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Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

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Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#21

Post by adamnemecek »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #8

I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I'm against censorship, on the other I'm against internet bullying. /r/FatPeopleHate was engaging in both. In the end reddit is a private site that can do what it wants. Wikipedia removes things all the time and sites like 4chan remove all sorts of extremely offensive material. I'm glad the mods of the hate oriented subreddits have been shadow banned, I actually think…

> On one hand I'm against censorship,

I feel like censorship isn't the right word for this but I can't think of a better one.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#23

Post by _kst_ »

smegel wrote: post #16
elinchrome wrote: post #10

Reddit has become a real cesspool over the past few years. You'll always find misogyny front and center and you don't have to dig to find racism.

Feminism too.

What? Are you comparing feminism to misogyny and racism?

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#24

Post by scrollaway »

adamnemecek wrote: post #21
zxcvcxz wrote: post #8

I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I'm against censorship, on the other I'm against internet bullying. /r/FatPeopleHate was engaging in both. In the end reddit is a private site that can do what it wants. Wikipedia removes things all the time and sites like 4chan remove all sorts of extremely offensive material. I'm glad the mods of the hate oriented subreddits have been shadow banned, I actually think…

> On one hand I'm against censorship, I feel like censorship isn't the right word for this but I can't think of a better one.

Curated speech.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#25

Post by mynameishere »

elinchrome wrote: post #10

Reddit has become a real cesspool over the past few years. You'll always find misogyny front and center and you don't have to dig to find racism.

I've been on reddit for 8 years, and lurked before that. The top submissions and comments have always, and consistently, been standard-issue PC/liberal in their overall view.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#26

Post by ejcx »

The idea is to make people who are being harassed on reddit feel safe[0]. This goal is something I think everyone agrees is a good goal. As a policy decision, I think it is pretty weird they started banning communities instead of people.

There are a lot of people on reddit and policing individual users would be a challenge. Would something like a "flag harassment" button have the same desired affect?

0 - http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removi...

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#27

Post by girvo »

Navarr wrote: post #2

Clarification from the Reddit Admins on their announcement post indicate that they're banning subs where moderators either took no action or encouraged organized harassment (as in going to other subs or websites and actively harassing the person in question) as opposed to subs that just post awful things about people.

You'd think so, but they're banning any new sub that attempts to be a "new" /r/fatpeoplehate -- if it's not about "banning ideas", but "banning behaviour", then I find that somewhat at odds. I think there's a simpler answer: FPH ended up on the front-page of /r/all constantly, and the Imgur staff "doxxing" (I've heard right before they were banned there was something happening regarding harassing the imgur editors outside of Reddit, though I don't know how true it is) was enough to get the admins to pull the plug.

If you're monetising a website, and the most active and fasting growing sub on your website (aside from the defaults) is a subreddit dedicated to mocking fat people, I think that may make it a difficult sell.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#29

Post by sarciszewski »

adamnemecek wrote: post #21
zxcvcxz wrote: post #8

I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I'm against censorship, on the other I'm against internet bullying. /r/FatPeopleHate was engaging in both. In the end reddit is a private site that can do what it wants. Wikipedia removes things all the time and sites like 4chan remove all sorts of extremely offensive material. I'm glad the mods of the hate oriented subreddits have been shadow banned, I actually think…

> On one hand I'm against censorship, I feel like censorship isn't the right word for this but I can't think of a better one.

I don't think there is one. I'm pretty sure censorship has a pretty specific connotation, but it's the only term in the ballpark of what is being accused.

Re: Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign

#30

Post by teraflop »

This article dramatically understates the magnitude of the shitstorm that is currently unfolding. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/all/ if you feel like seeing all the ugliness.

(And if anyone has any doubts that this is ultimately about harassment, count how many of the posts on the front page (and their comments) are made up of personal attacks and/or obscenities targeted at CEO Ellen Pao.)

I don't fault the Reddit admins for trying to clean things up but I can't see any good that will come of this. To paraphrase a comment that I saw earlier today and now can't find, it's like trying to get rid of an anthill with a leaf-blower; you just end up with pissed-off ants everywhere.

EDIT: Ah, found it. It was in the "can I sue Reddit for violating my freedom of speech" thread in /r/legaladvice. http://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/39c58h/could_so...

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