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Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

china-underground.com

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Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#301

Post by atomicUpdate »

renlo wrote: post #57
sodosopa wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a private company, there's no freedom of speech involved. You want a baker to create a cake that says an offensive message, the baker doesn't' have to comply.

What if the telephone company doesn't want to carry your offensive message to your friend? It's a private company, the telephone company doesn't have to comply. In other words, I don't think your analogy entirely fits here, as Reddit is more of a platform for communication, they're not paying an artist (baker) to create some art. Jus' sayin'

The telephone company actually does have to carry your message, because they are a common carrier and regulated by the FCC.

In other words, you argument is a bit ignorant. Reddit is a private forum that’s allowed to what they want as long as they don’t discriminate against protected classes.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#302

Post by intopieces »

mistermann wrote: post #271
intopieces wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_20...

> First, the Internet Research Agency "troll farm", based in Saint Petersburg, created hundreds of social media accounts impersonating Americans supporting radical groups, planning and promoting rallies, and reaching millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017. Is there any proof for this claim? Writing it on a piece of paper or web page is not proof. Was the proof perhaps IP addresses? I don't think I've ev…

I could offer you the numerous citations around the web, but I have a feeling I'll get tired of following the goalpost before you get tired of moving it.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#303

Post by thereare5lights »

analyst74 wrote: post #127

How would tencent owning a minor stake in reddit allow it to censor the site? Or is this outrage mostly because tencent is a Chinese firm? I mean, censorship only works if you have the government backing you, are people legitimately fear the US government is going to bow down to a Chinese company?

It wouldn't. It was just the normal kneejerk reaction to any China related on Reddit.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#305

Post by learc83 »

yourbandsucks wrote: post #298
learc83 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the largest companies in China going around buying up pieces of social media and entertainment companies around the world isn't strategically interesting? The Chinese government forced a US company to publicly apologise when their website merely listed Hong Kong on the same level as China in a dropdown. The government attempts to control the global narrative about China in any way they can. Of course they were inv…

I'm trying to get something out of this comment beyond "any international business by Chinese companies is nefarious by definition", and I have to admit that I can't. I guess if they know their role and stick to manufacturing it's ok? As far as Hong Kong.. they've got a pretty fair reason to be oversensitive about westerners implying it's not part of China.

What you should get out of it is that Chinese companies are effectively a proxy for the government.

And the Chinese government operates the largest and most effective censorship program in the history of humanity.

So maybe we don't want to sell them a stake in media and entertainment companies.

>As far as Hong Kong.. they've got a pretty fair reason to be oversensitive about westerners implying it's not part of China.

Maybe we should have let the people of Hong Kong vote on the issue.

Regardless, they did the exact same thing with Taiwan.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#306

Post by wdr1 »

intopieces wrote: post #114
jumbopapa wrote: post #9

Reddit has long been plagued with censorship. The CEO edited the post of a user because they criticized him or something. I can't believe how quickly that's been forgotten. The Reddit situation reminds me of the post about failing to build a billion dollar company a few days ago. Reddit is trying to make VCs happy and continue to grow the business, but a platform like Reddit is best as a less reliant on growth, but s…

>The CEO edited the post of a user because they criticized him or something. I can't believe how quickly that's been forgotten. The CEO changed a single post from "fuck " to "fuck " for an hour. While certainly this action was not received well, the drama it caused is way overblown and isn't evidence of being 'plagued with censorship.' If anything it's plagued with shills from governments and corporations.

What's messed up is the CEO had the access to do so, and was allowed to retain that access after the incident.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#307

Post by Mirioron »

Novashi wrote: post #245
wolco wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The protection of speech is the reason you are being banned. Each subreddit has an acceptable policy and posting against that could get you booted. The good news is you can start your own with your own rules. Going in the gardening subreddit and talking about your cat will not be looked on positively. Same as the donald with whatever viewpoint you have that doesn't lineup.

>The protection of speech is the reason you are being banned. That makes no sense. You're getting banned for breaking the rules, but lets not pretend the rules were written with the spirit of speech protection in mind. The rules exist because "we want this community with this content because reddit says we can enforce arbitrary rules in our own gardens". That can include, e.g., only having positive opinions of Trump,…

Yes, you're right, but this is something the moderators of the subreddit decide, not the admins of reddit.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#308

Post by Mirioron »

ppseafield wrote: post #29
newsbinator wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you imagine the reaction if a user's post on HN were edited by YC? I guess it'd be the instant death of the network. That this action a) happened on Reddit + b) was mostly/quickly forgotten says a lot about the different demographics. Audiences who largely come for cat pictures and political snark don't have to worry about CEOs breaking the 4th wall. I've been a Redditor for 9+ years and I still am one. But today…

Indeed. I think the comment editing (and immediate capitulation afterwards) was horrible, but the fact that they allowed the_donald to continue to break their own rules was way worse. They constantly would dox, harass, downvote brigade (in posts stickied by mods), and in general act entirely in bad faith. Other subreddits were banned for much, much less. Either they wanted their advertising money or were simply suppo…

I find it funny that the focus is on the_donald. I use reddit a lot and there are numerous other subreddits that have pulled similar things and they've existed long before the_Donald became a thing. SRS being one of them.

You also have places like ChapoTrapHouse that openly called for brigading of the Libertarian subreddit while the admins were paying close attention to the sub. Nothing happens, of course.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#309

Post by cotelletta »

Anechoic wrote: post #207
deadalus wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the drama it caused is way overblown People have been arrested because of Reddit posts they made. If the admins can edit comments without any indication to the users... They can falsely accuse you of a crime. They can also identify you and ban you specially if you do or say things not in alignment with the founders of Reddit(criticizing Serina Williams got a subreddit banned recently).

criticizing Serina Williams got a subreddit banned recently Sincere question: Was it actually criticism of Serena Williams ("she exhibited poor behavior", "she's lost a step", "her fashion sense sucks", etc) or was it abuse ("she's a man", "she's an ugly pig", etc)? Banning because of the former is unacceptable, but I see no reason why we would expect her husband to permit the latter on his platform.

Talking shit about people behind their back is not abuse. At most it can be libel/slander, of which none of your examples qualify. She's also not a particularly worthy example, given her meltdown at that tennis tournament, for which tons of people tried to made ideological excuses (herself included) and which involved her actually being abusive to the ref's face.

What it is is rich and powerful people using their influence to step on the little guy, and that behavior trickling down in a bizarre quest for faux-vindication by petty commissars. The kind of person who wants to be a Reddit mod on a big subreddit is not your average Joe. If they're not outright getting paid under the table by interested actors, they're doing it for the power trip.

Re: Reddit's user uprising against China because Tencent will invest in the platform

#310

Post by mistermann »

intopieces wrote: post #302
mistermann wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, the Internet Research Agency "troll farm", based in Saint Petersburg, created hundreds of social media accounts impersonating Americans supporting radical groups, planning and promoting rallies, and reaching millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017. Is there any proof for this claim? Writing it on a piece of paper or web page is not proof. Was the proof perhaps IP addresses? I don't think I've ev…

I could offer you the numerous citations around the web, but I have a feeling I'll get tired of following the goalpost before you get tired of moving it.

Citations of evidence?

You could try once, but keep in mind the goalposts in this case are actual evidence, not an impressive story.

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