After today, critics of news sharing site Reddit will have a more difficult time claiming the company is invested in the business of hate speech, at least when it comes to a handful of large pro-racist communities on the site.
Not only did Reddit release its long anticipated content policy that outlines what it considers prohibited content and unacceptable behavior, but it also banned a slew of subreddits (aka communities) devoted to pro-racist ideas and discussion. Among the subreddits banned are /r/CoonTown, /r/bestofcoontown, /r/koontown, /r/CoonTownMods, /r/CoonTownMeta., and a handful of others like it. And while some users demanded a full list of banned communities, new Reddit CEO Steve Huffman attempted to explain the process for making sure these toxic subreddits stay dead.
“When something gets banned the mods often attempt to recreate the same communities, which we try and stay on top of, so it’s an ongoing process today,” Huffman commented.
That decision does make sense, and obviously killing any racist copycat subreddits before they pick up enough steam from former subscribers would also be logical. However, that doesn’t explain why Reddit wouldn’t also ban moderators responsible for creating such communities after the fact.
The move to ban subreddits like /r/CoonTown likely had something to do with one Reddit user earlier this week pointing out that Reddit had become one of the largest communities for white supremacy groups on the web, and later asked Huffman directly how he felt about it.
“Horrible, actually, but I don’t think you can win an argument by simply silencing the opposition,” he wrote.
Contrary to that response, it seems that Huffman no longer considers the discussion and submission of racist content to exist on Reddit now that these subreddits have been banned. (Although you could always argue that users are still able to continue sharing their views within other subreddits.)
One strong justification for allowing racist or hateful communities to exist on Reddit would be because the sum of all communities does theoretically expose those with racial beliefs to opposing opinions that may challenge their views. Scrubbing those communities from Reddit certainly wouldn’t eliminate a dialog of hate speech for people who are unapologetically racist either, as it would still exist elsewhere.
For now, it seems that Reddit is perfectly fine with that, although Reddit community as a whole is still pretty divided.
“Apparently only certain types of bigotry and brigading aren’t tolerated here. I wouldn’t have much problem with seeing /r/coontown go if your hate speech policy were actually fairly enacted, but this picking and choosing is the reason why many people were opposed to the hate speech policy to begin with,” wrote Reddit user Number357. “The problem with banning hate speech is that not everybody agrees on what hate speech is…”
Others immediately started listing off equally racist communities that — according to Reddit’s new content policy — now violate the “spirit of Reddit.”
As part of the new content policy rollout, Reddit has also begun to implement it’s new procedure for treating toxic subreddits differently by placing them into quarantine. Subreddits placed under quarantine will prompt users to acknowledge that the community doesn’t uphold the ideals of Reddit, but doesn’t explicitly violate the rules to merit getting banned all together. That said, I’m almost positive Reddit users will stay vocal about this distinction for the foreseeable future.
Reddit finally begins shutting down racist communities originally published by Gigaom, © copyright 2015.
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