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Collective response to those who claim that it pushed those users to other platforms: Only marginally. If you read the paper (http://comp.social.gatech.edu/pa

by pygy_ 7y ago

Collective response to those who claim that it pushed those users to other platforms: Only marginally. If you read the paper (http://comp.social.gatech.edu/papers/cscw18-chand-hate.pdf http://comp.social.gatech.edu/papers/cscw18-chand-hate.pdf), you can see that ~20% of the users of the banned subreddits became inactive vs 10-15% in control communities. The difference for users that deleted their account is of the same magnitude. The users that stayed had a dramatic drop in hate speech. Also, people end up believing disinformation that is often repeated. Silencing those opinions probably has a net positive effect on society.

luckylion 7y ago
> The users that stayed had a dramatic drop in hate speech. Which might mean that they don't engage in hate speech as much, or that they do the hate speech thing on another platform and follow their normal hobbies on reddit.
- pygy_ 7y ago
  Not really. Page 9 has a graph of the activity before/after the ban, and the drop in activity (in post/day) matches the number of accounts that became inactive. If those users found other outlet for hating, they didn't do so by reducing their reddit activity.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    Did those include the inactive account, or is it the rate of activity of those that showed signs of life?
    - pygy_ 7y ago
      RTFP?
      - luckylion 7y ago
        I asked because I looked for that information and didn't find it by searching. As you had apparently looked into it more, I had hoped that you knew where that was stated. Sorry for asking for clarification.
        pygy_ 7y ago
        Provided they didn't mention excluding users from the count I inferred that it was the average of the non-deleted accounts (scientific writing leans towards parsimony).
sdinsn 7y ago
You seem to be making some assumptions: (1) Users that went inactive on Reddit went somewhere else, and (2) Users that didn't go inactive didn't go anywhere else. I don't think either of these assumptions are true. The fact is, we don't have a way to track users between platforms.
- pygy_ 7y ago
  You can't track them, but you can make educated guesses. There's a finite amount of time in a day. So for 1) they must have been doing something during that time they were off reddit. They could have picked up cooking or moved to a non-hating online platform. If so, that's a win anyway. For 2), that's possible, they would have to do it by reducing another activity. Given that reddit is designed to eat all your free time, I find it unlikely.
SkyBelow 7y ago
>The users that stayed had a dramatic drop in hate speech. They could have a drop based on the belief that it is being punished. Is there a study on what impact this would have on their beliefs? Does it weaken them, or does it make them believe that others are scared of the truth and thus encourage their beliefs more?
- pygy_ 7y ago
  Brain connections are like cowpaths the more they are traveled the deeper they become entrenched. Having them practicing other thoughts will let their brain gradually collect the garbage (unused synapses go weaker and are ultimately pruned over time). Some people may end up ruminating those thoughts anyway, but I'd expect them to be a minority (the propensity for long-term rumination is linked to mental issues that are somewhat prevalent, but not that much). Removing the social validation will help most people withdraw from the problematic thoughts.

by pygy_ 7y ago

luckylion 7y ago

> The users that stayed had a dramatic drop in hate speech. Which might mean that they don't engage in hate speech as much, or that they do the hate speech thing on another platform and follow their normal hobbies on reddit.

pygy_ 7y ago
Not really. Page 9 has a graph of the activity before/after the ban, and the drop in activity (in post/day) matches the number of accounts that became inactive. If those users found other outlet for hating, they didn't do so by reducing their reddit activity.
- luckylion 7y ago
  Did those include the inactive account, or is it the rate of activity of those that showed signs of life?
  - pygy_ 7y ago
    RTFP?
    - luckylion 7y ago
      I asked because I looked for that information and didn't find it by searching. As you had apparently looked into it more, I had hoped that you knew where that was stated. Sorry for asking for clarification.
      - pygy_ 7y ago
        Provided they didn't mention excluding users from the count I inferred that it was the average of the non-deleted accounts (scientific writing leans towards parsimony).

sdinsn 7y ago

You seem to be making some assumptions: (1) Users that went inactive on Reddit went somewhere else, and (2) Users that didn't go inactive didn't go anywhere else. I don't think either of these assumptions are true. The fact is, we don't have a way to track users between platforms.

pygy_ 7y ago
You can't track them, but you can make educated guesses. There's a finite amount of time in a day. So for 1) they must have been doing something during that time they were off reddit. They could have picked up cooking or moved to a non-hating online platform. If so, that's a win anyway. For 2), that's possible, they would have to do it by reducing another activity. Given that reddit is designed to eat all your free time, I find it unlikely.

SkyBelow 7y ago

>The users that stayed had a dramatic drop in hate speech. They could have a drop based on the belief that it is being punished. Is there a study on what impact this would have on their beliefs? Does it weaken them, or does it make them believe that others are scared of the truth and thus encourage their beliefs more?

pygy_ 7y ago
Brain connections are like cowpaths the more they are traveled the deeper they become entrenched. Having them practicing other thoughts will let their brain gradually collect the garbage (unused synapses go weaker and are ultimately pruned over time). Some people may end up ruminating those thoughts anyway, but I'd expect them to be a minority (the propensity for long-term rumination is linked to mental issues that are somewhat prevalent, but not that much). Removing the social validation will help most people withdraw from the problematic thoughts.