On Monday more than 2,000 groups are being suspended for breaching the latest content policies of Reddit
Upon changing its community policies to further specifically prohibit hate speech, Reddit would suspend r / The Donald, r / ChapoTrapHouse, and around 2000 other groups today. The policy change came three weeks after demonstrations from Black Lives Matter prompted some prominent Reddit sites to briefly go dark in anger of what they considered the company’s loose rules on publishing and encouraging discriminatory material. It represents a significant reversal for a business that has traditionally been so high in its adherence to free speech that it once enabled people to openly share leaked pornographic images on the internet.
“I must admit that I have struggled to balance my conviction as an American, especially in terms of freedom of speech, especially freedom of expression, with my beliefs and the organization’s ideals of fundamental human integrity,” said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in such a media interview.
In a blog post referencing the latest guidelines of the business, Huffman claimed that r / The Donald subreddit members had ignored the standards of the platform for years. (The platform has no official relation to President Donald Trump although he did Question Me About there as a candidate in 2016.) “The group has regularly hosted and modified more law-breaking material than normal (Rule 1), antagonized us and other groups (Rules 2 and 8), as well as its modes, have failed to fulfil our most common demands,” Huffman said.
Likewise, Huffman said that r / ChapoTrapHouse often had material that breaks the guidelines of the web, too. The subreddit is a spinoff of the famous podcast to the west.
Reddit ‘s latest strategy begins with a first requirement asking users to “consider the person.”
The human remembers. Reddit is a platform to build solidarity and identity, not to target oppressed or insecure social communities. All have the ability to use Reddit free of abuse, harassment, and threats of aggression. Communities and persons who inspire abuse or encourage race- or vulnerability-based hatred should be prohibited.
This became the foundation of a legal structure prohibiting hate speech.
“Reddit ‘s aim is to bring unity and community to all in the country, and there’s speech all around the planet and on Reddit that prevents people from doing so,” Huffman told reporters. “Harassing speech or abusive speech prevents people from coming to Reddit, feeling safe, and revealing their vulnerability … Because if we have a Reddit speech that bans people from using Reddit the way we have to use it, or bans us from performing our mission, then that’s just a very simple option.
The implementation of the latest rules has so far culminated in the withdrawal of nearly 2,000 forums, and the firm claims “the overwhelming majority” has been inactive. Only around 200 of them had more than ten users a day, the company added. They include :
- r/DarkHumorAndMemes
- r/ConsumeProduct
- r/DarkJokeCentral
- r/GenderCritical
- r/Cumtown
- r/imgoingtohellforthis2
- r/Wojak
- r/toyboys
Last year, Reddit “quarantined” r / The Donald, bringing it behind an alert screen after it was discovered hosting violence-inducing posts. Prior to that, the organization had stopped messages on the website from hitting the front page on Reddit. Last year, longtime Forum members started switching to a new platform off Reddit.
Although some highly publicized political groups were affected by Monday’s removals, Huffman said the organization would continue to promote a wide spectrum of political expression.
“There is already a stable public discussion,” Huffman said. “Nevertheless, all societies ought to abide by our rules, including our political communities. And although we seek to do whatever we can to help them, they are not accepted on Reddit if they refuse to do so.
Although r / The Donald has no formal link to Trump, the action by Reddit could attract the President’s wrath. Trump’s team protested earlier this month when Snap dropped him from the advertising of Snapchat’s Discover page, and after Twitter started posting alerts on several of the President’s posts.
At the same time, most pressure has been put on the company to remove hate speech. Among the detractors was former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao who claimed r / The Donald was meant to be dropped a long time ago earlier this month. “rather than amplifying this and its hatred, bigotry, and abuse, you would have shut down the Donald,” she said during a tweet addressed to Huffman.” almost all of what’s going on now is right at heart. When Reddit nurtures and monetizes ethnic inequality, you can’t say BLM, so skip the entire day.
