Controversial Reddit communities
The social news site Reddit has occasionally been the topic of controversy due to the presence of communities on the site (known as subreddits) devoted to explicit material. Yishan Wong, the site's former CEO, has stated that "We stand for free speech. This means we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits. We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it."[1]
The subreddit "jailbait" was one of the most prominent subreddits on the site before it was closed down in October 2011 following a report by CNN.[2] The controversy surrounding "Creepshots" a year after jailbait's closure prompted a Gawker exposé of one of the subreddit's moderators by Adrian Chen, which revealed the real-life identity of the user behind the account. This started discussion in the media about the ethics of anonymity and outing on the Internet.[3]
Banned subreddits
jailbait
Reddit's staff was initially opposed to the addition of obscene material to the site, but they eventually became more lenient when prolific moderators, such as a user named "violentacrez," proved capable of identifying and removing illegal content at a time when they were not sufficiently staffed to take on the task.[3] Communities devoted to explicit material saw rising popularity, with the "jailbait" subreddit (featuring provocative shots of teenagers) being chosen "subreddit of the year" in the "Best of reddit" user poll in 2008 and at one point making "jailbait" the second most common search term for the site.[3] Erik Martin, general manager of Reddit, defended the jailbait subreddit by saying that such controversial pages were a consequence of allowing free speech on the site.[4]
The jailbait subreddit came to wider attention outside Reddit when Anderson Cooper of CNN devoted a segment of his program to condemning the subreddit and criticizing Reddit for hosting it.[5][6] Initially this caused a spike in Internet traffic to the subreddit, causing the page to peak at 1.73 million views on the day of the report. In the wake of these news reports, a Reddit user posted an image of an underage girl to the jailbait subreddit, subsequently claiming to have naked images of her as well. Dozens of Reddit users then posted requests for these nude photos to be shared to them by private message.[7] Other Reddit users drew attention to this discussion and the jailbait forum was subsequently closed by Reddit administrators on October 10, 2011.[7] Critics, such as jailbait's creator, disputed claims that this thread was the basis of the decision, instead claiming it was an excuse to close down a controversial subreddit due to recent negative media coverage.[2] Others claimed that the thread believed to have prompted the closure was created by members of the Something Awful forum in an attempt to get the section shut down, rather than the regulars of the forum.[8]
Following the closure of the jailbait subreddit, The Daily Dot declared violentacrez, the community's creator, "The Most Important Person on Reddit in 2011," and called the jailbait controversy "the first major challenge to the site's voluntary doctrine of absolute free speech."[9]
Soon after the closure of jailbait, the similar subreddits of teen_girls, niggerjailbait and picsofdeadjailbait were closed.
CreepShots
A year after the closure of the jailbait subreddit, a subreddit called "Creepshots" drew controversy in the press for hosting sexualized images of women without their knowledge.[10] In the wake of this media attention, violentacrez was added to Creepshots as a moderator,[11] and reports emerged that Gawker reporter Adrian Chen was planning an exposé that would reveal the real-life identity of this user, who moderated dozens of controversial subreddits as well as a few hundred general-interest communities. Several major subreddits banned links to Gawker in response to the impending exposé and the violentacrez account was deleted.[12][13][14] Moderators defended their decisions to block the site from these sections of Reddit on the basis that the impending report was "doxing" (a term for exposing the identity of a pseudonymous person), and that such exposure threatened the site's structural integrity.[14]
Gawker exposé
Chen published the piece on October 12, 2012, revealing that the operator of the violentacrez account was a middle-aged programmer from Texas named Michael Brutsch.[3] Within a day of the article being published, Brutsch's position was terminated by his employer and the link to the exposé was briefly banned from Reddit.[15][16] He stated on Reddit after the article was published that he has received numerous death threats.[17]
Reddit CEO Yishan Wong defended the content Brutsch contributed to the site as free speech and criticized efforts to ban the Gawker link on the same basis.[18] Wong stated that the staff had considered a site-wide ban on the link, but rejected this idea for fear it would create a negative impression of the site without getting results.[19] Brutsch later briefly returned to Reddit on a different account and criticized what he stated were numerous factual inaccuracies in the Gawker exposé.[20]
A week after the exposé, Brutsch held an interview with CNN that aired on Anderson Cooper 360°. In the interview with journalist Drew Griffin, Brutsch was apologetic about his activity on Reddit. He explained that he was most fond of the appreciation he got from other redditors, and that Reddit helped him relieve stress. Brutsch also described the support he had from administrators, stating that he had received an award for his contributions. Reddit noted that the award was for winning a community vote for "Worst Subreddit", and stated that they regretted sending it as well as claiming the violentacrez account had been banned on several occasions.[21][22][23] Brutsch subsequently noted on Reddit that he regretted doing the interview and criticized the accuracy of the statement Reddit gave to CNN.[24]
Ethics of outing
Gawker's outing of Brutsch as violentacrez led to contentious discussion about privacy and anonymity on the Internet.[25] Such discussions included claims that outing, or "doxing", was necessary to draw attention to objectionable content so it could be removed, while others claim that it impedes the ability for people to exercise their right to legal free speech online due to fear of public retribution.[26][27]
Sady Doyle, writing in The Guardian, compared it to the outing of the alleged blackmailer of Amanda Todd and suggested that such outings may be justified, but that they may also unduly focus attention on individuals without confronting the underlying problems by engaging in "sensationalism" at the expense of cultural reform.[28] In PC Magazine, Damon Poeter stated that, while he has defended protecting anonymity on the Internet, he still supported Brutsch being outed because he felt the various subreddits he contributed to as violentacrez were serious invasions of privacy, regardless of legality, and that it was therefore justifiable to reveal his personal details.[27]
The public outpouring of hostility towards Brutsch following the exposé prompted commentators such as danah boyd of Wired and Michelle Star of CNET to question the morality of outing as a way to enforce societal standards online.[29][30] Several commentators have expressed concern that the public shaming of Brutsch to serve as an example to others is legitimizing online vigilantism and exposing individuals such as Brutsch to mass retribution.[29][30][31][32]
beatingwomen
In June 2014, a subreddit called "beatingwomen" was closed by Reddit administrators. The community, which featured graphic depictions of violence against women, was banned after its moderators were found to be sharing users' personal information online, and collaborating to protect one another from sitewide bans. Following the ban, the community's founder rebooted the subreddit under the name "beatingwomen2" in an attempt to circumvent the ban.[33][34]
TheFappening
In August 2014, Reddit users began sharing a large number of naked pictures of celebrities stolen, using phishing, from their private Apple iCloud accounts.[35][36] A subreddit called "TheFappening" was created as a hub to share and discuss these stolen photos; the situation was called CelebGate by the media.[37] The subreddit contained most of the images.[38][39][40] Victims of "The Fappening" included high profile names such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.[41][42] Some of the images may have constituted child pornography, as the photos of Liz Lee and McKayla Maroney from the leak were claimed to have been taken when the women were underage, though this remains controversial.[43] The subreddit was closed by Reddit administrators in September 2014. The scandal led to wider criticisms concerning the website's moderation from The Verge and The Daily Dot.[44][45]
SonyGOP
On December 18, 2014, Reddit took the unusual step of banning a subreddit, "SonyGO," that was being used to distribute hacked Sony files.[46]
fatpeoplehate
On June 10, 2015, Reddit banned five subreddits, citing an anti-harassment policy.[47][48] The largest of the banned subreddits, "fatpeoplehate," had an estimated 151,000 subscribers at the times of its banning.[47] The other four subreddits were "hamplanethatred," "transfags," "neofag," and "shitniggerssay."[47]
A Reddit admin said "We will ban subreddits that allow their communities to use the subreddit as a platform to harass individuals when moderators don’t take action."[47]
Because of the ban, Reddit users flooded the site with pictures of overweight people and Reddit's interim CEO Ellen Pao.[49] Due to the decision to ban these subreddits, some users moved to Voat, a social aggregation website similar to Reddit.[50]
The "Chimpire"
The term "Chimpire" refers to a collection of subreddits and affiliated websites that promote anti-black racism, including frequent use of racial slurs. In July 2013, the subreddit "niggers" was banned from Reddit for engaging in vote manipulation, incitements of violence and using racist content to disrupt other communities. Reddit general manager Erik Martin noted that the subforum was given multiple chances to comply with site rules, noting that "users can tell from the amount of warnings we extended to a subreddit as clearly awful as r/niggers that we go into the decision to ban subreddits with a lot of scrutiny."[51] Following the ban, the subreddit "Coontown" grew to become the most popular "Chimpire" site, with over 15,000 members at its peak.[52] Many of the posters on these subreddits were formerly involved with the "niggers" subreddit.[53][54][55] One of these subreddits, shitniggerssay, was banned in June 2015 at the same time as fatpeoplehate.[56] In the midst of changes to reddit's content policy, Coontown was banned in August 2015.[57]
Controversial subreddits
MensRights
SPLC listing
Reddit's men's rights sub-forum was included in a list of twelve websites in the spring 2012 issue ("The Year in Hate and Extremism") of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report in a section called "Misogyny: The Sites". The dozen sites were described as "women-hating" and "thick with misogynistic attacks that can be astounding for the guttural hatred they express".[58]
More specific claims were made about the "MensRights" subreddit in particular, saying that it showed anger "toward any program designed to help women," and that the subreddit "trafficks in various conspiracy theories", using a moderator's statements as an example of this behavior.[59] Outlets such as The Huffington Post interpreted the report as saying the subreddit was a hate group.[60]
In late March 2012, Mark Potok (the Intelligence Report's editor) was asked in an interview if the SPLC had formally classified MensRights as a hate group, and his response was that "We wrote about the subreddit Mens Rights, but we did not list it as a hate group" and expressed doubt that the SPLC would ever designate the community as a hate group, noting that "it's a diverse group, which certainly does include some misogynists—but I don't think that's [its basic] purpose."[61]
Later that year, the SPLC published a statement about the reactions to their report, saying it "provoked a tremendous response among men's rights activists (MRAs) and their sympathizers", and "It should be mentioned that the SPLC did not label MRAs as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the grievances they air on their websites – false rape accusations, ruinous divorce settlements and the like – are all without merit. But we did call out specific examples of misogyny and the threat, overt or implicit, of violence."[62]
Doxing incident
In April 2013, the subreddit was threatened with a shutdown by the Reddit admins after MenRrights users gathered personal information on a supposed blogger of feminist issues, and the subreddit's moderators advised members of the subreddit on how to proceed with this 'doxing' without running afoul of site rules.[63] Later on it was discovered that they had identified the wrong woman, and it has been reported that many death threats had been sent to her school and employment. Georgetown University confirmed that she was not the same person as the blog's author after receiving threatening messages.[63]
Rape report spam
In mid-December 2013, users from the MensRights subreddit as well as 4chan spammed the Occidental College Online Rape Report Form with hundreds of false rape reports, following a user's complaint that the form was vulnerable to abuse, because of the submitter's ability to be anonymous.[64][65] Around 400 false rape accusations were made by men's rights activists against members of the college, feminists, and fictional people.[64]
findbostonbombers
Following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, members of subreddit "findbostonbombers" wrongly identified a number of people as suspects, including a 17-year-old track athlete and a 22-year-old Brown University student missing since March.[66] A body reported to be that of the missing Brown student misidentified as a Boston bomber suspect, who had been missing for a month before-hand, was found in Providence River in Rhode Island on April 25, 2013, as reported by the Rhode Island Health Department.[67][68] The cause of death was found to be suicide.[69]
Reddit general manager Erik Martin later issued an apology for this behavior, criticizing the "online witch hunts and dangerous speculation" that took place in these investigation-oriented communities.[70] In September 2013, a similar subreddit dedicated to finding the Navy Yard shooter(s) was banned by the Reddit admins.[71] These notorious events were dramatized in TV shows The Newsroom[72][73] and The Good Wife.[74]
GunsForSale
In January 2014, Mother Jones published a story describing the sale of guns on the site. The report suggested that sellers were doing so to exploit a loophole in U.S. federal law.[75] Nearly 100 AR-15s were engraved with the Reddit logo as part of licensing deal made with the page in 2011.[76]
Technology
In April 2014, it was made apparent that moderators of "technology," a subreddit with 5 million subscribers were using automatic filters to automatically remove submissions that contained certain keywords, such as "Tesla,"[77] "Comcast," "NSA," or "Snowden."[78] This ultimately led to community protests, claims of censorship from users, and to technology losing its default subreddit status.[79][80]
DarkNetMarkets
The "DarkNetMarkets" subreddit, a darknet market discussion forum, features participation from their owners, causing the US authorities to request personal information behind several accounts.[81][82]
Free speech rationale
In accordance with the site's policies on free speech, Reddit's admins say that they do not ban communities solely for featuring controversial content. Reddit's general manager Erik Martin noted that "having to stomach occasional troll [sub]reddits like /r/picsofdeadkids or morally questionable [sub]reddits like /r/jailbait are part of the price of free speech on a site like this,” and that it is not Reddit's place to censor its users.[83] The site's former CEO, Yishan Wong, has stated that distasteful subreddits will not be banned because Reddit as a platform should serve the ideals of free speech.[1][84] Critics of this position have argued that Reddit has not been consistent in following its free speech philosophy.[85][86]
References
- 1 2 "Reddit will not ban 'distasteful' content, chief executive says". BBC. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- 1 2 Morris, Kevin (11 October 2011). "What r/jailbait's closure really means". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 Chen, Adrian (12 October 2012). "Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web". Gawker. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Alfonso III, Fernando (11 August 2011). "A free-speech haven wrestles with violent images". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Nyugen, Tina (30 September 2011). "Anderson Cooper Vs. Reddit". The Daily Caller. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ↑ Morris, Kevin (3 October 2011). "Anderson Cooper boosts visibility of teen-girl pics". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- 1 2 Morris, Kevin (11 October 2011). "Reddit shuts down r/jailbait". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Morris, Kevin (13 October 2011). "Did SomethingAwful raid jailbait forum?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Morris, Kevin (16 December 2011). "The 10 most important people on Reddit in 2011". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Gray, Justin (26 September 2012). "Teacher allegedly posts pictures of students on 'CreepShot' website". Fox Atlanta. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ↑ "/r/Creepshots - Moderation History". Stattit.com.
-09-27 - Promoted violentacrez
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- 1 2 Morris, Kevin (12 October 2012). "Clearing up rumors and hearsay as the Internet eagerly awaits the Gawker Reddit story". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- ↑ Alfonso III, Fernando (15 October 2012). "Reddit's most notorious troll loses job after Gawker profile". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ↑ Marcus, Stephanie (15 October 2012). "Violentacrez Fired: Michael Brutsch Loses Job After Reddit Troll Identity Exposed By Gawker". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
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- 1 2 Poeter, Damon (15 October 2012). "Shed No Tears for Violentacrez". PC Magazine. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
- ↑ Doyle, Sady (17 October 2012). "Outing online sexual predators is a sensationalist stopgap". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 31 October 2012.
- 1 2 Boyd, Danah (29 October 2012). "Truth, Lies, and 'Doxing': The Real Moral of the Gawker/Reddit Story". Wired. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
- 1 2 Starr, Michelle (17 October 2012). "Gawker, Reddit's Violentacrez and the internet vigilantes". CNET. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
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- ↑ Bazelon, Emily (16 October 2012). "Sympathy for Violentacrez". Slate. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
- ↑ Alfonso, Fernando. "Reddit bans infamous forum about beating women". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ↑ Ongley, Hannah. "Gross Reddit Forum Glorifying Beaten Women Finally Gets Shut Down". Styleite. Styleite LLC. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ↑ Sottek, T.C. (2014-09-01). "Say hello to men who hate NSA spying but blame women for being spied on". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
- ↑ Vincent, James (2014-09-01). "Is Apple's iCloud safe after leak of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities' nude photos?". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
- ↑ "Celebrity Naked Photos Leaked – #theFappening - So You Have A Girlfriend". Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "The Fappening Is Being Broadcast Live On Reddit With 100,000+ Viewers". Business 2 Community. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ Anthony Johnston, Metro World News (10 October 2014). "Security expert weighs in on 'The Fappening' and the iCloud". Metro. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "Man who leaked celebrity nude photos admits he is running from authorities - Daily Mail Online". Mail Online. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "Hunt begins for hacker behind Jennifer Lawrence nude photo theft". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "Jennifer Lawrence nude photos leaked: Hacker posts explicit pics". NewsComAu. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ Price, Rob. "There's child porn in the massive celebrity nudes hack". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
- ↑ Sottek, T.C. (2014-09-08). "Reddit is a failed state". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 2014-11-02.
- ↑ Sankin, Aaron. "Is Reddit broken beyond repair?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
- ↑ Goldman, David (December 29, 2014). "Reddit takes down Sony hack forum". Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Robertson, Adi. "Reddit bans 'Fat People Hate' and other subreddits under new harassment rules". The Verge. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ↑ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. "Reddit Removes 5 Groups After Creating Harassment Policy". Business Day. New York Times. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ↑ "Reddit Users Revolt After Site Bans "Fat People Hate" And Other Communities". Retrieved 2015-06-13.
- ↑ Hern, Alex (15 June 2015). "Reddit users flee to Swiss copy Voat after harassment clampdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- ↑ "Does Anything Go? The Rise and Fall of a Racist Corner of Reddit". The Atlantic. 16 July 2013.
- ↑ Wall, Brandon. "Racist Reddit Group Embraces Alleged Charleston Shooting Manifesto". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
- ↑ "How Reddit Became a Worse Black Hole of Violent Racism than Stormfront".
- ↑ "The state of hate in America: A new home on the Internet".
- ↑ Cush, Andy (20 August 2014). "Reddit's Ferguson Board Is Run by White Supremacists". Gawker.
- ↑ "Users Flock To Voat As Reddit Shuts Harassing Groups".
- ↑ Huffman, Steve. "Content Policy Update". Reddit.com. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
- ↑ "Misogyny: The Sites". Intelligence Journal (Southern Poverty Law Center) (145). Spring 2012.
- ↑ Collier, Kevin (9 March 2012). "Southern Poverty Law Center calls Reddit section misogynistic". The Daily Dot.
- ↑ Bachan, Kyle (13 March 2012). "Time for the Men's Rights Movement to Grow Some". Huffington Post Canada.
...both of these sites have recently been listed by Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.
- ↑ Morris, Kevin (28 March 2012). "Why Reddit's r/MensRights is not a hate group". The Daily Dot.
- ↑ Goldwag, Arthur (15 May 2012). "Intelligence Report Article Provokes Fury Among Men’s Rights Activists". Southern Poverty Law Center.
- 1 2 Romano, Aja (22 April 2013). "Men's rights activists bombard feminist with death threats—and it's the wrong woman". The Daily Dot.
- 1 2 Culp-Ressler, Tara. "'Men's Rights' Groups Are Spamming Occidental College With Hundreds Of False Rape Reports". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
- ↑ Kingkade, Tyler (18 December 2013). "'Men's Rights' Trolls Spam Occidental College Online Rape Report Form". Huffington Post. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
- ↑ "Innocents accused in online manhunt". 3 News NZ. 22 April 2013.
- ↑ Bidgood, Jess (25 April 2013). "Missing Student at Brown is Found Dead". The New York Times.
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- ↑ Nark, Jason. "The Boston bombing's forgotten victim". Philadelphia Daily News. Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
Akhil spent the most time with Sunny before his suicide, weekends at Brown where he tried to help his youngest child foresee a future.
- ↑ Martin, Erik. "Reflections on the Recent Boston Crisis". Reddit.com. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ↑ Peterson, Andrea (16 September 2013). "Reddit bans subreddit dedicated to finding the Navy Yard shooters". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ Hathaway, Jay (11 November 2014). "Here's How The Newsroom Covered Reddit's Failed Boston Bombing Manhunt". Retrieved 27 June 2015.
- ↑ Fallon, Kevin. "‘Newsroom’ Premiere: Aaron Sorkin Puts CNN on Blast Over the Boston Bombing". Retrieved 27 June 2015.
- ↑ Harnick, Chris (21 November 2014). "'The Good Wife' Recap: Alicia Florrick vs. Anonymous Commenters In 'Whack-a-Mole'". Retrieved 27 June 2015.
- ↑ Follman, Mark (8 January 2014). "How Reddit Became a Gun Market—and Authorized Its Logo on Assault Rifles". Mother Jones. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
- ↑ Nocera, Joe (9 January 2014). "The Gun Report: January 9, 2014". New York Times. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
- ↑ "Reddit's r/technology has apparently been blocking Tesla links for months". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "Reddit mods are censoring dozens of words from r/technology posts". TheDailyDot. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ↑ Sotsis, Alexia (23 April 2014). "The Return Of Reddit’s /r/Technology Is "Certainly Possible"". Techcrunch. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ↑ Peckham, Matt (22 April 2014). "Reddit Demotes Technology Section to Punish Lazy Moderators". Time. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ↑ Swearingen, Jake (2 October 2014). "A Year After Death of Silk Road, Darknet Markets Are Booming". Retrieved 24 May 2015.
- ↑ Knibbs, Kate (30 March 2015). "Feds Want Reddit to Give Up Personal Info of Darknet Market Redditors". Retrieved 19 May 2015.
- ↑ Alfonso, Fernando (11 August 2011). "Reddit wrestles with violence and misogyny". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ↑ Chen, Adrian. "Reddit CEO Speaks Out on Violentacrez in Leaked Memo: 'We Stand for Free Speech'". Gawker. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- ↑ Ball, James (15 October 2012). "Reddit wants free speech – as long as it agrees with the speaker". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ↑ Ingram, Matthew (18 October 2012). "Twitter, Reddit, and the Battle Over Freedom of Speech". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 3 May 2013.