Good. I don't really use reddit anymore these days, largely because of their censorship policies, but this is a step in the right direction. Free speech is an important western value, and having it available on the internet is a positive thing. Let abhorrent views be aired publicly and die by being refuted, not be hidden and fester into extremist madness.
This is a silly argument I see repeated all the time. Do you allow racist views in your house because of free speech? Nobody needs to go out of their way to provide a forum for racists.
> This is a silly argument I see repeated all the time.
That silly argument is one of the core tenants of western Liberalism.
> Do you allow racist views in your house because of free speech?
My home is an intimate comfort zone. The entirety of life should not be a comfort zone. There are plenty of views that should be tolerated in society that I wouldn't invite into my home.
> Nobody needs to go out of their way to provide a forum for racists.
It seems like they're not going out of their way to censor that specific form of speech. That's quite different than going out of their way to provide a forum for racists specifically.
Reddit is a private corporation, these supposed core tenants of western liberalism do not mean they need to provide a forum for racists. Don’t confuse their love of ad clicks for being some champion of free speech.
> Reddit is a private corporation, these supposed core tenants of western liberalism do not mean they need to provide a forum for racists.
It seems like you're arguing with cliches that I'm not putting forward. They're a private corporation, and I'm saying I support their decision to not go further down the road of speech censorship. I'm not saying they're not capable of more censorship, I'm saying I support the choice they've made.
I fail to see the point of your use of the word "supposed" there. Free speech is unequivocally a core tenant of western Liberalism. It's fine if you don't believe in Liberalism, it seems quite popular not to currently, but attempting to redefine it is a bit Orwellian.
Of course not. And its arguable that Reddit is more like a crowded theatre and not a public place; thus hollering 'fire!' or trolling racistly not acceptable/safe.
But its also true we should hold even private organizations to some standard, and supporting free speech in principle is a core American value.
In the end I guess I'm on the side of "too little friction there; too likely to incide a riot" for these public forums. I come down on the side of some kind of moderator.
I'm pretty sure they banned all the racist subreddits at one point. Was that not the case?
I'm not a fan of the more fascist aspects of the reddit userbase. There's immense value, I think, in allowing ignorant people free speech and over-labeling things as hate speech can be dangerous. For a while the site has been more about shouting and downvotes and less about dialog.
Even if one does not subscribe to absolute free speech, I find the prospect of private companies censoring large parts of the internet as they please even scarier.
