Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

[SummerMadness]

Reddit Bans Nazi Groups and Others in Crackdown on Violent Content

Reddit, the online internet forum, has started to implement a new policy to ban content that glorifies and incites violence, and among the first to go were forums for Nazi, racist and white supremacist groups.

The company outlined the update to its policy on Wednesday, with one statement in its help center and another by an administrator on the site itself, where a vocal community challenged the changes.

 

[Motherofkittens]

What took them so long?

 

[MoonlessNight]

What took them so long?

Clearly Reddit has no real issue with Nazi groups, and are only now banning them due to outside pressure. Otherwise, as you say, why would they not have banned them a year ago or from their founding?

I would caution any respectable person from supporting Reddit. They are doing this to try to convince you that they have changed their ways, but likely they will go back to hosting hate when it is convenient for them. The right thing to do is to double down and make sure they enforce civility on their users good and hard. Though honestly even then it would probably be better to not support them, since it would still be true that they supported such groups in the past regardless of whether they changed their ways.

 

[Redac]

All sorts of anarchist subreddits where violence is openly talked about remain up. So far it's less about "violent content" and more about far right and/or pro-white subreddits. I'll wait and see if they go beyond that niche, but somehow I doubt they will.

 

[SummerMadness]

I say keep ISIS and similar groups off Reddit.

 

[Motherofkittens]

Clearly Reddit has no real issue with Nazi groups, and are only now banning them due to outside pressure. Otherwise, as you say, why would they not have banned them a year ago or from their founding?

I would caution any respectable person from supporting Reddit. They are doing this to try to convince you that they have changed their ways, but likely they will go back to hosting hate when it is convenient for them. The right thing to do is to double down and make sure they enforce civility on their users good and hard. Though honestly even then it would probably be better to not support them, since it would still be true that they supported such groups in the past regardless of whether they changed their ways.

Yes, and it is so disgusting and disappointing. I already don't go on Reddit.

 

[Motherofkittens]

All sorts of anarchist subreddits where violence is openly talked about remain up. So far it's less about "violent content" and more about far right and/or pro-white subreddits. I'll wait and see if they go beyond that niche, but somehow I doubt they will.

I agree all the violent planning needs to be taken down.

Why those ones haven't yet is probably because Reddit just started this policy, for some reason and the group's you are talking about are a lot smaller. So, it is smart to go after the bigger ones first. There isn't a magic wand that they can use to just get X off their site and keep it off.

Edit
I did some looking, I didn't see any violent talk there now (anarchy threads). I don't know if Reddit took it down already or I just couldn't find any or there is an exaggeration about the violent planning there.

 

[SummerMadness]

I agree all the violent planning needs to be taken down.

Why those ones haven't yet is probably because Reddit just started this policy, for some reason and the group's you are talking about are a lot smaller. So, it is smart to go after the bigger ones first. There isn't a magic ward that they can use to just get X off their site and keep it off.

Agreed, I think it's best to remove those advocating race wars and genocide. There seems to be this prevailing view that Nazism is simply just another view that's completely harmless. That attitude is simply political correctness that treats dangerous ideologies as simply a disliked pizza topping. The sad part, people can't even bring themselves to denouncing Nazism, they're too busy trying to find some pseudo-middle, most likely because they don't want to be seen agreeing with liberals.

I think this a good read, it's a shame our politics has made one pocket of the political spectrum silent on Nazism: Nazism: what it is, why we fight it, and how – Extra Newsfeed

 

[High Fidelity]

Yes, and it is so disgusting and disappointing. I already don't go on Reddit.

Reddit is basically its own internet. It's all there, you just have to choose to look for it.

 

[Motherofkittens]

Reddit is basically its own internet. It's all there, you just have to choose to look for it.

It really is. And some of it is very helpful and I don't fault anyone for going. I just don't for ethical reasons after all the pro rape, pro genocide, pro violence against minorities, etc.

Every place has its problems, of course. I usually try to change it in a positive way, but the fact that there are MILLIONS upon millions of people approving of the violence and prejudices, it is just too much for me.

 

[Redac]

I agree all the violent planning needs to be taken down.

There's little actual, concrete planning of violent action that takes place on reddit, and what little does get planned usually happens in smaller leftist areas which do actually get removed. This is more about "violent rhetoric" and ideas than anything else.

Why those ones haven't yet is probably because Reddit just started this policy, for some reason and the group's you are talking about are a lot smaller. So, it is smart to go after the bigger ones first. There isn't a magic wand that they can use to just get X off their site and keep it off.

This isn't the first time they've purged communities for hate speech, violent rhetoric, or whatever other excuse they can think up, and it's not the first time they've targeted the far right while ignoring the far left. This appears to be Reddit policing "wrongthink" as much as anything else.

Edit
I did some looking, I didn't see any violent talk there now (anarchy threads). I don't know if Reddit took it down already or I just couldn't find any or there is an exaggeration about the violent planning there.

Again, there's basically no planning happening anywhere. It's much more theoretical in nature, both left and right. Alt right communities might debate how much force is justified or necessary in establishing an ethnostate or expelling invaders from European countries; anarchists will argue over things like whether throwing molotovs at and lighting police and "fascists" on fire is acceptable. Only one of those ends up being cracked down on from the top, and I'll let you guess which.

 

[Rion]

What took them so long?

I'm still waiting for them to ban LateStageCapitalism, etc.

 

[dmmesdale]

Reddit bans, shadow bans, auto bans by auto mods. Reddit is a waste.

 

[Rion]

Reddit bans, shadow bans, auto bans by auto mods. Reddit is a waste.

My favorite was when one of the admins was caught editing users' posts, and hiding that it had been edited.