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The dark side of account bans

madelinemiller.dev

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Re: The dark side of account bans

#51

Post by Karsteski »

lynx97 wrote: post #36
mschuster91 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... getting rid of too powerful people by means of executing them has been a staple of societies across all cultures for millennia. The fact that people openly cheer on re-introducing this, or on those following through with such plans (Luigi), is just showing how fed up wide masses of society are - and Reddit's admins have been hellbent on quenching even verbal forms of dissatisfaction. The problem is, all that…

Extremism is bad, no matter if it left or right-sided. I have turned away from the left with a huge amount of disgust since I started to realize how hatred is rampant on both sides. Wanting someone dead, and saying so, it a warning sign. Are we supposed to go back to "an eye for an eye"? I for one are happy this "staple" is a thing from the past. Cheering for it coming back is horryfing behaviour.

You're lucky we have the luxury of such opinions like yours. With the way the world is going towards extreme financial inequality, and with the US becoming more hostile to other nations, I suspect that opinion will become harder and harder to justify for many people.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#52

Post by antonvs »

Macha wrote: post #47
lynx97 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a good decision on the side of Reddit. If you can't see how this type of statement is not OK, even after the fact, shows banning you was the right decision.

I can understand the motivation for acting on death threats like someone claiming they would like to stab another person. Who knows how plausible that is? Without knowing much about the poster, you kind of have to assume the most plausible interpretation in a lot of settings. Launching someone in a rocket to space is clearly beyond the reach of any single individual. It's also not particularly violent in the scheme o…

Thanks, you expressed my position well.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#53

Post by Philpax »

lynx97 wrote: post #24
antonvs wrote: post #7

I had a reddit account permanently banned for saying something to the effect that a certain out of control billionaire could be dealt with by launching him into space in an electric vehicle that one of his companies manufactures. Apparently "reddit legal" thought that was a credible threat. I find that strangely encouraging.

Reads like a good decision on the side of Reddit. If you can't see how this type of statement is not OK, even after the fact, shows banning you was the right decision.

How many people do you think Elon Musk has indirectly killed as a result of his actions, especially through his work with DOGE? I would not make such a threat myself, but I can certainly see why one would be inspired to.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#54

Post by db48x »

mschuster91 wrote: post #30
lynx97 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a good decision on the side of Reddit. If you can't see how this type of statement is not OK, even after the fact, shows banning you was the right decision.

Well... getting rid of too powerful people by means of executing them has been a staple of societies across all cultures for millennia. The fact that people openly cheer on re-introducing this, or on those following through with such plans (Luigi), is just showing how fed up wide masses of society are - and Reddit's admins have been hellbent on quenching even verbal forms of dissatisfaction. The problem is, all that…

No, mostly it just reminds us that ordinary people are mostly evil. At best they’re purely self–interested. There’s no dissent there.

There’s a good book called “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning which explores this. The Reserve Police Battalions were created by Germany to police captured territory, but they were seen by ordinary Germans as a way to avoid the war and conscription. The members were not Nazis, and almost to a man they joined because it was an honorable way to avoid participating in the evils happening all around them. They were only trained for ordinary honest police work, but in the end many of them were being used to hunt down and murder Jews. They were sent out into forests to comb them for underground shelters. They rounded up Jews and herded them into mass graves.

Almost none of them complained or tried to avoid participating. No one punished them if they didn’t participate. No one coerced them into participating. A few asked for and received transfers, if I recall correctly. The best that can be said about the rest is that many of them are believed not to have actually fired their weapons. Some of them probably went the whole war without actually killing anyone, technically. They were just assigned the job so they did it.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#55

Post by hofrogs »

chrisldgk wrote: post #49

I have a similar, though less horrible story. We recently launched an app where we wanted to have a Facebook sign-in button since our target audience would be people that use Facebook a lot. Being Gen Z and not having a Facebook account at all (anymore) I made one for Meta developers, set everything up for development and tested stuff for a few weeks. When we finally did want to go live, we went through the Meta for…

You now have a banned account, and Meta has a video of your face looking multiple directions and data about your business and development activity. A fair and common trade from the big tech point of view.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#56

Post by antonvs »

Karsteski wrote: post #51
lynx97 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extremism is bad, no matter if it left or right-sided. I have turned away from the left with a huge amount of disgust since I started to realize how hatred is rampant on both sides. Wanting someone dead, and saying so, it a warning sign. Are we supposed to go back to "an eye for an eye"? I for one are happy this "staple" is a thing from the past. Cheering for it coming back is horryfing behaviour.

You're lucky we have the luxury of such opinions like yours. With the way the world is going towards extreme financial inequality, and with the US becoming more hostile to other nations, I suspect that opinion will become harder and harder to justify for many people.

> You're lucky we have the luxury of such opinions like yours.

“Civility” is the first recourse of the privileged.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#57

Post by antonvs »

Philpax wrote: post #53
lynx97 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a good decision on the side of Reddit. If you can't see how this type of statement is not OK, even after the fact, shows banning you was the right decision.

How many people do you think Elon Musk has indirectly killed as a result of his actions, especially through his work with DOGE? I would not make such a threat myself, but I can certainly see why one would be inspired to.

My comment was not a threat. A threat is a statement of intent.

However, the lawyers reddit employs are apparently similarly confused on that point.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#58

Post by antonvs »

db48x wrote: post #54
mschuster91 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well... getting rid of too powerful people by means of executing them has been a staple of societies across all cultures for millennia. The fact that people openly cheer on re-introducing this, or on those following through with such plans (Luigi), is just showing how fed up wide masses of society are - and Reddit's admins have been hellbent on quenching even verbal forms of dissatisfaction. The problem is, all that…

No, mostly it just reminds us that ordinary people are mostly evil. At best they’re purely self–interested. There’s no dissent there. There’s a good book called “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning which explores this. The Reserve Police Battalions were created by Germany to police captured territory, but they were seen by ordinary Germans as a way to a…

You’re cherry-picking, generalizing without any basis, and apparently projecting.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#59

Post by fweimer »

decimalenough wrote: post #39
fweimer wrote: post #34

> I did end up speaking to a few engineers at Meta through connections, either directly or through others, many of which recommended suing Meta to unlock my accounts. This was extra complicated due to me living in Australia, so it’s not something I tried. Why is this complicated? Do the Meta ToS include a choice-of-venue clause for consumer accounts?

Suing people across jurisdictions is a nightmare. As a trivial example, anybody can theoretically sue any Singaporean entity in Singapore's Small Claims Tribunal, but if you don't have Singaporean ID, you need to show up in person in Singapore to register for the CJTS Pass system. Then you need to send registered mail from Singapore to the person you're using, apply for a special exception to be able to appear over Z…

You wouldn't sue across jurisdictions, though? This would be an Australian suing under Australian law in an Australian court, potentially even an Australian entity.

Re: The dark side of account bans

#60

Post by Cesura »

lynx97 wrote: post #24
antonvs wrote: post #7

I had a reddit account permanently banned for saying something to the effect that a certain out of control billionaire could be dealt with by launching him into space in an electric vehicle that one of his companies manufactures. Apparently "reddit legal" thought that was a credible threat. I find that strangely encouraging.

Reads like a good decision on the side of Reddit. If you can't see how this type of statement is not OK, even after the fact, shows banning you was the right decision.

Do you read French history and find yourself sympathetic to the plight of Marie Antoinette?
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