Reddit Bans Subreddits about Making Fun of Fat People, Neogaf, and others.

[Mid Boss]

CuteFemaleCorpses - A subreddit dedicated to images of dead girls.
HurtingAnimals - A subreddit dedicated to images of animal abuse.[/sub]

I'm having a real hard time giving a fuck about the freedom of speech of people who enjoy looking at animal abuse.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well your problem there is expecting a petition to do anything about that. Take that video to /b/ and the criminals will likely be located and reported to their local authorities within minutes.

That would definitely be the more expedient path of escalation.

Naturally, nothing BAD ever came of activating internet lynch mobs, so it's pretty risk-free, too!

 

[The Lunatic]

I'm having a real hard time giving a fuck about the freedom of speech of people who like looking at animal abuse.

Well, as far as I'm aware, freedom of speech doesn't extend to illegal content, such as animal abuse and such.

So, there's not much overlap.

The point is more, "Why is a legal subreddit which privately mocks overweight people unacceptable whilst pictures of animal abuse are?".

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Besides, the new landlady has expressed her distaste for the people in /r/TumblrinAction & /r/Kotakuinaction for having different political views than her. Should we as tenants stand by if / when they are evicted?

I'm not saying what YOU should do, but if some people hear about fatpeoplehate getting banned, and their first thought is that they might be next, and migrate to voat, that's still better for reddit than them staying there, given what kind of people would think "wait, our politics are more similar to FatPeopleHate's than to Pao's!"

Worst case scenario, if sub bans become ideologically motivated, poli-reddit will become dominated politically leftist ideologues, while voat becomes a landfill for reactionaries and bigots. That would still affect an absurdly small fraction of reddit's overall audience, as most people are simply not there for the political circlejerks, and it would very likely save the site from a Digg-like ruination through right wing brigading.

I think a lot of people are in limbo right now. Voat can't handle the strain of all the new users at the minute and so most users are hanging around waiting for either that or further admin action before making another move.

Hang on? Are you implying the only people who would have issue with a Left wing authoritarian stance taken by admins would be reactionaries, bigots and members of the right wing?

Because I'm left wing (European Left at that), and take serious issue with the crackdown on supposed "dangerous" thoughts. The FPHaters are gonna hate anyway, so rather than contain it, Pao has opened the floodgates and now I don't think support for the group has ever been higher.

So who started with calling it 'dangerous'?

I wouldn't be surprised if people suspect you're right wing because there's a large hint of red scare mentality

Please explain in detail how me opposing the site's new shift in policy against a less tolerant administration is now "right wing".
As for the Chairman Pao poster above, that's a parody I saw last week. The iconography and everything is getting pretty popular on the site. Repeating it doesn't make me right wing, and neither does opposing the admin's double standards.

LOL. Right after you show me where I said that XD

You are exuding red scare mentality all over. Y'know the bit about bringing up her politics and all. Ahhh she's a scary radical leftist and all. And the 'dangerous' ideas bit, trying to make motives up like that says it all. You're trying to pin a particular 'scary' set of political motives on her.

Oh, sorry I didn't mean to attribute "dangerous" to you. It was a mod on reddit when someone asked them about why some subs were banned and others weren't:
http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits/
It's in there somewhere.

And I don't even mind what her political views are. The leader of the Westboro Baptist Church could be an admin as long as they did their jobs properly.
The problem I have is that some of her comments regarding the site contradict what previous CEOs have said (keep in mind Pao is still currently listed as "Interim CEO"), and gives off this idea that she doesn't know what she's doing;
http://www.reddit.com/r/rulefollower/comments/39fzyd/mfw_reddit_ceo_ellen_pao_doesnt_know_how_to_use/

If I was getting into the same level of concern if a far right republican started banning subreddit would you be criticizing me for being leftist?
And be honest, I want to know how far I should be going with this.

The problem I have is with bringing her views up as part of it. That's the bit where I'm seeing a particular mentality. So far the bans have not been skewed towards a particular political view unless hating fat people is now a political thing. I also never said you were of a particular view, I said I could see where people may guess it.

As for a far right Republican, my thoughts would depend on if it appeared their political views were relevant. The subs do not look like political targets.

It's not that FatPeopleHate lies on a political spectrum or something.
Its that a more infamous subreddit (SRS) is politically motivated but was spared. People have speculated its because the sub and Pao have overlapping political views. Also her husband may or may not have laundered money. It's a long story that even some of it I don't believe.

There are other subs people pointed out that aren't banned either. Like coontown.

What looks politically motivated with that in mind is the giant spotlight on SRS that ignores the other subs that survived.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well, rest assured I am not right wing. Even if somehow that was a bad thing, I am not.

I know it isn't, and IDGAF what your political affiliation is. I imagine it might become tangentially relevant if we ever sat down to discuss politics, but I don't hang out in R&P so it seems vanishingly unlikely that will ever happen.

Pao's "leftist" beliefs have been brought up a few times in this thread now as some kind of smoking gun.

 

[The Lunatic]

There are other subs people pointed out that aren't banned either. Like coontown.

What looks politically motivated with that in mind is the giant spotlight on SRS that ignores the other subs that survived.

SRS is infamous for it's brigading and doxing nature. If you're implementing a policy that's about stopping harassment and not doing it against a section which is widely regarded as the place where all that happens, it's a rather questionable decision.

Political opinion or not. The "No harassment" rule should clearly be applied to a place like SRS, the entire existence of which is based around brigading and harassing individuals.

 

[Josh123914]

Besides, the new landlady has expressed her distaste for the people in /r/TumblrinAction & /r/Kotakuinaction for having different political views than her. Should we as tenants stand by if / when they are evicted?

I'm not saying what YOU should do, but if some people hear about fatpeoplehate getting banned, and their first thought is that they might be next, and migrate to voat, that's still better for reddit than them staying there, given what kind of people would think "wait, our politics are more similar to FatPeopleHate's than to Pao's!"

Worst case scenario, if sub bans become ideologically motivated, poli-reddit will become dominated politically leftist ideologues, while voat becomes a landfill for reactionaries and bigots. That would still affect an absurdly small fraction of reddit's overall audience, as most people are simply not there for the political circlejerks, and it would very likely save the site from a Digg-like ruination through right wing brigading.

I think a lot of people are in limbo right now. Voat can't handle the strain of all the new users at the minute and so most users are hanging around waiting for either that or further admin action before making another move.

Hang on? Are you implying the only people who would have issue with a Left wing authoritarian stance taken by admins would be reactionaries, bigots and members of the right wing?

Because I'm left wing (European Left at that), and take serious issue with the crackdown on supposed "dangerous" thoughts. The FPHaters are gonna hate anyway, so rather than contain it, Pao has opened the floodgates and now I don't think support for the group has ever been higher.

So who started with calling it 'dangerous'?

I wouldn't be surprised if people suspect you're right wing because there's a large hint of red scare mentality

Please explain in detail how me opposing the site's new shift in policy against a less tolerant administration is now "right wing".
As for the Chairman Pao poster above, that's a parody I saw last week. The iconography and everything is getting pretty popular on the site. Repeating it doesn't make me right wing, and neither does opposing the admin's double standards.

LOL. Right after you show me where I said that XD

You are exuding red scare mentality all over. Y'know the bit about bringing up her politics and all. Ahhh she's a scary radical leftist and all. And the 'dangerous' ideas bit, trying to make motives up like that says it all. You're trying to pin a particular 'scary' set of political motives on her.

Oh, sorry I didn't mean to attribute "dangerous" to you. It was a mod on reddit when someone asked them about why some subs were banned and others weren't:
http://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits/
It's in there somewhere.

And I don't even mind what her political views are. The leader of the Westboro Baptist Church could be an admin as long as they did their jobs properly.
The problem I have is that some of her comments regarding the site contradict what previous CEOs have said (keep in mind Pao is still currently listed as "Interim CEO"), and gives off this idea that she doesn't know what she's doing;
http://www.reddit.com/r/rulefollower/comments/39fzyd/mfw_reddit_ceo_ellen_pao_doesnt_know_how_to_use/

If I was getting into the same level of concern if a far right republican started banning subreddit would you be criticizing me for being leftist?
And be honest, I want to know how far I should be going with this.

The problem I have is with bringing her views up as part of it. That's the bit where I'm seeing a particular mentality. So far the bans have not been skewed towards a particular political view unless hating fat people is now a political thing. I also never said you were of a particular view, I said I could see where people may guess it.

As for a far right Republican, my thoughts would depend on if it appeared their political views were relevant. The subs do not look like political targets.

It's not that FatPeopleHate lies on a political spectrum or something.
Its that a more infamous subreddit (SRS) is politically motivated but was spared. People have speculated its because the sub and Pao have overlapping political views. Also her husband may or may not have laundered money. It's a long story that even some of it I don't believe.

There are other subs people pointed out that aren't banned either. Like coontown.

What looks politically motivated with that in mind is the giant spotlight on SRS that ignores the other subs that survived.

I disagree with both coontown and FPH, but neither were as high profile as ShitRedditSays in terms of complaints or list of alleged broken rules.

That's all I've really got to say on the subject. We'll see how this plays out in the coming days.

Captcha: Kangaroo court. Captcha please. Why?????

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

There are other subs people pointed out that aren't banned either. Like coontown.

What looks politically motivated with that in mind is the giant spotlight on SRS that ignores the other subs that survived.

SRS is infamous for it's brigading and doxing nature. If you're implementing a policy that's about stopping harassment and not doing it against a section which is widely regarded as the place where all that happens, it's a rather questionable decision.

Political opinion or not. The "No harassment" rule should clearly be applied to a place like SRS, the entire existence of which is based around brigading and harassing individuals.

I like how you say things like 'infamous' and 'widely regarded' as if that lends legitimacy to a position

 

[The Lunatic]

I like how you say things like 'infamous' and 'widely regarded' as if that lends legitimacy to a position

I'm not privy to the private messages and inner-workings of Reddit. It's not a site I particularly frequent, so, I'm not going to make claims that simply have no basis.


All I can say it, a lot of people report receiving abuse in the form of PMs and "Down vote brigading" after one of their posts is linked in that section.

 

[Mid Boss]

I'm having a real hard time giving a fuck about the freedom of speech of people who like looking at animal abuse.

Well, as far as I'm aware, freedom of speech doesn't extend to illegal content, such as animal abuse and such.

So, there's not much overlap.

The point is more, "Why is a legal subreddit which privately mocks overweight people unacceptable whilst pictures of animal abuse are?".

Ahhh I see. I didn't read the post closely enough. I thought he was listing other subreddits that had also been shut down when he was listing subs that were untouched.

.... Perhaps the police should be gather those people's IPs and paying them a visit. You know. See if there's a starved dog tied up in their basement or a hamster being slowly tortured to death for kicks. Maybe court order some therapy sessions and assess whether or not they're complete sociopaths that need to be removed from society before they make their way to torturing people.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

I like how you say things like 'infamous' and 'widely regarded' as if that lends legitimacy to a position

I'm not privy to the private messages and inner-workings of Reddit. It's not a site I particularly frequent, so, I'm not going to make claims that simply have no basis.


All I can say it, a lot of people report receiving abuse in the form of PMs and "Down vote brigading" after one of their posts is linked in that section.

Well surely that means you have a basis for the infamous and widely regarded remarks. Or likely not.

I'm sure that's all verified. Do you make sure they tag their hate?

 

[The Lunatic]

Well surely that means you have a basis for the infamous and widely regarded remarks. Or likely not.

I'm sure that's all verified. Do you make sure they tag their hate?

Infamous, in this instance meaning widely known for a negative trait.

Widely know, as we can see by the fact they've been mentioned so much in this thread.

You could also google "ShitredditSays" and you'd get plenty of negative results.

Widely regarded is just another way of saying "Well known", which is why various sites, such as 4chan have a "Shit4chanSays" board, emulating the subreddit "For the lulz".

I guess "Widely regarded" could also refer to the average user of that subreddit's waistline. But, I have no evidence of this beyond a hunch.

 

[Dalek Caan]

"Coontown", a subreddit dedicated towards the mockery of black people in light of the recent police shootings remains open.

Wow.

CuteFemaleCorpses - A subreddit dedicated to images of dead girls.

What.

Hurting Animals - A subreddit dedicated to images of animal abuse

Jesus.

ShitRedditSays - A subreddit dedicated to harassing anyone who isn't a fat lesbian genderfish.

Ok, that last one I'm not sure about until someone explains it to me, because fuck if I'm going into Reddit right now, but all of those should have been taken down first. The Fat Hate subreddit is awful but the ones where people enjoy looking at images of dead people or animals and being racist against Black people are probably worse. I hope this is a case where they will be getting round to it.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Redditors are such whiny little babies. I cannot for the life of me understand the kind of people who would spend all of their days relentlessly mocking others. What sad, sad little people.

Wow... I was never really familiar with Reddit, and now I thank God for that.

Just so you know, Reddit isn't some unified community. There are subreddits like the ones mentioned in this thread, and yeah, they're pretty fucking awful(but then there's subreddits that spoof them like /r/farpeoplehate [http://www.reddit.com/r/farpeoplehate/]). And there are political and activist related subreddits that are pretty much giant echo chambers.

But then there are topic-focused subreddits. And those are some of the best places to discuss a specific topic to be found. They can be broad, like /r/anime/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/anime/] or /r/visualnovels/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/], or you can get more specific, such as /r/projecteternity/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/] or /r/xkcd/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/]. Want to learn how to draw? /r/artfundamentals/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals/] wouldn't be a bad place to start. Or try /r/learnjapanese/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/] to start learning a new language(if the language you want to learn happens to be Japanese). Maybe you feel like listening to music and want to try something new. /r/listentothis/ [http://www.reddit.com/r/listentothis/] has you covered.

Reddit definitely has its dark and grungy side, but overall, it's the best place I've found for discussing most of the topics I'm interested in, including gaming.

#notallredditors

I'm aware of how reddit works thank you, but it's kinda hard to see the good side when the whole front page is people being mad that their favorite subreddit got banned.

#bullshitargument

Who even looks at the front page? Apparently some assholes, which is a good reason for me to continue not going to the front page. As I said, Reddit is not a single community, and you trying to pigeonhole all of us into one only speaks badly for your argument, not the communities I'm part of, all of which are happily doing their own thing and paying this whole kerfuffle no mind at all(well, except /r/xkcd/, but given the nature of the webcomic, it'd be weird for them not to talk about it). You may as well expand your invective to include all internet users regardless of website if you're fine with that level of accuracy.

Want to talk bad about /r/fatpeoplehate/? Go ahead. It was a stupid subreddit. There are a lot of stupid subreddits. But then, there are a lot of subreddits, so it's kind of inevitable that some would be pretty shit. But claiming that you know how Reddit works and then immediately demonstrating that you either really don't or simply don't give a shit about insulting entire swaths of the internet who have nothing to do with what you're complaining about doesn't exactly make what you're saying any better than what they're saying.

 

[VanQ]

Well your problem there is expecting a petition to do anything about that. Take that video to /b/ and the criminals will likely be located and reported to their local authorities within minutes.

That would definitely be the more expedient path of escalation.

Naturally, nothing BAD ever came of activating internet lynch mobs, so it's pretty risk-free, too!

Well, /b/ has a good history of handling such matters well in the past. They've caught plenty of animal abusers and it never escalated beyond finding the perpetrators and reporting them to their local authorities.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Well surely that means you have a basis for the infamous and widely regarded remarks. Or likely not.

I'm sure that's all verified. Do you make sure they tag their hate?

Infamous, in this instance meaning widely known for a negative trait.

Widely know, as we can see by the fact they've been mentioned so much in this thread.

You could also google "ShitredditSays" and you'd get plenty of negative results.

Widely regarded is just another way of saying "Well known", which is why various sites, such as 4chan have a "Shit4chanSays" board, emulating the subreddit "For the lulz".

I guess "Widely regarded" could also refer to the average user of that subreddit's waistline. But, I have no evidence of this beyond a hunch.

If we were to use the standard of 'look how many people in this thread know about it' to determine widely known then we may as well call you famous since most posters probably noticed you as the OP. Personally I think that's a pretty flimsy basis to call something well known.

And how far back do I need to look to find plenty of negative results? I Googled and got fairly minimal results on the negativity for the first 3 pages.

In the end, even were it infamous, which wasn't really shown, that still wouldn't lend credibility to anything. It's an appeal to popularity still

 

[Denamic]

Wow... I was never really familiar with Reddit, and now I thank God for that.

That's a bit of a mistake. Reddit is not a single community that you can render judgement upon. It's a meeting spot for countless different communities. The subreddits are fiercely different from one another.

 

[Yal]

Well, as far as I'm aware, freedom of speech doesn't extend to illegal content, such as animal abuse and such.

There's almost no such thing as "illegal content" in the United States (aside from the obvious one). The Supreme Court dealt with animal snuff porn just a few years ago. Protected speech. That was the "crush video" case, which I am not going to try and look up while I'm at work.

Animal abuse is illegal. Documentation of animal abuse is not.

 

[Alterego-X]

Ok, that last one I'm not sure about until someone explains it to me, because fuck if I'm going into Reddit right now, but all of those should have been taken down first.

Shit Reddit Says is basically an "SJW" hub, quoting other redditors' bigoted posts. Nowadays it's not very frequented, so it's mostly referenced as a boogeyman/synonym-of-SJWs-in-general, like tumblr.

The Fat Hate subreddit is awful but the ones where people enjoy looking at images of dead people or animals and being racist against Black people are probably worse. I hope this is a case where they will be getting round to it.

The official line is that reddit is still not censoring ideas, just specific harrassments. The day before gtting banned, Fatpeoplehate got their imgur pictures removed, so they started doxxing imgur workers. Meanwhile, subs like coontown are largely just shitting over their own place.


It seems to me, that there is also a lenience being made for established idea-debating subs even if they watch over the rest of reddit, like Shitredditsays and subredditdrama on the left and kotakuinaction or subredditcancer on the right.

 

[The Lunatic]

There's almost no such thing as "illegal content" in the United States (aside from the obvious one). The Supreme Court dealt with animal snuff porn just a few years ago. Protected speech. That was the "crush video" case, which I am not going to try and look up while I'm at work.

Animal abuse is illegal. Documentation of animal abuse is not.

Huh! I didn't know that. Weird.

I know /r/Jailbait got banned a while back, also not technically illegal, but... Well, you know.

Reddit seemingly has a habit for inconsistency.