I was ready to be on board with this just because Gawker is such a mess, but anyone that follows r/SubredditDrama knows of Violentacruz and r/creepshots just shouldn't exist. I find it surprising that Reddit moderators are going so far as to do this for the sake of someone that is putting hundreds, if not thousands, of women at risk of being stalked or otherwise victimized by the type of people that think there's nothing wrong with posting pictures them to gawk at or make fun of. I really wanted a site like Reddit to work and be able to function without too much politics or this kind of childish crap, but this is really taking the cake and encouraging me to build out another alternative.
There was a great discussion on the implications a subreddit like r/creepshots can have on r/TwoXChromosomes last week. I haven't visited the site yet today, but I'd imagine they just alienated their entire female userbase (myself included), as if the users of that site didn't do enough of that already.
There aren't really any good players here (Adrian Chen is also a horse's-ass). Anyways, these subreddit moderators are trying to protect their community, regardless of who is being targeted.
For people looking for more background on the drama:
Also note that Saydrah, who appears to be defending him a bit, was a long-time reddit mod (also was an active 2Xer and is pretty pro-women's-rights). She used to be much more active but someone doxed her a couple years ago and found out she was a social-media marketer (including consulting on reddit promotion) and the reddit community turned on her pretty quickly. She was personally harassed and some members of her family were as well. Part of the female community on reddit also turned on her a bit (though not so agressively) when she posed -- in a non-provocative fully-clothed manner -- in the Reddit calendar in 2009.
If I recall correctly the reason the female community turned on Saydrah was not the photos she posted, it was because she tried to manipulate the female community into backing her up by using some really sleazy stuff. She said her gender was the reason behind the situation and nobody agreed and tore her apart for it.
There's a post somewhere, I'll try and locate it. I was an active redditor during the drama.
What is exactly wrong with taking pictures of clothed people on public places without their knowledge? I thought this happens all the damn time. Before the collective PC hysteria I saw /r/creepshots mostly as an oddity. Strange people doing strange things.
If /r/creepshots gets banned it will be just another step towards suppression of completely legal speech, because of emotional hyperventilation that has no basis in reality.
Because it is targeting people for the sole intention of harassing them at a global level. The TwoX thread had a few stories of people finding out second-hand that they were posted on there, how demeaning it was and how powerless they felt to do anything about it. They then had to deal with the repercussions of other friends/family/co-workers coming across it and all of the sleezy or insulting things said in the comments about them. No one deserves that.
Now think if the picture was taken at or around their workplace and what could happen. I can only imagine that there are bottomfeeders out there who went out of their way to try to locate where one of these women was.
While doxxing someone isn't the answer, something needs to be done so that bullies/trolls get the help they need and we can prevent something terrible from happening to one of the people posted.
All I see is suppression of free speech because it made somebody feel bad. Nothing actually illegal.
I'm pretty sure I can't just relate to how this makes women feel. If somebody took my pictures without me knowing about it and a thread about the picture talking "nice ass" "what a handsome guy" it would just raise my self-esteem.
Of course I would think these women (or gay men) would be weird and a little sad, but nothing more.
Freedom of speech is not meant to protect someones feelings. It is in fact because of the opposite. It is meant to protect speech that can hurt someones feelings. Sure, they can be judged by the content of that speech but they should still be allowed to say it.
Only exceptions I can see to this are hate speech and child porn.
You might think that's flattering, but I don't care what those people think about me and I definitely didn't ask them for their opinion -- whether or not it's in my favor. Do women like cat-calls from neighborhood windows and construction workers? No, it's rude and it implies that I exist for their enjoyment.
At the end of the day, in an era where facial- and location-recognition software are becoming more and more the norm, I don't need threads about my "nice ass" being tied to my face and my whereabouts on an open forum where anyone with a grudge against me personally or just somebody that hates my face could go and start drama without my presence and ability to defend myself.
In nearly every single thread with a picture of someone, there is a comment or two asking "Does this person live in X?" or "Is their name Y?" A (somewhat humiliating) photo of an acquaintance was posted and made it to the front page, and it seemed like everyone knew a girl that looked like her and named names, trying to work together to solve this unwanted mystery.
In the worst scenarios, you'll get exes that go off the rails and start listing off details about them before a mod finds the post. Privacy is a right, not a privilege, and while the lines blur and it becomes more of an ethical issue between who you trust with images/information you post online, it should still be treated from the perspective that gawkers should find their kicks elsewhere.
So you're pro-doxxing, then, right? Addresses and phone numbers are public record anyway, right? Why should I care if a submitter "feels bad" about his personal info leaking onto the net?
I have two exceptions to free speech: child porn and hate speech. Doxxing is dangerously close to hate speech. Its only purpose is to root out the guy or girl who made a controversial statement and punish him or her for making it. Without anonymity it is often difficult and dangerous to express reasonable, but truly controversial ideas.
In regards to Violentacrez: Every community has shock jocks. I'm not condoning any of the actions, as that shit truly is creepy on an inhuman scale, but one should understand that without the community support, the guy has nothing.
The ultimate issue is not that an individual like Violentacrez exists, but instead that the community enables it.
I'd rejoice, but history has proven that there's either another one lurking in obscurity or we'll see something similar crop up once the pitchforks are put back down.
There was a great discussion on the implications a subreddit like r/creepshots can have on r/TwoXChromosomes last week. I haven't visited the site yet today, but I'd imagine they just alienated their entire female userbase (myself included), as if the users of that site didn't do enough of that already.
Edit: Can I get explanations for the downvotes?