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The 'frontpage of the internet' is actively taking control of the subreddit of a presidential candidate, in an election year. I know that HN is highly against T

The 'frontpage of the internet' is actively taking control of the subreddit of a presidential candidate, in an election year. I know that HN is highly against Trump, and probably cheer for this decision, but how is this not a democratic issue?

ordinaryradical 7y ago
Reddit is a private enterprise and enforces its own rules for conduct across all communities and the_donald has routinely broken those roles as have the moderators. You don't have free speech on a private platform nor is there any democratic mandate to how Reddit must operate.
- handedness 7y ago
  Regardless of where you fall on the ideological spectrum, selective enforcement is a significant problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement
  - kickopotomus 7y ago
    If that is the case, would you mind sourcing policy-breaking content from antithetical subreddits that have not been removed, quarantined, banned, etc?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
botwriter 7y ago
an upvote to you sir. anyone who says anything even remotely in favour of trump usally loses all there HN points.
brosinante 7y ago
the_donald is not the subreddit of a presidential candidate.
- baalimago 7y ago
  Oh, I were not aware. I don't have a reddit account and can't even get into the subreddit without one.
bovermyer 7y ago
I am continually amazed at how many people believe that "free speech" applies to anything other than the government. No government agency is allowed to impede free speech (with a handful of exceptions). This rule does not apply to any other organization.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- blackflame7000 7y ago
  What about a company partially owned by the Chinese using censorship as a means to interfere in the US election?
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  Free speech isn't limited to the government. The government may be the only entity legally obligated to uphold it, but we can still be unhappy when others elect to suppress it.
  - sixstringtheory 7y ago
    You can be unhappy, absolutely. But you still don’t get to dictate what reddit does or to what their users should be subjected.
    - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
      I don't think anyone was trying to dictate what they do, they are just voicing their disdain. It's a very reasonable thing to be unhappy about, and a great way to lose users.
- dx87 7y ago
  I'm continually amazed at how many people believe that "free speech" didn't exist before the 1st amendment was added to the constitution of the USA.
  - 7y ago
resters 7y ago
HN is actually surprisingly pro-Trump. I have been shocked at the broad support for economic nationalism (trade protectionism, etc.) from HN participants, as well as the chorus of agreement with Trump's anti-China stance.
- chrisco255 7y ago
  You're shocked that there are people who support liberty as a concept and they are anti-China as a result?
  - resters 7y ago
    Supporting "liberty" would lead just as logically to being "anti-China" as it would to being "anti-US". China is perhaps more authoritarian, but not fundamentally different.
    - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
      Tell that to the people in their "re-education centers" or the people who have had their organs harvested. The US may not be innocent, but it is nothing like China. > Perhaps more authoritarian Understatement of the century.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  Having one's opinions overlap with Trump's doesn't mean they are pro-Trump.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  It's not a surprise. The war media has conditioned Americans to mistrust other nations and nationalities. Trump happens to agree with the dominant narrative with respect to China. So of course lots of news consumers agree with him, with respect to China.
Traster 7y ago
Go and start you own website, create a sub-page for /r/president_warren and fill it with gay porn. It's not a democratic issue. It's also worth noting, /r/the_donald isn't and has never been controlled by actual people associated with the Trump campaign so to describe it as "the subreddit of a presidential candidate" is frankly just incorrect. It's a sub-reddit for supporters of a candidate, and those users happen to also be repeat offenders under the site-wide policies.
Fauntleroy 7y ago
You say this as if the members of r/the_donald are just regular ol' folks just talkin' about their candidate. This was/is one of the most rule-breaking subreddits on the entire website, which has only survived until this day due to preferential treatment. Subreddits have been completely banned for much, much less.
- chrisco255 7y ago
  It is one of the largest subreddits and it deals with a highly charged topic (politics) so naturally it draws in all the trolls.
  - LargeWu 7y ago
    It's misguided to think that T_D is about politics, because it's not. It's about identity. The politics here are incidental.
    - chrisco255 7y ago
      Do you think the growth in users at T_D occurred before or after Trump announced his candidacy? It is clearly a political forum. And as far as politics and identity goes, I don't think you can find two more tightly related topics other than perhaps religion.
      - LargeWu 7y ago
        My contention is that there is very little actual political discussion happening there. It's mostly memes, upvoting parties, and tribalism. Any talk of "libs" or "liberals" is not based on any specific policies or ideology, it's almost exclusively based on "us" vs "them"; anybody who does not worship Trump, the American flag, guns, the military, or local law enforcement (but not the FBI!) is part of "them".
rtkwe 7y ago
This is at the end of a long long line of trying to find some way to deal with one of the more unruly subreddits on the site that's been the source of loads of brigading, vote manipulation [0], and doxxing. If a community can't behave after 4 years of warnings and increasing controls at some point Reddit had to do something, this is short of just banning everyone and nuking the community which they're well within their rights to do. [0] At one point td was basically the only thing on r/all because they found out that by upvoting everything and stickying posts to get upvoted they could spam the rest of the site.
caconym_ 7y ago
Calling T_D "the subreddit of a presidential candidate" is like calling a forum for hardcore Harry Potter-themed BDSM erotica "the forum for Harry Potter". Except ... that the latter is pretty harmless and all in good fun for the people who are into it, while T_D is a venue for (among other things) radicalizing literal children with blind ideological hatred and shameless untruths. I still like the analogy, though.

ordinaryradical 7y ago

Reddit is a private enterprise and enforces its own rules for conduct across all communities and the_donald has routinely broken those roles as have the moderators. You don't have free speech on a private platform nor is there any democratic mandate to how Reddit must operate.

handedness 7y ago
Regardless of where you fall on the ideological spectrum, selective enforcement is a significant problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement
- kickopotomus 7y ago
  If that is the case, would you mind sourcing policy-breaking content from antithetical subreddits that have not been removed, quarantined, banned, etc?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

botwriter 7y ago

an upvote to you sir. anyone who says anything even remotely in favour of trump usally loses all there HN points.

brosinante 7y ago

the_donald is not the subreddit of a presidential candidate.

baalimago 7y ago
Oh, I were not aware. I don't have a reddit account and can't even get into the subreddit without one.

bovermyer 7y ago

I am continually amazed at how many people believe that "free speech" applies to anything other than the government. No government agency is allowed to impede free speech (with a handful of exceptions). This rule does not apply to any other organization.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
blackflame7000 7y ago
What about a company partially owned by the Chinese using censorship as a means to interfere in the US election?
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
Free speech isn't limited to the government. The government may be the only entity legally obligated to uphold it, but we can still be unhappy when others elect to suppress it.
- sixstringtheory 7y ago
  You can be unhappy, absolutely. But you still don’t get to dictate what reddit does or to what their users should be subjected.
  - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
    I don't think anyone was trying to dictate what they do, they are just voicing their disdain. It's a very reasonable thing to be unhappy about, and a great way to lose users.
dx87 7y ago
I'm continually amazed at how many people believe that "free speech" didn't exist before the 1st amendment was added to the constitution of the USA.
- 7y ago

resters 7y ago

HN is actually surprisingly pro-Trump. I have been shocked at the broad support for economic nationalism (trade protectionism, etc.) from HN participants, as well as the chorus of agreement with Trump's anti-China stance.

chrisco255 7y ago
You're shocked that there are people who support liberty as a concept and they are anti-China as a result?
- resters 7y ago
  Supporting "liberty" would lead just as logically to being "anti-China" as it would to being "anti-US". China is perhaps more authoritarian, but not fundamentally different.
  - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
    Tell that to the people in their "re-education centers" or the people who have had their organs harvested. The US may not be innocent, but it is nothing like China. > Perhaps more authoritarian Understatement of the century.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
Having one's opinions overlap with Trump's doesn't mean they are pro-Trump.
jessaustin 7y ago
It's not a surprise. The war media has conditioned Americans to mistrust other nations and nationalities. Trump happens to agree with the dominant narrative with respect to China. So of course lots of news consumers agree with him, with respect to China.

Traster 7y ago

Go and start you own website, create a sub-page for /r/president_warren and fill it with gay porn. It's not a democratic issue. It's also worth noting, /r/the_donald isn't and has never been controlled by actual people associated with the Trump campaign so to describe it as "the subreddit of a presidential candidate" is frankly just incorrect. It's a sub-reddit for supporters of a candidate, and those users happen to also be repeat offenders under the site-wide policies.

Fauntleroy 7y ago

You say this as if the members of r/the_donald are just regular ol' folks just talkin' about their candidate. This was/is one of the most rule-breaking subreddits on the entire website, which has only survived until this day due to preferential treatment. Subreddits have been completely banned for much, much less.

chrisco255 7y ago
It is one of the largest subreddits and it deals with a highly charged topic (politics) so naturally it draws in all the trolls.
- LargeWu 7y ago
  It's misguided to think that T_D is about politics, because it's not. It's about identity. The politics here are incidental.
  - chrisco255 7y ago
    Do you think the growth in users at T_D occurred before or after Trump announced his candidacy? It is clearly a political forum. And as far as politics and identity goes, I don't think you can find two more tightly related topics other than perhaps religion.
    - LargeWu 7y ago
      My contention is that there is very little actual political discussion happening there. It's mostly memes, upvoting parties, and tribalism. Any talk of "libs" or "liberals" is not based on any specific policies or ideology, it's almost exclusively based on "us" vs "them"; anybody who does not worship Trump, the American flag, guns, the military, or local law enforcement (but not the FBI!) is part of "them".

rtkwe 7y ago

This is at the end of a long long line of trying to find some way to deal with one of the more unruly subreddits on the site that's been the source of loads of brigading, vote manipulation [0], and doxxing. If a community can't behave after 4 years of warnings and increasing controls at some point Reddit had to do something, this is short of just banning everyone and nuking the community which they're well within their rights to do. [0] At one point td was basically the only thing on r/all because they found out that by upvoting everything and stickying posts to get upvoted they could spam the rest of the site.

caconym_ 7y ago

Calling T_D "the subreddit of a presidential candidate" is like calling a forum for hardcore Harry Potter-themed BDSM erotica "the forum for Harry Potter". Except ... that the latter is pretty harmless and all in good fun for the people who are into it, while T_D is a venue for (among other things) radicalizing literal children with blind ideological hatred and shameless untruths. I still like the analogy, though.