully inadequate in the face of communities that are willing to expend the effort to argue continuously in bad faith, organize to influence and control opinion in other communities, and attack the platform itself in their campaigns for hateful speech. Just ask /r/BlackLadies if you think these users…

>There are gobs of matrix/discord/irc rooms where people organize the manipulation of social media, and this move just removed visibility of it from reddit.

True but then it's not Reddit's problem. Reddit can't solve every ill, but it can cover its own ass.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#292

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

Apart from politics, one thing I hope that comes from this is the people learn to own their online identity instead of leasing it from social media companies.

For an individual, set up your email on your own domain. Even if you use some other service to host it for you, as long as you own the name, you can move it wherever you want.

If you host a community, have it on your own domain. Maybe initially it just redirects to a reddit subreddit, but your users should get in the habit of going to MyCommunity.tld instead of reddit.com/r/my_community

If you make videos for a living, have at a minimum a website that has a list of your videos and always tell your users that that is the canonical place to find your videos.

Own your online identity. Don’t lease it from a social media company.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#293

Post by parliament32 » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

ve55 wrote: post #18

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appears to be fronted by Cloudflare (as of 1593450845). Curious to see how long that lasts in the current tumultuous environment.

Cloudflare isn't in the business of deplatforming and moderating the way that social media companies are. We all know about that one case, but it was not only an extreme outlier, but also had some other reasoning behind it. I will predict CF does not deplatform them any time soon.

Cloudflare has publicly stated they're happy to deplatform sites due to political pressure: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191220/23475043616/cloud...

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#294

Post by newacct583 » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:09 PM UTC

ryankemper wrote: post #229

proverbialbunny wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, that's not quite true. Reddit's first wave of popularity came from a lack of censorship. There was a decryption code posted on a news story on Digg that allowed one to decrypt a bluray. Digg got a cease and desist, took it down, and people started protesting on Digg posting the code everywhere. During this time was the first wave where people started jumping from Digg to Reddit because of the lack of censor…

> Reddit is still very much anti censorship. This is just not true. They are very transparently trying to kick off users/communities that they don't "like". For example basically any subreddit associated with the "alt right", except I believe /r/DebateTheAltRight or whatever it's called. It's very simple: (1) Identify community that you don't like, generally due to association with anti-leftist political views (2) Fi…

> Find an instance of a threat of violence, regardless of context

Doesn't the fact that finding instances of violent rhetoric among alt-right posters, regardless of context, sorta make the case that maybe this is an endemic problem and not a purely political suppression?

There are a lot of really hateful people among that group, in ways that just aren't true for other politically aligned communities.

I mean, the Dirtbag Left folks have their assholes too (note that the Chapo sub was banned too), but they're comparatively rare, notable in isolation, generally have names associated with them, and (really importantly) tend to be shamed and controlled from within their own communities.

The alt right is a bunch of assholes, plus a bunch of people who make a habit of tolerating assholes. That's a toxic combination if you're Reddit.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#295

Post by three_seagrass » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

Miner49er wrote: post #122

nullc wrote: post #20

I'm confused by the article. My understanding was that reddit replaced the moderators of /r/The_Donald months ago after initially making in quarantined. The Wikipedia article seems to agree with my understanding: > In February 26, 2020, Reddit administrators removed a number of r/The_Donald moderators "that were approving, stickying, and generally supporting content in this subreddit that breaks [Reddit's] content po…

Yeah, the ban of T_D is only symbolic; it has been dead for months. I think the real news here is the ban of /r/ChapoTrapHouse, (arguably) the most active leftist subreddit there was.

The current mods killed the_donald.

The mods, not the admins, made it so that only a shortlist of approved users could post content in the subreddit.

It was likely a move to push the community somewhere else.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#296

Post by pbhjpbhj » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

proverbialbunny wrote: post #160

kylebenzle wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users won't allow for (use) decentralized platforms until there is a good way to censor them. Once that happens, what would be the point of switching. Facebook and Reddit are successful BECAUSE they are censorship machines. Facebook spends far more man hours on "curating" content compared to engineering. Same with Reddit. Add up all the "moderation" time spent removing negative or controversial posts and I bet much m…

Actually, that's not quite true. Reddit's first wave of popularity came from a lack of censorship. There was a decryption code posted on a news story on Digg that allowed one to decrypt a bluray. Digg got a cease and desist, took it down, and people started protesting on Digg posting the code everywhere. During this time was the first wave where people started jumping from Digg to Reddit because of the lack of censor…

> Reddit is still very much anti censorship. //

That doesn't appear to be true.

Something like r/watchpeopledie, they don't have to censor, and it seems contained. I wouldn't want to visit it, not more than once, it may not be healthy in general, but taking it down seems to be "just" censorship?

Other than pornography they seem to have markedly cleaned up and taken a much more advertising friendly focus; seems much less to have the dingy back alleys it once did (but maybe that's a biased view).

Haven't they closed subreddits to quash some radical conservative talk?

Are you part of the Reddit administration?

Rightly or wrongly there appears to have been a lot of censorship over the last couple of years.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#297

Post by floatingatoll » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #178

madars wrote: post #102

Full list of subreddits banned today: https://www.redditstatic.com/banned-subreddits-june-2020.txt (with "blurring" after top 10)

Why the blurring?

Naming them grants them glory as martyrs, especially when the subreddit's name is a google-unique term that they can use to regroup and to attract supporters to their cause. It's already too late for the top 10, but that's no reason to give the rest a free boost.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#298

Post by u320 » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

Miner49er wrote: post #214

fernandotakai wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also banned gendercritical, which was an extreme left, radical feminist (as in, Valerie Solanas radical feminism) board.

Gendercritical was not "extreme left". It was an anti-trans (TERF) subreddit hated by actual leftist subs.

Just because something is hated by most of the left doesn't make it "not left".

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#299

Post by bobthepanda » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

damagednoob wrote: post #211

mitchdoogle wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no militant SJWs in the highest political office in the country. There's not even any in Congress.

I think those on the other side of your argument would consider Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be a militant SJW.

People don't understand the meaning of the word "militant" then, because AOC has never participated in arming herself during a protest.

As opposed to say, WA State rep Matt Shea, who was found to be conspiring with militias to start a civil war that would end in a theocracy: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/790192972/washington-legislat...

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#300

Post by NE2z2T9qi » Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

submeta wrote: post #249

NE2z2T9qi wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Free speech is not a god given right to spread hate, misinformation, antisemitism, misogyny, etc - And yes: Not confronting people who threaten the very basics of our democracy (respecting human rights and the dignity of our fellow citizens) will help those dark forces rise to the power. The nazis have been elected to power in the Weimar Republic.

The medieval Catholic Church: "Free speech is not a God given right to spread heresy! Not burning heretics threatens the eternal souls of our flock and helps the dark forces of Satan rise to the power."