Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump” • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#201

Post by eplanit » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

Bayart wrote: post #83

gfodor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I've long worried lurking there was going to cause more harm than it's worth (for example, by letting me inadvertently slip into extremism) but the ability to predict what happened this week so easily and warn people about it who considered going was well worth that risk. Also I read there they are losing their SSL cert or something, so that might be how centralized, non-legal authority manages to shut them dow…

>Which, it probably goes without saying, should scare the shit out of anyone who cares about the principles of the free Internet. Service-providers giving the boot to « problematic » users is as far as I know as old as the Internet.

With "Problematic" being subjective, it is indeed scary.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#202

Post by vdnkh » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #147

vdnkh wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>free Internet A private company choosing who to allow on their platform? Seems like the freedom to me. And in the absence of any government action against these domestic terrorists (they have been planning exactly this violence for weeks), it's great to see private companies step in and take action.

You're oversimplifying this as well as constructing a strawman argument which implies it's a simple issue. It's not. You are on Hacker News, do you think people here are think that the framing you make is objectively the singular one that has any moral standing?

What a fantastic rant

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#203

Post by dleslie » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #170

gbrown wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which, it probably goes without saying, should scare the shit out of anyone who cares about the principles of the free Internet. I worry more about Google et. al. killing the free and open internet by creating centralized walled gardens. I worry more about legislative attacks on encryption, about the overzealous use of copyright law and the sorry state of intellectual property generally. If service providers want t…

I worry about all of that as well, but the problem with your last point is you are opening the door for network providers to be the arbiters of what is considered radicalization or not. They shouldn't be the decider of that, our laws should. If the FBI tells them to shut something down with a legal order, and our society has concluded it is just, so be it. In the limit what you would get is a world where speech is ba…

Eh, curation and moderation is a valuable service that many are willing to pay for.

The issue isn't that service providers are arbiters, the problem is that there are so few service providers that one can meaningfully choose from due in large part to the difficulty of taking one's social network along with you.

If service providers had federated communication then it would be a different story.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#204

Post by matheusmoreira » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

srveale wrote: post #21

Exuma wrote: post #6

What else is new, censorship is OK as long as only one side is doing it.

If the left-leaning subreddits were also promoting hate, misinformation and violence then they would be banned too. It's not favouritism, the "one side" that's being targeted is the side that's breaking the platform's rules.

> If the left-leaning subreddits were also promoting hate, misinformation and violence then they would be banned too.

There's plenty of hate and misinformation in those subreddits. None of them have been banned yet.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#205

Post by jandrese » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

electrotype wrote: post #139

mckirk wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After a cursory check of the "frontpage" there... yeah, it doesn't seem very balanced. More like "r/The_Donald"-lite, with even some anti-vaxx stuff thrown in.

They do promote free speech, from all sides. Just join and give your opinion if you do not agree with something.

No moderation means it will be overrun with trolls and spammers. This is true of any discussion system. Once you grow beyond a certain point, typically a few dozen users or so moderation is necessary to avoid having the signal to noise ratio drop so low that all of the quality people leave.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#206

Post by gruez » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

jakearmitage wrote: post #143

elicash wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"delete certain posts" Presumably violent threats?

Is it OK to silence people now?

Actually yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action. Not saying what happened on /r/donaldtrump actually met that criteria (that's up to a court to decide), but the precedent to silence people (by the government no less) is definitely there.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#207

Post by terse_malvolio » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

one2know wrote: post #117

Incredible how so called "Americans" will drop free speech in a millisecond because it is made by people who are not with their party's OurGuy(TM). I recognize Reddit is under extreme foreign pressure having received and operating on $300MM from the chinese communist party.

Sources?

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#208

Post by berkes » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

one2know wrote: post #117

Incredible how so called "Americans" will drop free speech in a millisecond because it is made by people who are not with their party's OurGuy(TM). I recognize Reddit is under extreme foreign pressure having received and operating on $300MM from the chinese communist party.

> having received and operating on $300MM from the chinese communist party.

Source?

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#209

Post by proverbialbunny » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #132

proverbialbunny wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or is downvoting tdons' comment bad form given YC's guidelines? Is there something I'm missing here?

From the guidelines: > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

lol. That has to do with comments like, "Wow, look at that comment's downvotes!" not asking about guidelines in relation to votes. Of course, there is room for interpretation on this one.

Re: Reddit bans subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump”

#210

Post by hobofan » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

jakearmitage wrote: post #143

elicash wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"delete certain posts" Presumably violent threats?

Is it OK to silence people now?

I think you will find very few people defending free speech in the face of "actually planning crime".