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I'd love to see more systematic documentation of Reddit's censorship, since they have so much power over the opinions of so many. There is https://www.reveddit

I'd love to see more systematic documentation of Reddit's censorship, since they have so much power over the opinions of so many. There is https://www.reveddit.com https://www.reveddit.com who has done a lot of work for anti-censorship.

rhaksw 3y ago
I'm the author. Thanks for the mention below! A friend brought this post to my attention. I also have a substack now [1]. My talk from last year [2] did spur some discussion on HN [3], but it was too long for most to sit through. To be clear, I'm anti-secretive censorship, not anti-moderation per se. But yes, secretive censorship is everywhere! The long and short of it is that we are all equally guilty and equally capable of pulling ourselves out of this. It's not "just" the government as your article from The Intercept implies. The famous statements about "tyranny of the majority" came from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, but you can hear for example Jordan Peterson making roughly the same point [4]: > "People think that when you're in a totalitarian state, the reason that the state is totalitarian is because everyone is the victim of top-down pressure from tyrants. And that's not how it works at all. A state becomes totalitarian when every single person is lying about absolutely everything all the time." And shadow removals occur in many online spaces, not just Reddit. They don't get rid of spam, they promote it. Bots easily code around it and real users are left stuck in the mud. "Trolls" don't learn because they aren't facing consequences. The thing to keep in mind is the future. If we all do this to each other in perpetuity, we're doomed. Fortunately, we humans are smart and can perceive a better outcome. The more people who understand that this does happen, the more who will decide not to do it because they don't want it done to them, and it looks bad when it's revealed. [1] https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-and https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-... [2] https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s
- trompetenaccoun 3y ago
  Thank you for your great work! Reddit has been practically unusable without your tool for a long time. The site's original concept was perfect, reviving the old forum concept with spaces for discussion built around ideas, not people - which I've always loved. It's sad what it's been turned into.

rhaksw 3y ago

I'm the author. Thanks for the mention below! A friend brought this post to my attention. I also have a substack now [1]. My talk from last year [2] did spur some discussion on HN [3], but it was too long for most to sit through. To be clear, I'm anti-secretive censorship, not anti-moderation per se. But yes, secretive censorship is everywhere! The long and short of it is that we are all equally guilty and equally capable of pulling ourselves out of this. It's not "just" the government as your article from The Intercept implies. The famous statements about "tyranny of the majority" came from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, but you can hear for example Jordan Peterson making roughly the same point [4]: > "People think that when you're in a totalitarian state, the reason that the state is totalitarian is because everyone is the victim of top-down pressure from tyrants. And that's not how it works at all. A state becomes totalitarian when every single person is lying about absolutely everything all the time." And shadow removals occur in many online spaces, not just Reddit. They don't get rid of spam, they promote it. Bots easily code around it and real users are left stuck in the mud. "Trolls" don't learn because they aren't facing consequences. The thing to keep in mind is the future. If we all do this to each other in perpetuity, we're doomed. Fortunately, we humans are smart and can perceive a better outcome. The more people who understand that this does happen, the more who will decide not to do it because they don't want it done to them, and it looks bad when it's revealed. [1] https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-and https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-... [2] https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s

trompetenaccoun 3y ago
Thank you for your great work! Reddit has been practically unusable without your tool for a long time. The site's original concept was perfect, reviving the old forum concept with spaces for discussion built around ideas, not people - which I've always loved. It's sad what it's been turned into.