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Reddit Auto-Censors Tech Security Related Language

posted by LaminatorX on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the First-rule-of-censorship dept.

Serial_Priest writes:

In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations in mid-2013, moderators at /r/technology configured filters to automatically censor posts containing "politicized" words, based on findings by creq. This censorship appears to be ongoing. The banned words include NSA, Comcast, Anonymous, CISPA, SOPA, Swartz, FCC, net neutrality, GHCQ, EFF, ACLU, and others.

The admins claim they simply configured their bots to delete "politicized" posts. Yet their filters (which were not announced or explained) effectively precluded meaningful discussion of contemporary issues. Could this reflect willing government collaboration by Reddit's admins, or might they have been served with an NSL to force compliance?

News coverage of the censorship is at the Daily Dot. A fuller list of banned words are available on pastebin. The reddit post reporting censorship on /r/rechnology.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by oodaloop on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:53PM

    by oodaloop (1982) <reversethis-{moc.ohoz} {ta} {ffonimakj}> on Thursday April 17 2014, @03:53PM (#32716)

    I guess that would only censor people who can't spell GCHQ.

    Apparently I'm lame for yelling one acronym. Sorry.

    Whoops, still yelling. I need to tone it down quite a bit.

    How about I just whisper the rest of the day?

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 17 2014, @04:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 17 2014, @04:00PM (#32718)

    How about I just whisper the rest of the day?

    Good idea. That way maybe the [censored] and the [censored] won't hear you when you speak about [censored] or [censored]. :-)