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"We will not ban questionable subreddits," Reddit's then-CEO, Yishan Wong, wrote mere months ago. "You choose what to post. You choose what to read. You choose what kind of subreddit to create."
But in an apparent reversal of that policy, and in an unprecedented effort to clean up its long-suffering image, Reddit has just banned five "questionable subreddits."
The site permanently removed the forums Wednesday afternoon for harassing specific, named individuals, a spokesperson said. Of the five, two were dedicated to fat-shaming, one to transphobia, one to racism and one to harassing members of a progressive video game site.
Unsurprisingly, a vocal contingent of Redditors aren't taking the changes well: "Reddit increases censorship," read one post on r/freespeech, while forums like r/mensrights and r/opieandanthony theorized they would be next.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bradley13 on Friday June 12 2015, @12:03PM
I'm not on reddit, but I know it by reputation. Reminds me of Usenet: an uncontrolled, seething chaos that includes a lot of dross and a few gems. As I understand it, it is entirely possible to participate in subreddits that interest you, and ignore (or even block) ones that you don't care for. Hence, censorship of any type is utterly unnecessary.
Why did they ever pick Ellen Pao? Her record makes it clear that she is not the "live and let live" type. Of course, she is going to start banning subreddits that she, personally, finds offensive.
It should be noted that her husband is also a lovely guy [wikipedia.org]: he likes to sue organizations for racial discrimination whenever he doesn't get his way. His asset management company was little more than a scam: after a few years of "trading for his own account and on behalf of clients" the fund was bankrupt, the clients lost their money, but he was personally wealthy. Exactly why he wasn't prosecuted, even though the bankruptcy judge explicitly called it "fraud", is a bit of a mystery.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @12:13PM
> Reminds me of Usenet: an uncontrolled, seething chaos
Except for one key fact - that it is controlled by a single corporation plus a bazillion editors who have routinely deleted posts since practically day one. Anyone who knows usenet knows it is barely like reddit. To treat reddit as if it had ever been a place without rules is just a strawman.
Don't like reddit's rules? Go somewhere that does not depend on the beneficience of someone else's pocketbook. As your father once told you, "my house, my rules." I grew up and bought my own house. Every reddit whiner should do the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @04:06PM
Yeah, and if you don't like the United States' abuse of surveillance, you should GTFO too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @06:06PM
> Yeah, and if you don't like the United States' abuse of surveillance, you should GTFO too.
Bcause privately owned reddit is exactly the same as public governance. Exactly