Reddit bans groups over harassment: Is it censorship?
Just months after saying that it would not ban groups posting questionable content, social media site Reddit did just that Wednesday.
Ellen Pao leaves the Civic Center Courthouse during a lunch break in her trial in San Francisco, Feb. 24. Ms. Pao, who is serving as the interim chief executive officer for the social media site Reddit, has been the subject of personal attacks on the site after she ushered in a new ban on groups promoting harassment.
Eric Risberg/AP/File
Overt racism, fat shaming, and homophobia will no longer be tolerated on Reddit.
On Wednesday, the online forum announced that it has banned five of its online groups, also known as subreddits, which are dedicated to ridiculing gays, the obese, and blacks, among others. The move is the website鈥檚 first attempt to crack down on abuse on its pages.
While antiharassment advocates cheered the decision, Internet freedom supporters were quick to criticize. 鈥淩eddit increases censorship,鈥� read one post on the Reddit group r/freespeech.
As Reddit aims to become more mainstream, the company will have to master the delicate balancing act between curbing online abuse and catering to a user base that craves absolute freedom. The company鈥檚 current predicament is a typical phase in the evolution of many online sites, experts say.
The crackdown 鈥渋s actually pretty indicative of the state of 鈥榝ree speech鈥� on the Web,鈥� wrote digital culture critic Caitlin Dewey for . 鈥淎 number of sites that started out as absolutists have realized 鈥� particularly as they grow more mainstream 鈥� that they also have other corporate and moral responsibilities. If you restrict absolutely nothing, you聽get child porn. If you聽, you watch users leave in droves.鈥�
Much of Reddit鈥檚 popularity was based on the company鈥檚 reputation for allowing anything to be posted on its pages with minimum oversight from moderators.
鈥淲e will not ban questionable subreddits,鈥� Reddit鈥檚 former CEO, Yishan Wong, wrote just a few months ago. 鈥淵ou choose what to post. You choose what to read. You choose what kind of subreddit to create.鈥�
But the reality of the marketplace made the current interim CEO, Ellen Pao, backpedal on this decision. A company survey revealed that abusive posts and content had caused some users to leave the site, while other users responded that they would not recommend Reddit to their friends.
In response, Ms. Pao instituted a formal ban on 鈥渁ttacks and harassment of individuals鈥� in . The five subreddits banned Wednesday were the first to be closed due to a high volume of user complaints.
Many of the site鈥檚 users are leaving for Voat, a Swiss site that mimics Reddit in both purpose and appearance, .
鈥淲elcome to all new users from the last round of censorship!鈥� read a new thread on Voat鈥檚 page.
But Reddit鈥檚 team insists the site's new policy and its commitment to free speech online are not mutually exclusive.
鈥淥ur goal is to enable as many people as possible to have authentic conversations and share ideas and content on an open platform. We want as little involvement as possible in managing these interactions but will be involved when needed to protect privacy and free expression, and to prevent harassment,鈥� in a post on Reddit.聽鈥淚t is not easy to balance these values, especially as the Internet evolves. We are learning and hopefully improving as we move forward.鈥�
Some free speech advocates take issue with what they see as an arbitrary rubric for deciding which threads to ban and which to allow.
鈥淭he site鈥檚 worst聽trolls are notorious聽for making parts of Reddit an utter cesspool of vitriol. Yet, though Reddit does its best to allow free speech, there is聽clearly a line that needs to be drawn,鈥� wrote Jon Russel for . 鈥淭he problem 鈥� in my eyes, at least 鈥� appears to be a selective enforcement of this line: some vulgar subreddits are shuttered while others live on. That makes bans聽seem arbitrary in nature, and thus provokes this kind of reaction.鈥�
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian did try to define when a post crosses the line into unacceptable harassment.
鈥淲hen we are using the word 鈥榟arass,鈥� we鈥檙e not talking about being annoying,鈥� .聽鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about men and women whose lives are being affected and worry for their safety every day, because people from a certain community on reddit have decided to actually threaten them, online and off, every day.鈥�
Meanwhile, some have pointed out that the move is not dissimilar from the attempts of other online platforms to limit the content on their sites.
鈥淢any of the world's largest social networks, including聽Facebook聽and Twitter, have responded to problems on their own networks by introducing new policies,鈥� wrote Terry Collins for .
Twitter also announced Wednesday that it is going to strengthen its users' ability to聽聽with other users.
The most popular of the five closed subreddits included derogatory pictures and comments about overweight people. The thread had around 150,000 subscribers.
Founded in 2005, Reddit is one of the most visited sites online and has often been called "the front page of the Internet." About 172 million people use Reddit each month.
Monitor staff writer Sarah Caspari contributed reporting to this story.