If Reddit can not handle free speech, Voat will.
Once Voat is overrun by the enemies of free expression, someone else will take the helm and continue. Such is the nature of a free Internet.
Once Voat is overrun by the enemies of free expression, someone else will take the helm and continue. Such is the nature of a free Internet.
Yes. The alt-right and the_donald reddit community members can move to a less-popular platform, but that doesn't necessarily mean that platform has just become more popular. It means the loudest, most-obnoxious people have just lost their Reddit audience. When 1% of commenters are making 90% of the posts, that's no longer a dialogue and that drives away readers. Encouraging polite dialogue and policing abusive behaviors are smart business moves for Reddit and Twitter.
No advertiser is interested in putting out their message right where a random guy can immediately reply with "LIAR!" for everyone to see.
I can choose which communities to ignore, lurk in and participate with. I dont support extinguishing communities I choose to ignore.
You get what you get when you choose to congregate at the firehose nozzles of twitter and /r/all
"Censorship" just forces people underground to talk amongst other people with the same opinions. While it has some kind of measurable effect on preventing impressionable people from being exposed to their opinions, it also prevents people from discussing alternative views with the ones who were "censored". This is a large part of the reason why everyone was blindsided by Trump, the trump supporters were largely either not speaking up due to social penalties for doing so or only talking on-line in forums where other people agreed with them.
If the goal is to "defeat" the alt-right movement, then I don't think it is necessarily obvious that banning them is the right move. As I said though, maybe it is since it does limit exposure to their views which in theory limits their membership.
Note: Scare quoted censorship due to it not being government run which is what people usually mean when they say censorship.
This is the key takeaway IMO
Every site in the world, if they don't want to be a cesspool full of trolls and baiters, will have to moderate.
You can say something hateful, disrespectful, and even threatening to/about a white person(or people) and twitter doesn't care even if you are reported.
However if you say the same thing about/to a black person (or people) [literally the same sentence with only those words switched out] then when reported you will be banned.
If twitter(and others) would actually apply their rules fairly, a lot of people would be a lot less upset.
you dont have to listen to those subreddits. dont subscribe to them. dont hang out in /r/all if you cant handle seeing things you disagree with.
you just called other peoples views a cesspool of garbage, and youre advocating respect.
I don't hang out at r/all nor subscribe to subreddit I don't care about.
you just called other peoples views a cesspool of garbage, and youre advocating respect.
I am more concerned about a person's behavior more so than their opinion. I look down on baiting, trolling, harassment, etc.
> Like the mod said in his own words, they are not interested in public policy, they are focused on white nationalist racial discussion. To continue on that course without steering into hate speech is impossible.
Unless they are literally calling for people to take action and kill/harass/otherwise harm people I see no reason to "censor" them. From what I've seen, most of that subreddit is hating on other races(which definitely is hate speech) but not calling any real action. I also don't consider calling for legitimate political action to be worthy of "censorship" either, only going outside the political system to directly harm.
the first amendment is an application of that philosophy codified into law.
a company can by choose choose to value the philosophy of free speech, independent of the law.
you cannot use the phrases "freedom of speech" and "the first amendment" interchangeably.
I don't see why the admins don't just edit the posts? No need to ban things.
Until it elects the sort of people who want to see me deported into positions of power. At which point am I obligated to hand them a free platform again?
So it's no about censoring free speech, it's about making the idiot shouting his opinions with a megaphone on the street to do it somewhere else, or at the very least to drop the megaphone.
Why hasn't he outright deleted the subreddit?
If there's a significant amount of content you don't want to see, why are so many people choosing to look at /r/all?
I don't see anyone fleeing for greener pasture.
Reddit became popular as an irreverent place for free discussion of whatever. There's a big difference in expectation.