Open racism and slurs are fine to post on Reddit, says CEO | Hacker News Reader

Open racism and slurs are fine to post on Reddit, says CEO

theguardian.com

32 pointsm115 comments

Good. I don't really use reddit anymore these days, largely because of their censorship policies, but this is a step in the right direction. Free speech is an important western value, and having it available on the internet is a positive thing. Let abhorrent views be aired publicly and die by being refuted, not be hidden and fester into extremist madness.

In that case HN isn't the right place for you either, because explicit racist slurs aren't tolerated here.

He said having it available is the right thing - and I am assuming here but it's because Reddit is a site that says they promote free speech.

Why do you assume that because he is for free speech on another site, that he doesn't belong here?

Reddit gives you the right to free speech, but it does not exempt you from the free speech or right of others.

This is a silly argument I see repeated all the time. Do you allow racist views in your house because of free speech? Nobody needs to go out of their way to provide a forum for racists.

> This is a silly argument I see repeated all the time.

That silly argument is one of the core tenants of western Liberalism.

> Do you allow racist views in your house because of free speech?

My home is an intimate comfort zone. The entirety of life should not be a comfort zone. There are plenty of views that should be tolerated in society that I wouldn't invite into my home.

> Nobody needs to go out of their way to provide a forum for racists.

It seems like they're not going out of their way to censor that specific form of speech. That's quite different than going out of their way to provide a forum for racists specifically.

Reddit is a private corporation, these supposed core tenants of western liberalism do not mean they need to provide a forum for racists. Don’t confuse their love of ad clicks for being some champion of free speech.

Of course not. And its arguable that Reddit is more like a crowded theatre and not a public place; thus hollering 'fire!' or trolling racistly not acceptable/safe.

But its also true we should hold even private organizations to some standard, and supporting free speech in principle is a core American value.

In the end I guess I'm on the side of "too little friction there; too likely to incide a riot" for these public forums. I come down on the side of some kind of moderator.

> Reddit is a private corporation, these supposed core tenants of western liberalism do not mean they need to provide a forum for racists.

It seems like you're arguing with cliches that I'm not putting forward. They're a private corporation, and I'm saying I support their decision to not go further down the road of speech censorship. I'm not saying they're not capable of more censorship, I'm saying I support the choice they've made.

I fail to see the point of your use of the word "supposed" there. Free speech is unequivocally a core tenant of western Liberalism. It's fine if you don't believe in Liberalism, it seems quite popular not to currently, but attempting to redefine it is a bit Orwellian.

I'm pretty sure they banned all the racist subreddits at one point. Was that not the case?

I'm not a fan of the more fascist aspects of the reddit userbase. There's immense value, I think, in allowing ignorant people free speech and over-labeling things as hate speech can be dangerous. For a while the site has been more about shouting and downvotes and less about dialog.

Definitely not the case. They only banned a few of the worst offenders.

They only ban subreddits as a reaction to them pulling negative publicity. Has to be offensive AND making noise for them to do anything.

They banned all the racist subreddits where they could find an excuse to do so, like doxxing.

It's just like the real world. It's not illegal to annoy a cop, but that cop is going to be trying real hard to find something else to pin on you.

Thank god americans respect free speech.

...and? I understand the European media is shocked at free speech, but that’s the way the world moves

Even if one does not subscribe to absolute free speech, I find the prospect of private companies censoring large parts of the internet as they please even scarier.

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