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Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

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Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#111

Since there's no objective definition of "hate content", this is akin to them patting themselves on the back for outright censorship based on their own arbitrary definitions.

Not censorship. Freedom. Private property includes the freedom to restrict what occurs on that property. Reddit is private property. Same goes for Hacker News. Let freedom ring! edit: guess people don't like freedom :-( Would Hacker News be "censoring" me if they deleted my submission to TIMECUBE? Isn't it "MAH RAIGHT" to proselytize my sincere and deeply-held beliefs about TIMECUBE? Are you CENSORIZING MAH FREEZE PE…

> "MAH RAIGHT"

> MAH FREEZE PEECH

Mocking the southern accent?

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common meme in some circles, reflecting a claim that facially neutral rules against hate speech depend implicitly on who's speaking and to whom it's directed.

I think that meme/claim is indeed substantiated in many cases. It's a form of implicit bias. Implicit biases are very culturally-mediated and can exist from any individual or group towards any other individual or group. I don't know if reddit staff suffer from that bias, but it's evident some people in this thread do.

[deleted]

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its clearly what they do. The best example, a default sub TwoXChromosomes is full of blatant hate speech against half the species and its touted as a progressive bastion when its a different variation of The Donald.

Can you provide recent examples? On their front page right now: - A post about finishing shampoo and conditioner at the same time - Celebration of a black female CEO - Discussion of abortion - Discussion of Women's only gyms (pros/cons/benefits/etc) - Discussion about marketing vis-a-vis unhealthy body image - Inappropriate boss in a meeting None of those posts are even about men, let alone "hate speech against half…

People ignore the non offensive posts. But every few weeks a "men suck" or "ridiculous attacks on anti-abortion viewpoint" pops up non /r/all.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#114
post #54
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is religion immutable when political affiliation is not?

Race & religion are sometimes deeply entwined, see Jewish. Imagine if Jewish ethnicity was a protected class but Jewish religion was not. How would that even work in practice? "I was not discriminating against the Jews on account of being ethnic Jews but rather on account of their Jewish faith, your Honor!"

When most people describe Judaism this way they are only thinking of Ashkenazi Jews. My family comes from eastern Europe. We are not the same race as Ethiopian Jews. Nor do we have the same food, music or culture any more than a Christian from Mexico and a Christian from China.

The idea of race is deeply flawed and riddled with contradictions. it has no real meaning in terms of genetics.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#115

Anyone remember them saying in their ToS that hate speech is okay as long as it isn't against a group considered to be the minority?

Punching up vs punching down is a super important distinction to make in these kinds of policies.

I don't think it should be. I think punches above a certain threshold of force shouldn't be permitted, regardless of whether they're aimed left, right, up, down, or diagonally. Also, who exactly is definitively judging these directions in each of these cases? What's the judgment criteria when two people reside among a distribution of different relative directions across multiple different parameters?

I think eliminating double standards in the enforcement of these policies is crucial for them to be effective and accepted by a community. You're just trading one set of implicit and explicit biases in for another, and many of the same issues start to bubble up. Yes, certainly not all of the same issues in the case of one group wielding more capability to carry out a threat than another group, but many of the important ones, especially when it comes to matters of epistemology and reasoning.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#116
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it just depends on the number of subreddits. If 7,000 is 1% of subs, then it seems like a good investment. If it's 30%, then yeah, that's.. not great.

>I think it just depends on the number of subreddits the number of subreddits shouldn't matter, what actually should matter is post volume.

View volume.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#117
post #87
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Race & religion are sometimes deeply entwined, see Jewish. Imagine if Jewish ethnicity was a protected class but Jewish religion was not. How would that even work in practice? "I was not discriminating against the Jews on account of being ethnic Jews but rather on account of their Jewish faith, your Honor!"

That would be reasonable. For example, if someone chooses very orthodox or liberal beliefs (whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish or Atheist) and they clash with your beliefs, you should be able to fire them at will.

Why should an employer be allowed to fire someone for religious beliefs, unless they specifically make the person unable to do their job?

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide recent examples? On their front page right now: - A post about finishing shampoo and conditioner at the same time - Celebration of a black female CEO - Discussion of abortion - Discussion of Women's only gyms (pros/cons/benefits/etc) - Discussion about marketing vis-a-vis unhealthy body image - Inappropriate boss in a meeting None of those posts are even about men, let alone "hate speech against half…

People ignore the non offensive posts. But every few weeks a "men suck" or "ridiculous attacks on anti-abortion viewpoint" pops up non /r/all.

Without specific examples and links cited, this discussion will just run in circles. It probably will anyway, but it has no way of not without citations.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#119

Said differently: "Reddit banned nearly 7,000 subreddits, but left alone the ones that contribute 82% of hate content." That seems like a dismal result, practically an admission that many of the bans were unjustified and/or subs that should have been banned were not.

Here's a post breaking down a few details of the ban wave: https://www.reddit.com/r/redditsecurity/comments/idclo1/unde... As you can see a big majority, over three quarters, of banned subreddits had less than ten users, and 99% had less than 5000 subscribers. It's very possible that the other 82% are distributed over the larger, more popular subreddits which are not encouraging hate speech. As an example, if someone…

most of the popular subreddits encourage hate against police and Trump supporters, just see how much cheering you get when there is a video of BLM assaulting someone wearing MAGA hat, or a white "Karen" (typically middle-aged white woman) is humiliated or assaulted by mob, or an officer sprayed and blinded when arresting some looter.

These threads full of raging hate are reaching Reddit front page on regular basis, with tens of thousands of upvotes and tons of social "awards", while anything going against the social justice narrative is shut down immediately, like in that 18% ban which affected many dissenting subreddits.

There are popular subreddits literally encouraging racial segregation, like "BPT Country Club" which requires sending picture of your forearm to prove you're black in order to participate.

This kind of thing radicalizes people on both sides.

Re: Reddit reports 18% reduction in hate content after banning nearly 7k subreddits

#120

Said differently: "Reddit banned nearly 7,000 subreddits, but left alone the ones that contribute 82% of hate content." That seems like a dismal result, practically an admission that many of the bans were unjustified and/or subs that should have been banned were not.

The last bunch of bans was simply a leftist purge, banning several subreddits that at most advocated violence against landlords, not really a "minority".

>that at most advocated violence against [...]

Are we really doing this?

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