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Reddit censored/removed comments on Orlando shooting: watch live

96 points by giis 10y ago

DannyBee 10y ago
top comment there now from the mods: "Only comments breaking our rules are being deleted. If you think its more productive to cry about censorship then it is to discuss this horrifying event, we suggest you try another subreddit." I think it's safe to say these are not the people you want moderating /r/news (meanwhile, the top thread on at least my frontpage about it is now from /r/AskReddit, where they seem to be having a more reasonable discussion and are only deleting comments trying to doxx people)
- maxerickson 10y ago
  "awful" seems like the likely steady state for the volunteer moderation of any large online community. Especially when the moderator pool is closed or otherwise self-selecting. It's one of those jobs where you probably don't want to give it to people that really want to do it.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
adrenalinelol 10y ago
They were originally covering it, it only started getting censored when the gunman's religion was identified as Islam. I can sympathize with combating racist comments. I will not sympathize with people blatantly censoring the news because it doesn't flow with their politics.
sverige 10y ago
It's interesting that somehow we all think we can immediately divine the motivations of someone who kills a bunch of people when very often it takes a lot of time and investigation by police and prosecutors to determine motive in a court of law. It's not at all surprising that the conversations immediately following something like this are colored by politics. Was the shooter motivated by religious extremism? Was he motivated by hatred of LGBT people? Was it caused by too-liberal gun laws? Could it have been prevented by someone carrying concealed in the club? Really, who cares? Why are so many people more concerned with framing future political arguments about causes and solutions? None of it actually helps the victims or helps prevent future incidents.
fencepost 10y ago
Apparently in the face of the /r/news moderator behavior this moved over to /r/AskReddit, and is back on the front page. Looking through that thread, I also saw a few recent notes about things starting to be undeleted/unmuted in /r/news, the suspicion being that actual reddit admins have started to get involved now.
xyzzy4 10y ago
Similar to how HN is censoring it?
- philiphodgen 10y ago
  In terms of HN user behavior for flagging a submission on this topic, this is how I would see it: - pure news story about the event? I can find this on any news site and it should not be on HN. Flag. - second order impact of this event on something relevant to HN's mission (specifically, how Reddit as an organization and mods of a subreddit react)? Highly relevant and do not flag.
- laurencei 10y ago
  That is because HN is for technology based news. Whilst the shooting is tragic - it is not relevant to this news service. These types of stories are regularly removed from HN by the mods.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    > These types of stories are regularly removed from HN by the mods. No, they're removed by users flagging them.
  - tzs 10y ago
    > That is because HN is for technology based news. HN is for more than technology based news. From the HN guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Edit: Note: this comment is not meant to imply or offer an opinion on whether this particular submission is on topic for HN. It is just meant to counter the assertion that it not being a technology story disqualifies it.
    - krapp 10y ago
      The guidelines also say: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Mass shootings in the US are not a new phenomenon. This is a mainstream news story, it doesn't belong here.
Buge 10y ago
Well I wouldn't be surprised that they delete more stuff now. In that UCLA shooting a few days ago, the very top comment was a guy talking about how he was there, and how he has multple confirmations that there were 4 shooters, at least 1 of which was female, clothing descriptions of what each one was wearing, the different locations where each attacked all over campus, how there were at least 7 people shot and at least 5 dead. It was all false. There was 1 single male shooter who shot one person then shot himself in 1 room.
- partiallypro 10y ago
  Eye witnesses aren't reliable, to be frank, even in court they aren't weighed heavily as evidence. So, I don't mind moderating that sort of thing, especially if the live update might actually put more people in danger, or if it perpetuates a rumor. That being said, the Reddit mods on /r/news aren't moderating those comments...they are actually moderating legitimate news sources that were reporting possible ties to radical Islam or ISIS. We do know from the FBI he actually called 911 before the attack and pledged to ISIS, so that's not something you can dispute. We also know he was under investigation, at one time, by the FBI. Yet the Reddit mods have chosen to delete those comments or sources.
- ortusdux 10y ago
  That does not explain deleting all references to red cross blood donation. http://imgur.com/a/l3EZj http://imgur.com/a/l3EZj
  - MetaMonk 10y ago
    That was particularly weird, out of everything they could censor, why this?
    - Buge 10y ago
      Well there were 14,000+ comments on the thread. If they were quickly deleting a lot of stuff they could accidentally delete some things.
- 10y ago
curiousgal 10y ago
Not Reddit. Just the moderators of r/news. If the admins don't don't do anything about it though, then it's safe to assume they condone such practices.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  The fish always rots from the head.
cpitman 10y ago
It's really interesting the comments that are being deleted. Even links to news sources and quotes cited from news sources are being deleted. Someone saying that this was a tragedy was deleted. I'm actually not sure what doesn't get deleted at this point.
ithinkinstereo 10y ago
I've been following this all morning and it's crazy! I'm shocked that no admins have stepped in. If they don't soon, this could be a real turning point for Reddit as the "front page" of the internet. You know it's bad when the FoxNews FB page is providing more information than Reddit.
- unimpressive 10y ago
  I've gone ahead and added reddit to my /etc/hosts over this. Not because this in particular is so bad to warrant it on its own (though it is), so much as it is the final straw in a long line of things that should have been the last straw. For people who are interested in actual news instead of meme wankery, Digg has been back for a while: http://digg.com/ http://digg.com/
  - ithinkinstereo 10y ago
    We've come full circle. End of one cycle, beginning of another.
  - mistermann 10y ago
    The way reddit is going, I think it's entirely possible that digg could once again become the place to go, possibly even likely if they work towards an "uncensored reddit". I could see some event happening (like this), where a mass exodus occurs, just like happened to dogg.
    - unimpressive 10y ago
      Digg is doing a different model now, no comments. Honestly it's kind of refreshing.
      - mistermann 10y ago
        That sounds boring, like a newspaper.
exstudent2 10y ago
This was censored. I think it's safe to say that Reddit has a moderation problem. Edit: to those downvoting, care to explain why this post is controversial? I can't understand the mindset at all. -- KEEP POSTING THE MODS ARE DELETING VITAL INFO!! If you are in Orlando, please be safe and please donate blood if you can. Here are the locations to donate blood: O+ and O- blood donors needed. Due to the shooting overnight, the hospital and blood bank is critically low right now for donated blood. If you are able, please go this morning to donate at one of the locations below. This valuable gift you can give is a direct way to help those injured from this tragic incident. The Orange, Osceola, and Seminole locations open today are: Orlando - West Michigan Donor Center 345 West Michigan St #106 Orlando, FL 32806 Phone: 407-835-5500 Fax: (407) 835-5505 Sun: 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM Orlando - Main Donor Center 8669 Commodity Circle Orlando, FL 32819 Phone: (407) 248-5009 Fax: (407) 455-7570 Sun: 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM Apopka Donor Center 131 North Park Ave Apopka, FL 32703 Phone: (407) 884-7471 Fax: (407) 884-7475 Sun: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM Kissimmee Donor Center 1029 North John Young Pkwy Kissimmee, FL 34741 Phone: (407) 847-5747 Fax: (407) 847-9605 Sun: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Oviedo Donor Center 1954 West 426 #1100 Oviedo, FL 32765 Phone: (407) 588-1291 Fax: (407) 365-9982 Sun: 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM Lake Mary Donor Center 105 Waymont Ct #101 Lake Mary , FL 32746 Phone: (407) 322-0822 Fax: (407) 328- 1119 Sun: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM
wozer 10y ago
They seem to unblock some threads now (but with comments still locked). Reddit has become a weird place. Where have the normal people gone?
- api 10y ago
  Most online communities fall apart when they hit a critical size. I only visit a few small topical reddits now, like Space and SpaceX. Those are decent. HN is YC's kingdom. I expect a certain bias here and factor that in, but it's remained interesting and has avoided melting down into a total echo chamber or dumb meme cascade.
itg 10y ago
Wow, went through a few threads there and the moderators are outright banning anyone who mentions the religion of the shooter, which the fbi has confirmed.

96 points by giis 10y ago

top comment there now from the mods: "Only comments breaking our rules are being deleted. If you think its more productive to cry about censorship then it is to discuss this horrifying event, we suggest you try another subreddit." I think it's safe to say these are not the people you want moderating /r/news (meanwhile, the top thread on at least my frontpage about it is now from /r/AskReddit, where they seem to be having a more reasonable discussion and are only deleting comments trying to doxx people)

maxerickson 10y ago
"awful" seems like the likely steady state for the volunteer moderation of any large online community. Especially when the moderator pool is closed or otherwise self-selecting. It's one of those jobs where you probably don't want to give it to people that really want to do it.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

adrenalinelol 10y ago

They were originally covering it, it only started getting censored when the gunman's religion was identified as Islam. I can sympathize with combating racist comments. I will not sympathize with people blatantly censoring the news because it doesn't flow with their politics.

sverige 10y ago

It's interesting that somehow we all think we can immediately divine the motivations of someone who kills a bunch of people when very often it takes a lot of time and investigation by police and prosecutors to determine motive in a court of law. It's not at all surprising that the conversations immediately following something like this are colored by politics. Was the shooter motivated by religious extremism? Was he motivated by hatred of LGBT people? Was it caused by too-liberal gun laws? Could it have been prevented by someone carrying concealed in the club? Really, who cares? Why are so many people more concerned with framing future political arguments about causes and solutions? None of it actually helps the victims or helps prevent future incidents.

fencepost 10y ago

Apparently in the face of the /r/news moderator behavior this moved over to /r/AskReddit, and is back on the front page. Looking through that thread, I also saw a few recent notes about things starting to be undeleted/unmuted in /r/news, the suspicion being that actual reddit admins have started to get involved now.

xyzzy4 10y ago

Similar to how HN is censoring it?

philiphodgen 10y ago
In terms of HN user behavior for flagging a submission on this topic, this is how I would see it: - pure news story about the event? I can find this on any news site and it should not be on HN. Flag. - second order impact of this event on something relevant to HN's mission (specifically, how Reddit as an organization and mods of a subreddit react)? Highly relevant and do not flag.
laurencei 10y ago
That is because HN is for technology based news. Whilst the shooting is tragic - it is not relevant to this news service. These types of stories are regularly removed from HN by the mods.
- DanBC 10y ago
  > These types of stories are regularly removed from HN by the mods. No, they're removed by users flagging them.
- tzs 10y ago
  > That is because HN is for technology based news. HN is for more than technology based news. From the HN guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Edit: Note: this comment is not meant to imply or offer an opinion on whether this particular submission is on topic for HN. It is just meant to counter the assertion that it not being a technology story disqualifies it.
  - krapp 10y ago
    The guidelines also say: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Mass shootings in the US are not a new phenomenon. This is a mainstream news story, it doesn't belong here.

Buge 10y ago

Well I wouldn't be surprised that they delete more stuff now. In that UCLA shooting a few days ago, the very top comment was a guy talking about how he was there, and how he has multple confirmations that there were 4 shooters, at least 1 of which was female, clothing descriptions of what each one was wearing, the different locations where each attacked all over campus, how there were at least 7 people shot and at least 5 dead. It was all false. There was 1 single male shooter who shot one person then shot himself in 1 room.

partiallypro 10y ago
Eye witnesses aren't reliable, to be frank, even in court they aren't weighed heavily as evidence. So, I don't mind moderating that sort of thing, especially if the live update might actually put more people in danger, or if it perpetuates a rumor. That being said, the Reddit mods on /r/news aren't moderating those comments...they are actually moderating legitimate news sources that were reporting possible ties to radical Islam or ISIS. We do know from the FBI he actually called 911 before the attack and pledged to ISIS, so that's not something you can dispute. We also know he was under investigation, at one time, by the FBI. Yet the Reddit mods have chosen to delete those comments or sources.
ortusdux 10y ago
That does not explain deleting all references to red cross blood donation. http://imgur.com/a/l3EZj http://imgur.com/a/l3EZj
- MetaMonk 10y ago
  That was particularly weird, out of everything they could censor, why this?
  - Buge 10y ago
    Well there were 14,000+ comments on the thread. If they were quickly deleting a lot of stuff they could accidentally delete some things.
10y ago

curiousgal 10y ago

Not Reddit. Just the moderators of r/news. If the admins don't don't do anything about it though, then it's safe to assume they condone such practices.

WalterSear 10y ago
The fish always rots from the head.

cpitman 10y ago

It's really interesting the comments that are being deleted. Even links to news sources and quotes cited from news sources are being deleted. Someone saying that this was a tragedy was deleted. I'm actually not sure what doesn't get deleted at this point.

ithinkinstereo 10y ago

I've been following this all morning and it's crazy! I'm shocked that no admins have stepped in. If they don't soon, this could be a real turning point for Reddit as the "front page" of the internet. You know it's bad when the FoxNews FB page is providing more information than Reddit.

unimpressive 10y ago
I've gone ahead and added reddit to my /etc/hosts over this. Not because this in particular is so bad to warrant it on its own (though it is), so much as it is the final straw in a long line of things that should have been the last straw. For people who are interested in actual news instead of meme wankery, Digg has been back for a while: http://digg.com/ http://digg.com/
- ithinkinstereo 10y ago
  We've come full circle. End of one cycle, beginning of another.
- mistermann 10y ago
  The way reddit is going, I think it's entirely possible that digg could once again become the place to go, possibly even likely if they work towards an "uncensored reddit". I could see some event happening (like this), where a mass exodus occurs, just like happened to dogg.
  - unimpressive 10y ago
    Digg is doing a different model now, no comments. Honestly it's kind of refreshing.
    - mistermann 10y ago
      That sounds boring, like a newspaper.

exstudent2 10y ago

This was censored. I think it's safe to say that Reddit has a moderation problem. Edit: to those downvoting, care to explain why this post is controversial? I can't understand the mindset at all. -- KEEP POSTING THE MODS ARE DELETING VITAL INFO!! If you are in Orlando, please be safe and please donate blood if you can. Here are the locations to donate blood: O+ and O- blood donors needed. Due to the shooting overnight, the hospital and blood bank is critically low right now for donated blood. If you are able, please go this morning to donate at one of the locations below. This valuable gift you can give is a direct way to help those injured from this tragic incident. The Orange, Osceola, and Seminole locations open today are: Orlando - West Michigan Donor Center 345 West Michigan St #106 Orlando, FL 32806 Phone: 407-835-5500 Fax: (407) 835-5505 Sun: 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM Orlando - Main Donor Center 8669 Commodity Circle Orlando, FL 32819 Phone: (407) 248-5009 Fax: (407) 455-7570 Sun: 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM Apopka Donor Center 131 North Park Ave Apopka, FL 32703 Phone: (407) 884-7471 Fax: (407) 884-7475 Sun: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM Kissimmee Donor Center 1029 North John Young Pkwy Kissimmee, FL 34741 Phone: (407) 847-5747 Fax: (407) 847-9605 Sun: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Oviedo Donor Center 1954 West 426 #1100 Oviedo, FL 32765 Phone: (407) 588-1291 Fax: (407) 365-9982 Sun: 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM Lake Mary Donor Center 105 Waymont Ct #101 Lake Mary , FL 32746 Phone: (407) 322-0822 Fax: (407) 328- 1119 Sun: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM

wozer 10y ago

They seem to unblock some threads now (but with comments still locked). Reddit has become a weird place. Where have the normal people gone?

api 10y ago
Most online communities fall apart when they hit a critical size. I only visit a few small topical reddits now, like Space and SpaceX. Those are decent. HN is YC's kingdom. I expect a certain bias here and factor that in, but it's remained interesting and has avoided melting down into a total echo chamber or dumb meme cascade.

itg 10y ago

Wow, went through a few threads there and the moderators are outright banning anyone who mentions the religion of the shooter, which the fbi has confirmed.