"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: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @08:19PM
I'm expected to believe that
You're approaching this incorrectly. You are not expected to "believe". Facts are meant to be accepted if they are reliable. Possible explanations for these facts are hypothesized and evaluated based on how consistent they are with reality. Hypotheses are revised to better reflect all the facts or discarded in favor of a better one if enough facts contradict it.
actually believable
creepy thought
How believable at first glance or how creepy facts are does not matter. Scientists may approach the observations with extreme skepticism but physical reality does not care what you feel.