Reddit's content curation has come at a time when social media writ large (Facebook, Twitter) has become linked into State Department and DoD programs. Counter-

Reddit's content curation has come at a time when social media writ large (Facebook, Twitter) has become linked into State Department and DoD programs. Counter-intelligence objectives are fought on the 'private property' of social media servers that host the content of individuals. Fighting the 'War of Ideas' in the 'cognitive domain of warfare', the effort to starve unwanted ideas for a place to roost and feed others to maturity is certainly useful, but it comes at a cost. There is some value in ungoverned spaces, where advertisements, political astroturfing, politicized content curation ("no 'RT' allowed, but we'll allow VoA and Sky") play a secondary role to the contributions of individuals. The internet was supposed to be an ungoverned space - a 'piazza' or 'forum' - but when it wasn't and when the 'Web' wasn't social media was supposed to fill this gap. Behind the cry of those protesting the take down of 'revenge porn' and 'fat hate' postings, I hear the more sober voice that adknowledges that there's one less place that's a safe and free place for expression - as unpopular as some of it may be.