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The problem was that /r/fatpeoplehate was banned while other "vile" subreddits continued to exist. Censorship is weird. In the US we can't show breasts on TV, b

by Klinky 11y ago

The problem was that /r/fatpeoplehate was banned while other "vile" subreddits continued to exist. Censorship is weird. In the US we can't show breasts on TV, but someone can get their head blown off. On reddit, you can't hate on fat people, but you can watch someone's face get ripped off in a car accident. You can also still hate on black people or deny the holocaust. I think sites have the right to censor what they want, but reddit has to tread carefully when dealing with it. The free organic growth it enjoys can also turn into organic backlash. The massive energy exerted into managing and creating the content that fuels reddit can also go in the opposite direction, with reddit being the platform of it's own destruction. reddit has a history of problems, from technical stability issues in the past, to now more managerial/executive issues. reddit needed help and a guiding vision, but Ellen Pao has the reputation of being a professional griefer, and was probably the worst fit possible to fix reddit's problems. Removing Pao seems like a difficult proposition given the lawsuit at her previous employer. The firing of the only admin who was proactive with the community seems to indicate more tone deaf action on management's part. This is probably the biggest crisis reddit has ever faced, and it could be it's demise. The snowball seems to keep getting bigger.

hueving 11y ago
To be clear, it wasn't banned because of attacks on fat people, it was banned because it was attacking specific fat people.
- baby 11y ago
  No, it was banned because it was bullying people, doxxing, brigades on other subs, etc...
- technofiend 11y ago
  I think the issue was the activities escaped the subreddit and surfaced other places. Say you disagree with the Healthy at any Size crowd in the subreddit? Fine. Start harassing them on their Facebook pages, tumblers, etc and it was deemed (in my humble opinion) going too far. The irony is not lost on me that to make Reddit a "safe place" for all some ended up booted off the site for activities outside the site itself. Same as the fact that the primary object of fph's disdain got far more attention and perhaps even sympathy than she would have otherwise.
  - baby 11y ago
    r/jailbait got a lot of sympathy also when it got banned (although in its defense it was not harassing anyone)
- Klinky 11y ago
  While reddit stated they weren't banning an idea, only the subreddit, alternative subreddits that popped up on the same topic were also shutdown. The belief is that the idea leads to negative unacceptable behavior, and thus they have actually banned the idea, not just the subreddit. A more community minded approach may have been better, along with threats of working with law enforcement on matters of real-world harassment. This segues right into the next issue of poor community management and oversight. Poor tools & poor admin oversight of subreddits until they are too big to handle in a graceful fashion. Instead of working on these issues, they fired more staff. All of these actions may have actually been completely justifiable, but were communicated and implemented very poorly.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    FPH wasn't banned out of the blue. They and their users got very many warnings and temp shaddow bans over at least a year. (I agree with your post btw. I don't think that's clear from my comment.)
eridius 11y ago
> The problem was that /r/fatpeoplehate was banned while other "vile" subreddits continued to exist. But that's not a problem at all. Anyone who is making that claim either seriously misunderstands why those subreddits got banned, or is being disingenuous. There are plenty of vile subreddits that I wish didn't exist. But as long as they're not breaking the law or reddit's rules (the relevant one in this case being about harassment), then they're allowed to exist. r/fatpeoplehate and the other banned subs broke the rules by harassing people, and by having their moderators refuse to do anything about it. That's why they got banned. It had nothing to do with the content being objectionable and everything to do with the behavior of the subreddit.

by Klinky 11y ago

hueving 11y ago

To be clear, it wasn't banned because of attacks on fat people, it was banned because it was attacking specific fat people.

baby 11y ago
No, it was banned because it was bullying people, doxxing, brigades on other subs, etc...
technofiend 11y ago
I think the issue was the activities escaped the subreddit and surfaced other places. Say you disagree with the Healthy at any Size crowd in the subreddit? Fine. Start harassing them on their Facebook pages, tumblers, etc and it was deemed (in my humble opinion) going too far. The irony is not lost on me that to make Reddit a "safe place" for all some ended up booted off the site for activities outside the site itself. Same as the fact that the primary object of fph's disdain got far more attention and perhaps even sympathy than she would have otherwise.
- baby 11y ago
  r/jailbait got a lot of sympathy also when it got banned (although in its defense it was not harassing anyone)
Klinky 11y ago
While reddit stated they weren't banning an idea, only the subreddit, alternative subreddits that popped up on the same topic were also shutdown. The belief is that the idea leads to negative unacceptable behavior, and thus they have actually banned the idea, not just the subreddit. A more community minded approach may have been better, along with threats of working with law enforcement on matters of real-world harassment. This segues right into the next issue of poor community management and oversight. Poor tools & poor admin oversight of subreddits until they are too big to handle in a graceful fashion. Instead of working on these issues, they fired more staff. All of these actions may have actually been completely justifiable, but were communicated and implemented very poorly.
- DanBC 11y ago
  FPH wasn't banned out of the blue. They and their users got very many warnings and temp shaddow bans over at least a year. (I agree with your post btw. I don't think that's clear from my comment.)

eridius 11y ago

> The problem was that /r/fatpeoplehate was banned while other "vile" subreddits continued to exist. But that's not a problem at all. Anyone who is making that claim either seriously misunderstands why those subreddits got banned, or is being disingenuous. There are plenty of vile subreddits that I wish didn't exist. But as long as they're not breaking the law or reddit's rules (the relevant one in this case being about harassment), then they're allowed to exist. r/fatpeoplehate and the other banned subs broke the rules by harassing people, and by having their moderators refuse to do anything about it. That's why they got banned. It had nothing to do with the content being objectionable and everything to do with the behavior of the subreddit.