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Let's talk content. AMA. (self.announcements)

spez[A] が 投稿x2

We started Reddit to be—as we said back then with our tongues in our cheeks—“The front page of the Internet.” Reddit was to be a source of enough news, entertainment, and random distractions to fill an entire day of pretending to work, every day. Occasionally, someone would start spewing hate, and I would ban them. The community rarely questioned me. When they did, they accepted my reasoning: “because I don’t want that content on our site.”

As we grew, I became increasingly uncomfortable projecting my worldview on others. More practically, I didn’t have time to pass judgement on everything, so I decided to judge nothing.

So we entered a phase that can best be described as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This worked temporarily, but once people started paying attention, few liked what they found. A handful of painful controversies usually resulted in the removal of a few communities, but with inconsistent reasoning and no real change in policy.

One thing that isn't up for debate is why Reddit exists. Reddit is a place to have open and authentic discussions. The reason we’re careful to restrict speech is because people have more open and authentic discussions when they aren't worried about the speech police knocking down their door. When our purpose comes into conflict with a policy, we make sure our purpose wins.

As Reddit has grown, we've seen additional examples of how unfettered free speech can make Reddit a less enjoyable place to visit, and can even cause people harm outside of Reddit. Earlier this year, Reddit took a stand and banned non-consensual pornography. This was largely accepted by the community, and the world is a better place as a result (Google and Twitter have followed suit). Part of the reason this went over so well was because there was a very clear line of what was unacceptable.

Therefore, today we're announcing that we're considering a set of additional restrictions on what people can say on Reddit—or at least say on our public pages—in the spirit of our mission.

These types of content are prohibited [1]:

  • Spam
  • Anything illegal (i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material. Discussing illegal activities, such as drug use, is not illegal)
  • Publication of someone’s private and confidential information
  • Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people
  • Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)
  • Sexually suggestive content featuring minors

There are other types of content that are specifically classified:

  • Adult content must be flagged as NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Users must opt into seeing NSFW communities. This includes pornography, which is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.
  • Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

We've had the NSFW classification since nearly the beginning, and it's worked well to separate the pornography from the rest of Reddit. We believe there is value in letting all views exist, even if we find some of them abhorrent, as long as they don’t pollute people’s enjoyment of the site. Separation and opt-in techniques have worked well for keeping adult content out of the common Redditor’s listings, and we think it’ll work for this other type of content as well.

No company is perfect at addressing these hard issues. We’ve spent the last few days here discussing and agree that an approach like this allows us as a company to repudiate content we don’t want to associate with the business, but gives individuals freedom to consume it if they choose. This is what we will try, and if the hateful users continue to spill out into mainstream reddit, we will try more aggressive approaches. Freedom of expression is important to us, but it’s more important to us that we at reddit be true to our mission.

[1] This is basically what we have right now. I’d appreciate your thoughts. A very clear line is important and our language should be precise.

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[–]Vmoney1337 369ポイント370ポイント  (146子コメント)

I guess I'll ask the question that everyone else wants to hear the answer to: What subreddits are you considering banning, and what would be your basis for doing so?

[–]spez[S,A] 71ポイント72ポイント  (123子コメント)

We'll consider banning subreddits that clearly violate the guidelines in my post--the ones that are illegal or cause harm to others.

There are many subreddits whose contents I and many others find offensive, but that alone is not justification for banning.

[–]obadetona 61ポイント62ポイント  (10子コメント)

What would you define as causing harm to others?

[–]spez[S,A] 0ポイント1ポイント  (3子コメント)

Very good question, and that's one of the things we need to be clear about. I think we have an intuitive sense of what this means (e.g. death threats, inciting rape), but before we release an official update to our policy we will spell this out as precisely as possible.

W

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    [–]jstrydor 130ポイント131ポイント  (23子コメント)

    We'll consider banning subreddits that clearly violate the guidelines in my post

    I'm sure you guys have been considering it for quite a while, can you give us any idea which subs these might be?

    [–]monsda 10ポイント11ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

    How will you determine that?

    What I'm getting at is - how would you make a distinction between a sub like /r/fatpeoplehate, and a sub like /r/coontown?

    [–]Matthis500 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

    The guidelines seem a little broad, can you give some examples of subreddits to be banned?

    [–]MrBaz 55ポイント56ポイント  (3子コメント)

    Enough with the vagueness, please.

    Define "cause harm to others".

    [–]mydeca 18ポイント19ポイント  (0子コメント)

    I mean, a subreddit is made up of a group of individuals. Some individuals are going to be bad and cause harm to others, what are the guidelines in determining that the sub itself is at fault, as opposed to just a few individuals?

    [–]evmax318 17ポイント18ポイント  (0子コメント)

    What will be the process for determining what will be labelled "offensive" and will there be an appeals process?

    [–]CryEagle 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

    But that rule already exists and is being enforced for over a month now.

    You spoke about additional communities that shouldn't be on Reddit, those containing "offensive and obscene" material.

    Any comments on that?

    [–]IM_THAT_POTATO 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

    Is that the admins who are deciding what this "common sense of decency" is?

    [–]Mayniak0 12ポイント13ポイント  (1子コメント)

    Can you give examples of ones that you find offensive but aren't ban-worthy?

    [–]ninjaofpatience 14ポイント15ポイント  (1子コメント)

    That was a non-answer.

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        [–]MrCaboose96[🍰] 257ポイント258ポイント  (130子コメント)

        Mr Huffman,

        First off, thank you for doing this AMA. On Tuesday, you said:

        Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen[...]

        In this Forbes article from 2012, Alexis responds to a question about what the founding fathers would have thought of Reddit by saying, "A bastion of free speech on the World Wide Web? I bet they would like it."

        Can you please explain the disparity between these two comments?

        Thank you.

        [–]spez[S,A] -81ポイント-80ポイント  (119子コメント)

        First, they don't conflict directly, but the common wording is unfortunate.

        As I state in my post, the concept of free speech is important to us, but completely unfettered free speech can cause harm to others and additionally silence others, which is what we'll continue to address.

        [–]dangerdark 179ポイント180ポイント  (14子コメント)

        First, they don't conflict directly, but the common wording is unfortunate.

        Who, exactly, do you think you're talking to? You aren't surrounded by yes men here. This isn't a board meeting. And we're (mostly) native English speakers.

        How exactly don't they conflict? The only thing unfortunate about the wording is how explicitly it shows your doublespeak.

        [–]allthe_gundams 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

        So you're silencing one group to allow another group to speak louder? The reason we have free speech in the first place is simple: so that no one is oppressed in their opinions. You can't restrict speech and opinion of one group and allow another to speak. It defeats the point of having free speech.

        [–]MrBaz 47ポイント48ポイント  (4子コメント)

        the common wording is unfortunate

        Ayyyyy

        [–]Kanshan 110ポイント111ポイント  (7子コメント)

        I'll take deflecting answers for 600, Alex.

        [–]ButtGardener 12ポイント13ポイント  (2子コメント)

        So you say unfettered free speech silences people, and your answer to stop this is for you to to selectively silence people.

        Basically you are telling us you are going to silence people who don't fit in with your own political agenda.

        [–]guccigoogle 14ポイント15ポイント  (5子コメント)

        What is your stance on /r/PicsOfDeadKids? That doesn't go against any of the restrictions in your post, but is arguably worse than some racist subreddits.

        [–]luftwaffle0 16ポイント17ポイント  (3子コメント)

        but completely unfettered free speech can cause harm to others and additionally silence others,

        How specifically does speech within a subreddit harm someone who doesn't read it?

        How does speech silence? How is silencing speech the answer to that?

        [–]Seven-Three 108ポイント109ポイント  (8子コメント)

        So speech that you like is fine, speech that you don't like isn't. Got it.

        [–]mydeca 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

        Of course you would say that, given your current position. I mean, you're clearly not telling us the truth in that the goal is to monetize Reddit. So you're rationally trying to explain the contradiction. It's really not working too well though.

        [–]Phteven_j 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

        First, they don't conflict directly

        Uh, yes they fucking do.

        but the common wording is unfortunate.

        Unfortunate for anyone who works for reddit, yeah. And unfortunate for the users who will suffer as a result.

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            [–]justcool393 148ポイント149ポイント  (5子コメント)

            Hi everyone answering these questions. I have a "few" questions that I, like probably most of reddit would like answers to. Like a recent AMA I asked questions in, the bold will be the meat of the question, and the non-bolded will be context. If you don't know an answer to a question, say so, and do so directly! Honesty is very much appreciated. With that said, here goes.

            Content Policy

            1. What is the policy regarding content that has distasteful speech, but not harassing? Some subreddits have been known to harbor ideologies such as Nazism or racist ones. Are users, and by extension subreddits, allowed to behave in this way, or will this be banned or censored?

            2. What is the policy regarding, well, these subreddits? These subreddits are infamous on reddit as a whole. These usually come up during AskReddit threads of "where would you not go" or whenever distasteful subreddits are mentioned.

            3. What actually is the harassment policy? Yes, I know the definition that's practically copypasta from the announcement, but could we have examples? You don't have to define a hard rule, in fact, it'd probably be best if there was a little subjectivity to avoid lawyering, but it'd be helpful to have an example.

            4. What are your thoughts on some people's interpretation of the rules as becoming a safe-space? A vocal group of redditors interpreted the new harassment rules as this, and as such are not happy about it. I personally didn't read the rules that way, but I can see how it may be interpreted that way.

            5. Do you have any plans to update the rules page? It, at the moment, has 6 rules, and the only one that seems to even address the harassment policy is rule 5, which is at best reaching in regards to it.

            6. What is the best way to report harassment? For example, should we use /r/reddit.com's modmail or the contact@reddit.com email? How long should we wait before bumping a modmail, for example? 6. Who is allowed to report harassment? Say I'm a moderator, and decide to check a user's history and see they've followed around another user to 20 different subreddits posting the same thing or whatnot. Should I report it to the admins?

            Brigading

            1. In regards to subreddits for mocking another group, what is the policy on them? Subreddits that highlight other places being stupid or whatever, such as /r/ShitRedditSays, /r/SRSsucks, the "Badpire", /r/Buttcoin or pretty much any sub dedicated to mocking people frequently brigade each other and other places on reddit. SRS has gone out of it's way to harass in the past, and while bans may not be applied retroactively, some have recently said they've gotten death threats after being linked to from there.

            2. What are the current plans to address brigading? Will reddit ever support NP (and maybe implement it) or implement another way to curb brigading? This would solve very many problems in regards to meta subreddits.

              1. Is this a good definition of brigading, and if not, what is it? Many mods and users can't give a good explanation of it at the moment of what constitutes it. This forces them to resort to in SubredditDrama's case, banning voting or commenting altogether in linked threads, or in ShitRedditSays' case, not do anything at all.

            Related

            1. What is spam? Like yes, we know what obvious spam is, but there have been a number of instances in the past where good content creators have been banned for submitting their content.
            2. Regarding the "Neither Alexis or I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech" comment, how do you feel about this, this, this or this? I do get that opinions change and that I could shit turds that could search reddit better than it does right now, but it's not hard to see that you said on multiple occasions, especially during the /r/creepshots debacle, even with the literal words "bastion of free speech".
            3. How do you plan to implement the new policy? If the policy is substantially more restrictive, such as combating racism or whatnot, I think you'll have a problem in the long run, because there is just way too much content on reddit, and it will inevitably be applied very inconsistently. Many subreddits have popped back up under different names after being banned.
            4. Did you already set the policy before you started the AMA, and if so, what was the point of it? It seems like from the announcement, you had already made up your mind about the policy regarding content on reddit, and this has made some people understandably upset.
            5. Do you have anything else to say regarding the recent events? I know this has been stressful, but reddit is a cool place and a lot of people use it to share neat (sometimes untrue, but whatever) experiences and whatnot. I don't think the vast majority of people want reddit to implode on itself, but some of the recent decisions and remarks made by the admin team (and former team to be quite honest) are quite concerning.

            [–]almightybob1 84ポイント85ポイント  (6子コメント)

            Hello Steve.

            You said the other day that "Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech". As you probably are aware by now, reddit remembers differently. Here are just a few of my favourite quotes, articles and comments which demonstrate that reddit has in fact long trumpeted itself as just that - a bastion of free speech.

            A reddit ad, uploaded March 2007:

            Save freedom of speech - use reddit.com.

            You, Steve Huffman, on why reddit hasn't degenerated into Digg, 2008:

            I suspect that it's because we respect our users (at least the ones who return the favor), are honest, and don't censor content.

            You, Steve Huffman, 2009:

            We've been accused of censoring since day one, and we have a long track record of not doing so.

            Then-General Manager Erik Martin, 2012:

            We're a free speech site with very few exceptions (mostly personal info) and having to stomach occasional troll reddit like picsofdeadkids or morally quesitonable reddits like jailbait are part of the price of free speech on a site like this.

            reddit blogpost, 2012 (this one is my favourite):

            At reddit we care deeply about not imposing ours or anyone elses’ opinions on how people use the reddit platform. We are adamant about not limiting the ability to use the reddit platform even when we do not ourselves agree with or condone a specific use.

            [...]

            We understand that this might make some of you worried about the slippery slope from banning one specific type of content to banning other types of content. We're concerned about that too, and do not make this policy change lightly or without careful deliberation. We will tirelessly defend the right to freely share information on reddit in any way we can, even if it is offensive or discusses something that may be illegal.

            Then-CEO Yishan Wong, October 2012:

            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.

            reddit's core values, May 2015:

            • Allow freedom of expression.

            • Be stewards, not dictators. The community owns itself.

            And of course (do I even need to add it?) Alexis Ohanian literally calling reddit a bastion of free speech, February 2012. Now with bonus Google+ post saying how proud he is of that quote!

            There are many more examples, from yourself and other key figures at reddit (including Alexis), confirming that reddit has promoted itself as a centre of free speech, and that this belief was and is widespread amongst the corporate culture of reddit. If you want to read more, check out the new subreddit /r/BoFS (Bastion of Free Speech), which gathered all these examples and more in less than two days.

            So now that you've had time to plan your response to these inevitable accusations of hypocrisy, my question is this: who do you think you are fooling Steve?

            [–]Georgy_K_Zhukov 21ポイント22ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Recently you made statements that many mods have taken to imply a reduction in control that moderators have over their subreddits. Much of the concern around this is the potential inability to curate subreddits to the exacting standards that some mod teams try to enforce, especially in regards to hateful and offensive comments, which apparently would still be accessible even after a mod removes them. On the other hand, statements made here and elsewhere point to admins putting more consideration into the content that can be found on reddit, so all in all, messages seem very mixed.

            Could you please clarify a) exactly what you mean/envision when you say "there should also be some mechanism to see what was removed. It doesn't have to be easy, but it shouldn't be impossible." and b) whether that is was an off the cuff statement, or a peek at upcoming changes to the reddit architecture?

            [–]Warlizard 87ポイント88ポイント  (4子コメント)

            In Ellen Pao's op-ed in the Washington Post today, she said "But to attract more mainstream audiences and bring in the big-budget advertisers, you must hide or remove the ugly."

            How much of the push toward removing "ugly" elements of Reddit comes from the motivation to monetize Reddit?

            EDIT: "Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)" -- This is troubling because although it seems reasonable on the surface, in practice, there are people who scream harassment when any criticism is levied against them. How will you determine what constitutes harassment?

            [–]SUSAN_IS_A_BITCH 22ポイント23ポイント  (0子コメント)

            TLDR: How is the Reddit administration planning to improve their communication with users about your policies?

            Over the last year there have been a number of moments where top employees have dropped the ball when it came to talking with users about Reddit's direction:

            I'm sure other users have other examples, but these are the ones that have stuck with me. I intentionally left out the announcement of the /r/fatpeoplehate ban because I thought it was clear why those subreddits were being banned, though admittedly many users were confused about the new policy and it quickly became another mess.

            I think this AMA is a good first step toward better communication with the user base, but only if your responses are as direct and clear as they once were.

            I wish I didn't have to fear the Announcements' comments section like Jabba the Hutt's janitor fears the bathroom.

            [–]mach-2 413ポイント414ポイント x6 (158子コメント)

            /u/spez, /u/kn0thing

            Are you going to push the button?

            Reddit is on its way to being one of if not the most trafficked forum in the world. It is considered the front page of the internet both literally and metaphorically. I love reddit . I have met awesome people on here. I cannot deny that fact. I have learned so much from here. I have wasted more time here than I should have yet strangely, I would not be the current man I am without Reddit. You've stated time and time again that your intent was not for a completely free speech website. Alexis has stated otherwise in the past. In your absence, the previous C.E.O(/u/yishan) upheld the "free speech" mantra.

            Unfortunately, in order for freedom of speech to be in effect, there had to be interaction. That is the very essence of speech. To interact. To elucidate. To that end, it also involves the freedom of hate. There is no way to soften the reality of the situation. There's a plethora of infections on the various arms of this website. And it's spread so much so that there has to be an amputation. This is not a fix. This is the first step to recovery. There is a seriously broken and dangerous attitude being fostered under the banner of free speech. The common argument has always been about "quarantining" the hate groups to their subs. But that has failed woefully. A cross pollination of bigotry was the inevitable outcome. The inmates run the asylum. There is a festering undertow of white supremacist/anti-woman/homophobic culture ever present on this website.

            The venn diagram of those clamoring for completely unmitigated "free speech" and those looking for an audience to proselytize about their hate groups is a circle. One oscillating circle that has swarmed the "front page" of your website. That is not to say every proponent of free speech is a racist/sexist bigot. That is to say that every racist/sexist bigot ON REDDIT is a proponent of unmoderated thunderdome style free speech. There is a common belief that Redditors make accounts in order to unsubscribe from the default subreddits. What does that say about the state of your website when the default communities are brimming with toxicity and hatred? What does that say about the "front page of the internet' where the toxic miasma of hatred is the very essence for which it is known for?

            Day in day out, your website gets featured on media outlets for being the epicenter of some misogynistic, racist and utterly pigheaded scandal. From Anderson Cooper and the jailbait fiasco to the fappening to Ellen Pao's(/u/ekjp) most recent online lynching. This website is in a lot of trouble, packed tight in a hate fueled propellant heading at light speed towards a brick wall of an irreparable shit tier reputation. If left unchecked, your website will become a radioactive wasteland to the very celebs and advertisers you are trying to attract. But it's not too late. Only you can stop it. This is your watershed moment.

            Diplomacy has failed. There is no compromise. That ship has sailed and found natives. From fatpeoplehate to coontown to the ever present talisman of "chan culture" reactionary bollocks. These groups have shown time and time again that they are willing to lash out, disrupt and poison any community they set their sights on. The pictures comparing Ellen Pao to Chairman mao or the racist rhetoric against her ethnicity did not come from outside. They came from and were propelled by the very loud crowd of bigots hiding behind the free speech proponents on this private website.

            The basement of hate subs is no longer a containment. It's a lounge with a beacon. There is no "exchange of ideas/honest discussion" going on. There is only a podium for whatever crank pundit can present the warm milk to the default redditor about the encroachment of the omniscient millennial "social justice warriors/bleeding heart liberals". That's why subs like /r/shitredditsays draw more ire than literal white supremacist hubs like /r/coontown and /r/beatingniggers.

            That's why this website was basically unusable when fatpeoplehate got banned. And that scab peels and bleeds over the front page anytime a person with any combination of...( Arab , Roma, Asian, Brown, Black, Female, Feminist, Gay, Indian, Muslim, Native or Progressive in some form or the other.) You say there is a very loud minority doing all this. Then it seems like it's time to take out the fucking trash. You want free flow of ideas, there's a couple of ways to go about this... Firstly

            MODERATION, MODERATORS, THE FAULTS & THE DEFAULTS: The impending moderator tools are supposed to help moderators I presume? What about squatting inactive top moderators who let these default communities become the festering piles of toxicity that they are? Shouldn't the default moderators be held accountable? If you are going to tacitly advertise subreddits as the "default face of Reddit", you might want to make sure that face is acne free and not hidden behind a klan hood. If someone is going to moderate a place called /r/videos, is such a generalized community not supposed to be publicly inviting and not some springboard for the latest stormfront and anti-feminist bait video?

            What happens if you create a check and balance to rejuvenate the idle mods whose sole purposes are to squat on places like /r/pics and /r/funny and /r/videos and claim to be "moderators" while doing nothing whatsoever? They demand tools from you. It's high time you demand right back. Places like /r/science are top quality precisely because they are moderated. Places like /r/pics and /r/videos become klan rallies precisely because they are not. You have to deal with those responsible for leaving the flood gates open. Why wouldnt 150,000 people feel perfectly fine to create a sub called fatpeopplehate and basically flood the "front page of the internet"?

            The current defaults are over run with this toxic reactionary internet based hate groups. Places like /r/videos, /r/news, /r/pics , /r/funny and even /r/dataisbeautiful and /r/todayilearned are completely unrecognizable hubs of antebellum style 17th century phrenological debates about the degeneracy of women, gays and minorities. The recent Ellen Pao lynch mob is a perfect example of that. She was called a cunt and then Chairman Pao and then things like "ching chong" got tossed around. It's high time you drag them kicking and screaming to the 21st century or you decide to not have them as the defaults.

            I'm a moderator of /r/offmychest. We banned outright bigotry and hatred against any group of protected classes. People revolted when they could no longer make threads about how much they hated blacks or muslims or women. The sub is still thriving and growing. We banned users of Fatpeoplehate and yet we are still around after a mere two days of their supposed revolt.

            SHADOWBANNING , IP BANNING & CENSORSHIP A.K.A Captain Ahab and the slippery slope: Regardless of what you do today, people are going to accuse you of some form of censorship or the other. This is your house. This is your creation. They are squatters here. If they don't abide by the rules, it is your prerogative to grab them by the scuff and deport them. You have a hate based network called the "chimpire" which is a coagulation of the various hate subs on this website.

            This is the Chimpire: /r/Apefrica /r/apewrangling /r/BlackCrime /r/BlackFathers /r/BlackHusbands /r/chicongo /r/ChimpireMETA /r/ChimpireOfftopic /r/chimpmusic /r/Chimpout /r/Detoilet /r/didntdonuffins /r/funnyniggers /r/gibsmedat /r/GreatApes /r/JustBlackGirlThings /r/muhdick /r/N1GGERS /r/NegroFree /r/NiggerCartoons /r/NiggerDocumentaries /r/NiggerDrama /r/NiggerFacts /r/niggerhistorymonth /r/NiggerMythology /r/NiggersGIFs /r/NiggersNews /r/niggerspics /r/niggersstories /r/NiggersTIL /r/niggervideos /r/niglets /r/RacistNiggers /r/ShitNiggersSay /r/teenapers /r/TheRacistRedPill /r/TNB /r/TrayvonMartin /r/USBlackCulture /r/WatchNiggersDie /r/WorldStarHP /r/WTFniggers

            Reddit has been called a fertile ground for recruitment by literal nazi's. Coontown currently has activity rivalling stromfront which since its founding in 1995 by a former Alabama Klan leader. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls reddit “a worse black hole of violent racism than Stormfront,” documenting at least 46 active subreddits devoted to white supremacy like /r/CoonTown.

            Will banning hate subs solve the problem? No. But it's a goddamn good place to start. These hateful hives have lost the privilege accorded to them by your complacence and an atlas shrugged musical version of free speech. They do not deserve to have a platform of hate in the form of Reddit. The whole world is watching you at this moment. So where do we go from here? What question do you think you will be asked other than this? The man is here and that man is you.

            It used to be folk wisdom to cut the head off a snake and burn the wound to prevent it from growing back. The days of the wild west have come and gone. It was funny. The frenzy. The fiends. The fire and brimstone. You're the new sheriff. As the media would have it, the default reddit face is someone in a klan hood who hates women and supports pedophilia in some form or the other. It is an unfortunate stereotype that seems to be passed around as some sort of penance for "free speech".

            It is unfair to the straight white males who have no hand in promoting such an outlook. It is unfair to the women and minorities looking for a place to have enriching discussions. It is unfair to you and your team of admins to be denigrated relentlessly. So I put it to you once more...

            Steve, Alexis, are you going to push the button?

            [–]zaikanekochan 196ポイント197ポイント  (34子コメント)

            What will the process be for determining what is “offensive” and what is not?

            Will these rules be clearly laid out for users to understand?

            If something is deemed “offensive,” but is consensual (such as BDSM), will it be subject to removal?

            Have any specific subs already been subject to discussion of removal, and if so, have Admins decided on which subs will be eliminated?

            How do you envision “open and honest discussion” happening on controversial issues if content being deemed “offensive” is removed? If “offensive” subs are removed, do you foresee an influx of now rule-breaking users flooding otherwise rule-abiding subs?

            What is your favorite Metallica album, and why is it “Master of Puppets?”

            There has also been mention of allowing [deleted] messages to be seen, how would these be handled in terms of containing “offensive” content?

            Will anything be done regarding inactive “squatter” mods, specifically allowing their removal on large subs?

            [–]urdle 55ポイント56ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Hello /u/spez, I thought about posting a long question about reddit's change of heart when it comes to free speech rather I have decided against it.

            In your previous post, you claimed we as a community need to decide what our values are. I propose this: Honesty.

            So my questions are this:

            is reddit still in the red?

            If so, who is paying the bills?

            And are these changes prompted by them?

            Thank you.

            [–]throwawaytiffany 43ポイント44ポイント  (7子コメント)

            Are all DMCA takedowns posted to /r/ChillingEffects? If yes, why is this one missing? If no, why the change from the policy announced very recently? http://www.reddit.com/r/Roadcam/comments/38g72g/c/cruy2qt

            [–]krispykrackers[A] 41ポイント42ポイント  (6子コメント)

            The tool we currently use for DMCA takedowns has evolved a bit internally to take down things like personal information. We need to adapt that tool to be much more clear on what is a DMCA takedown and what is not, as well as develop better internal policies on when that should be used, since it does affect user generated content.

            [–]DEATH-BY-CIRCLEJERK 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi Steve,

            I think this is a question I've not seen asked or addressed anywhere on reddit before, so I hope this is a good contribution to this AMA and discussion.

            Do you see an issue with more and more default subreddits configuring their automoderator to automatically remove comments from users who have just joined? On numerous occasions a friend or family member has created an account after me telling them about reddit only to find that when I go to their overview page and follow the permalink to their actual comments that it is missing. I presume moderators are doing this to mitigate trolls or something but I think it might become a systemic problem if all of the defaults move in this direction. How is anyone going to be able to get enough karma to get out of the automod filter if none of their comments get seen?

            Thanks.

            [–]SirYodah 74ポイント75ポイント  (4子コメント)

            Can you please speak on why real members are still being shadowbanned, even after you claimed that they never should be?

            For reference: https://np.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/3dd954/censorship_mod_of_rneofag_shadowbanned_for_asking/

            Note: I'm not involved in any of the communities represented in the link, I found it on /r/all yesterday and want to know the reason why people are still being shadowbanned.

            [–]davidreiss666 68ポイント69ポイント x2 (81子コメント)

            The best run subreddit communities are the ones that have mod-teams that enforce the rules and don't allow any hate-speech and other bullshit.

            For example, /r/Science does not allow bullshit opinions that aren't scientifically valid. Either as submissions or comments. So, they will ban you for creationism, anti-vaccine BS and climate change denial as these are all views that are backed by all the world scientific community. In short, they want everyone to know that /r/Science is scientifically accurate. The same goes for other science based communties on Reddit such as /r/AskScience and /r/Biology.

            Likewise, /r/History and other history-based subredits like /r/HistoryPorn, /r/AskHistorians and /r/BadHistory don't allow history-denial. So, things like Holocaust denial, Lost Cause of the Confederacy propaganda, Ancient Aliens crap, Neo Nazis, White Supremacy and other total bullshit views will get you banned.

            There is a large problem with hate-based groups that are trying to colonize (their word) Reddit in their attempt to spread their views. Hate based groups like: White Supremacists, Neo Nazis, Skinheads, Holocaust Deniers, Extreme Misogynists, Homophobes, Racists who view all Muslims as terrorists, Extreme Racists, etc. It's a large number of groups, and there is a massive amount of overlap between these subgroups.

            These radical nuts run subreddits like: /r/CoonTown, r/GreatApes, /r/European, /r/Holocaust (holocaust deniers), /r/TheRedPill, /r/KotakuInAction, etc.

            Right now, /r/CoonTown almost gets as much traffic as stormfront.org. And that's not including the traffic from all the other racist shithole subreddits. That spike in traffic is the Dylan Roof shooting, and the extra traffic seems to have staying power considering they picked up 4,000 subscribers in two days and another 1k at least since.

            If they don't take care of it, reddit will soon have the dubious honor of being the most active white supremacist forum on the the Internet.

            Hate Speech should not be a profit center for Reddit, or any other corporation. If the admins don't want to take the lead on this, then hopefully one or more media outlets will start pick up on it and force the Admins to deal with it.

            Another point that largely gets ignored in this debate: Non-racists generally don't want to hang out with racists. Racist and hate-group users generally strive to drive out the non-racist users.

            Everybody has a story about the racist family member that they only see once a year at some family gathering, and we all dread running into that family member. We really don't want to hang out, even for a short amount of time, with that person. Well, when it comes to family we make sacrifices, so we (1) try and only talk about the weather or sports with them and (2) are very thankful it's for only one-hour a year. But when it comes to non-family, you don't make the same allowances. We just cut those people out of our lives.

            Bad users will drive out good users. And then more bad users will be attracted to this site. And it will become a bad-user reinforcement-cycle with more and more bad users driving out, they hope, all the good users. These groups even know this, and count on the non-racists leaving. It's why they use terms like Colonizing, as they are actively attempted to take the entire site over. That is their goal. They are not interested in undirected discussion with anyone. They want to control the narrative and how any discussion happens. They are actively trying to turn young people who aren't already racist bigots into more racist bigots. If you allow them to run wild, 90% of the good users will leave. And what's left will simply be a Storm Front members wet dream.

            Paul Graham mentions this issue with bad users in this essay.

            Other web sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have taken to dealing with racist hate groups. It's high time that Reddit did the same.

            I also want to address the BS that some limits on free speech are inherently bad. Because the only country that really thinks free speech means "Anything Goes, including extreme bigotry" is the United States. But other nations, such as Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Italy, etc. place some limits on "Free Speech" via bans on things like Holocaust denial. Now..... I'm sorry, but you can't tell me Germany or Canada is any less free than the United States. The reason the Germans don't allow open-Nazis into the political debate in their country is that they tried it once. It ended badly.

            In short, you don't allow these people a foot hold because their goal is to make Reddit into a hate-propaganda site. Hopefully the admins are finally going to do something about these groups. It's high time the admins took action.

            [–]tacomotif 16ポイント17ポイント  (2子コメント)

            "We understand that this might make some of you worried about the slippery slope from banning one specific type of content to banning other types of content. We're concerned about that too, and do not make this policy change lightly or without careful deliberation. We will tirelessly defend the right to freely share information on reddit in any way we can, even if it is offensive or discusses something that may be illegal... We remain committed to protecting reddit as an open platform." - Reddit 2012

            So I'm wondering, do words simply not mean anything anymore /u/spez or is Reddit changing their minds on this issue? Is this move in the pure interest of profitability? I guess thats fine, this is a business after all, but why not at least be honest with us instead of saying that no one intended for reddit to be an open platform. That honestly sounds like revisionist history, the comment you made the other day where you completely contradicted Alexis and Yishan. I feel the biggest insult to people is pretending that the past didn't happen, and if you guys leveled with people in an open and honest way, there would be less of a backlash, but I guess reddit is going in the opposite direction of anything open and honest.

            So reddit is no longer to be a free and open exchange of ideas, as is the right of The Board of Directors to dictate and yes men to implement, but honestly, where does it end, who is next? Police discussions get pretty heated and hateful, pluto planet status discussions get out of control, feminists go flying off the rails, circumcision discussions can get waaaay out of hand too; are any of these things going to be snipped in the pud?! Its easy to get rid of the unpopular people, no one will cry for them, but if its so easy for y'all to throw away these values in the face of potential profitability, where will that end? Have fun with the monetized corporate platform I guess.

            I don't hate Ellen /u/ekjp Pao, if the smug shitposting of /u/yishan is to be beliebed, then she is our saviour and white knight in shining armor. Shes even kinda cute in an androgynous way! Supposedly /u/kn0thing is responsible for a lot of the bad stuff people blamed on her, like the firing of /u/chooter . I thought the vitriol was over the top and insane, but I understand how those people felt. They had only heard bad things about her past, and no one really knew where the moves were coming from, so they lashed out, and there was no communication whatsoever from anyone at reddit to explain what was going on. Not that talking to an angry mob is really all that helpful, to be fair. Its obvious now that you guys got a PR firm helping you out with all of this and coordinating people's movements. I guess the final decisions are made and everything will swing around to the green money jungle beat. It must be so easy to say all those lofty and principled things and then just sell everything out when cash is sitting on the table.

            Congratulations, you guys won, and anyone who cares about open and honest dicussions has lost. I guess you all got what you wanted and the gravy train is getting ready to leave the station. Was it all a lie to just get to this point, where the inconvenient people can be brushed aside like trash? I really hope that isn't what is happening here.

            When everything is said and done and we move on to voat and 8chan, I really hope you guys make an honest effort to communicate with the mods and the users of this site and maintain that effort. People deserve an open and honest conversation, even if you don't wanna give it to them.

            [–]Miserable_Wrongdoer 21ポイント22ポイント  (1子コメント)

            If you're thinking of banning places like /r/coontown and other racist subreddits I have the following questions for you:

            Will /r/atheism be banned for encouraging it's members to disrespect Islam by drawing the Prophet Muhammad and making offensive statements towards people of Faith?

            Will /r/childfree be banned for being linked with the murder of a child and offensive statements towards children?

            Will /r/anarchism be banned for calling for the violent overthrow of government and violence against the wealthy?

            Will porn subreddits be banned for continuing the objectification of women?

            Will subreddits like /r/killingwomen be banned?

            These questions, /u/spez are entirely rhetorical.

            The ultimate question is: If you're willing to ban some communities because their content is offensive to some people where do you draw the line?

            [–]RamonaLittle 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

            (2 of 6. I have multiple questions, which I'm posting individually so people can upvote/downvote individually.)

            Will the new policy clarify whether/when/how users are allowed to encourage suicide?

            As far as the existing policy, I asked for clarification and didn't get a reply. Then I asked again and didn't get a reply. Then I asked a third time and got a reply which I think doesn't make much sense, and the admins didn't reply to my follow-up message. Here is the conversation in full:

            me to /r/reddit.com/:

            I just saw this screencap. LordVinyl says that telling other users to kill themselves isn't harassment. Whether or not it's harassment, I've been assuming that advocating suicide is against reddit's user agreement, which says "Keep Everyone Safe: You agree to not intentionally jeopardize the health and safety of others or yourself." and "Do Not Incite Harm: You agree not to encourage harm against people."

            Can you please advise: is it a violation of reddit rules to tell another redditor to kill themself?

            Thank you for your time.

            Ocrasorm: It depends on the context. If someone tells a user to kill themselves on a subreddit dealing with suicidal users we will take action.

            If a user is in an argument on a random subreddit and tells them to kill themselves we would not ban someone for that. Sure it is a stupid thing to say but not necessarily jeoprdizing health and safety.

            me: Thanks. Just to be clear -- you're saying that "kill yourself" isn't "inciting harm" unless it's "on a subreddit dealing with suicidal users," correct?

            If that's the policy, I'll abide by it, but I don't think it makes much sense. There's no reason to assume that people with suicidal feelings are only posting on suicide-related subreddits.

            If a user routinely tells everyone to kill themselves (and follows up with "I'm serious" and "do it"), all over reddit, that's OK, as long as he doesn't say it in subreddits that are explicitly suicide-related, correct? If one of their targets wound up killing himself, and their parents sued reddit, you personally would testify under oath that no rules were broken?

            [I never got a reply to this.]

            [–]dangerdark 10ポイント11ポイント  (4子コメント)

            Why was /u/justcool393's post hidden?

            https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3djjxw/lets_talk_content_ama/ct5qs8b

            It still shows up under his posts, but if you go directly to the link it has disappeared.

            [–]isolatedextremophile 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

            You say that you want to remove offensive, obscene and dark parts of reddit. Do you realize that those words describe a subjective feeling?

            [–]EatingSteak 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            I have three questions, all of which I've put a lot of thought into:

            • What is your "angle" with cleaning up Reddit?

            • Seriously, what happened with Victoria?

            • What can you say to convince me not to jump ship?

            • Are you ever going to use the word "bastion" again?

            Here are a few thoughts and some background/context to my questions:

            • Fine, the last question was just trolling
            • With Victoria: You have two options: one, you can come clean and/or let her tell her side of the story; or two, just let everyone assume the worst. Obviously there is the "but the lawyers" response - fuck it, they work for you, make an arrangement that works.
            • (Victoria, cont'd) ...if you don't, we're just going to assume that she is/was great, and she refused to comply with shit/bad decision-making
            • I've been using "you" a lot, which isn't intended to be a 'personal attack', but it is addressed to you as the face of the company, and in reference to something "you" did - well, same thing
            • My tone while writing this is coming over more harsh than I intended, but I'm not just ranting. I love reddit. I heard about the site after reading Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters, and it's been probably my favorite place ever since. I'm not "angry" with reddit, it just hurts to see it dying
            • I'm not being melodramatic - the site is seriously going to die if it keeps getting torn up like this. I was an editor for the now-defunct Shoutwire (the spinoff Spankwire is still around, but it's awful). It hurt then, but I watched that die, and I don't want the same to happen to reddit. The "suits" come in, try to make their changes and turn it into a revenue stream, and they piss off the users, and dump the site to pieces. Then find another
            • In regards to "cleaning up" reddit, my speculation is this: investors are trying to get reddit go mainstream, and stuff like /r/fatpeoplehate looks bad, and they're making you get rid of that to open the door for more advertising money. Is there any truth in that?

            [–]amaperson1234 6ポイント7ポイント  (1子コメント)

            It's been said that you are going to remove the more cancerous subreddits. I'm curious as to whether ShitRedditSays will be included among this category. On the face of it, a place where reprehensible comments are pointed out, right?

            It must have been two years ago now when shit hit the fan and I found a link to a thread where one redditor, clearly in a distressed state, had made a post alluding to their future suicide. Now, of course, the vast majority of responses were what you would expect from most humans. Compassionate and sincere posts offering this person help and support. Who on earth would tell a person in this condition to kill themselves? Or worse, tell them the world would be better off without them? Enter ShitRedditSays.

            The comments made towards this person by a significant portion of people are among the most disturbing things I have ever seen on this site. It was the sort of thing I would expect to see on SRS, as a showcase of how awful Reddit is. So, I went to the sub to see if they were talking about it. They were, but not in the way I had expected. They were bragging. They were laughing. They were celebrating. The suicidal person in question was affiliated with the MRA sub, something that SRS greatly opposes. So much so, they brigaded the thread the person had posted in, and told them to kill themselves. Repeatedly told them. And when the person did, they were happy. Because, to them, this was a war. And anything was acceptable. Telling a suicidal person to kill themselves was perfectly fine. That is how lacking in perspective many of these people are.

            Much of what was said was deleted shortly afterwards so it would not be visible anymore. Well, almost all of it. The below is only a tiny fraction of what was said. There was a lot worse.

            http://i.imgur.com/ehQNU.png

            http://i.imgur.com/4qMV8.png

            http://i.imgur.com/nSCSV.png

            I had always thought SRS was merely a sub dedicated to showcasing the darker side of this site. A way of promoting change, but nothing malicious. I messaged one of the mods about what had happened expecting them to condemn the behavior, but instead they bragged about it like some sort of psychopath. It was one of the most fucked up conversations I have ever had. Further examination of the sub and their mods clearly showed that this is a group of people who are in fact quite hateful. Many of the mods displayed blatant prejudices against various groups.

            And the media doesn't show this side of SRS, for whatever reason. Possibly out of laziness or perhaps because SRS deletes the vast majority of their more shameful history. We hear about how they got rid of the disgusting Jailbait sub, something that I (and I'm sure many others) was very happy about. But we never hear about the racism, sexism or harassment that they so frequently partake in. So, on the face of it. SRS is this progressive humanitarian group that Reddit can showcase as an example of how the site is not just a cesspit of evil. Am I right?

            And that's how it appears to many users of the sub too. Young teenagers in many cases. Progressive, well meaning individuals who want to highlight the unsavory things that are said throughout this site. Except we know now, that those controlling SRS and many of their more active members have much more sinister intentions than that. Clearly, they have a dangerous influence over young and impressionable people, who are unaware of these true intentions.

            There is also a dark side, communities whose purpose is reprehensible, and we don’t have any obligation to support them. And we also believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all.

            My questions - Is the above statement genuine? Will ShitRedditSays be removed like the rest of the cancerous subreddits?

            Yes or No? The answer to both questions is the same.

            [–]GodOfAtheism 155ポイント156ポイント  (51子コメント)

            What about SRS?

            [–]AlphaWolf101 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Steve, how do you plan on improving communication between mods and admins? Will you value their input on actions, such as firing Victoria?

            Also, will previous shadowbans be possibly reversed after the shadowban policy change?

            [–]CarCrashPregnancy 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            1. I hear talk of making reddit a "safe space" How about instead you expand flair. Example: Hey look at this photo!(Flair: warning women getting slapped, don't look if this if something that will upset you) So, if I'm going to be responsible for knowing what offends other people, give me the chance to try and protect myself from being banned while at the same time allowing me to express myself and continue bringing content to the site

            2. SRS... I know this is what will get my question ignored. Why does SRS have an alternate set of rules than the rest of Reddit? All of the things you guys are trying to preach in your policy change is being chalked up entirely to hypocrisy if you allow SRS to operate how it has been. Vote brigading? Not allowed...unless you are SRS: Witch Hunting? Not allowed...unless you are SRS.

            3. If admins/mods are going to blacklist things on their subs subs/site wide IE:TPP. Can you explain why it's not just explained to us? If you guys just flat out said. "Hey no TPP talk because we have investors involved, or Wal Mart gave us 100k and we really need that money to make the site better, and it creates a conflict with keeping the site operational, sorry". The community would be a shit ton happier. I would much rather get shitty honest news, than be ignored or lied to. However r/conspiracy would be pretty fucking bored without the ambiguity(no offense guys)

            Thanks

            [–]-eDgAR- 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Why did you choose to use "a bastion of free speech" to describe what you and Alexis did not design reddit to be when he was quoted in such a huge publication using the exact same words, but in saying opposite?

            [–]simsalabimbam 14ポイント15ポイント  (2子コメント)

            My question is simple: does /u/kn0thing have popcorn right now?

            [–]RamonaLittle 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            (1 of 6. I have multiple questions, which I'm posting individually so people can upvote/downvote individually.)

            Publication of someone’s private and confidential information

            The User Agreement currently says "You agree to not post anyone's sensitive personal information that relates to that person's real world or online identity."

            Will the new policy clarify this, including what counts as "dox," and (if there's a "public figure exception"), who counts as a "public figure"?

            A few examples of why this is an issue:

            There was a redditor who used her IRL first name as her reddit name. She was associated with a high-profile criminal group and this was covered in many mainstream media reports. She moderated a large number of subreddits. In subreddits she didn't moderate, links to these articles were allowed because of course they were, they're mainstream news articles. But in subs she moderated, she called all these links "dox" and removed them, and banned anyone posting them. Permitted under new content policy?

            How about a situation where there's a mainstream news article, something like "UnusualFirstName UnusualLastName arrested for kicking puppies." In the comment thread, someone says, "Hey, I wonder if this is u/UnusualFirstNameUnusualLastName, who posts a lot in r/KickingPuppiesIsFun?" Can u/UnusualFirstNameUnusualLastName get this comment removed as "dox"?

            Basically I'm asking, can the "no dox" rule be used to shield someone from criticism and press coverage, especially if they're the one who made the connection between their IRL name and their reddit account? As it's been applied in the past, if there's a negative article about Joe Shmoe, all Joe Shmoe has to do to get it removed is to say "hey, that's me! Now remove this article which is doxing me!" I don't think that's a good use of the "no dox" rule.

            [–]endomorphosis 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

            I am wondering if you're intending on making reddit a curated space, with the addition of video content and the removal of content you personally deem objectionable, how your're going to address the reduced safe harbor protections provided by USC 230. Furthermore what is deemed objectionable may in fact be protected speech under the Unruh act, which prohibits any and all arbitrary discrimination whatsoever, for example removing subreddits that aren't breaking rules or criticizing reddit's actions.

            Furthermore, I would like to address reddits participation in the http://derp.institute , and whether or not reddit can be trusted as a unbiased source of news, considering the conflicts of interest with for example /u/kn0thing and and Marc Andreessen's relationship with the Clintons. Because to many outsiders it seems like reddit isn't fostering a community but pushing for a narrative, for example punishing groups deemed unfavorable to their political ideology, but allowing for blatantly objectionable content that follows your ideology.

            For example the fact that reddit and many of its admins openly advocate breaking civil rights laws, and indeed likely breaking hiring laws when it screens users for social justice and gender, while disparaging the userbase that it derives its income from. Do you feel that this is a violation of the fiduciary duty, because it's clear that its exposed Reddit to alot of risk, and alot of harm to the community from which it derives income.

            Lastly, I remember Sam Altman mentioning that users would be able to participate more in reddit governance, and his plan on increasing the ownership of reddit by its own community. Its clear that many of us are upset with the governance, and would enjoy a more open and participatory governance scheme, or is reddit going to continue to ignore its users at its own peril.

            [–]MovkeyB 145ポイント146ポイント  (80子コメント)

            As a black man, I came to Reddit because it was a bastion of free speech. It was a place where I could come and be judged on the quality of what I had to say - not the person who said it. It was a place where new ideas could be born, because nobody was afraid of expressing their honest thoughts, opinions, and theories. From what I've seen, SJWs want to destroy that. They care more about who you are than what you say, and if you're not a trans-woman genderqueer attack helicoptor feminist, your ideas don't count.

            As a black man, I hate /r/coontown , but I would defend to my death their right to speak freely. /u/spez, What will you do to ensure that reddit remains a free and open platform for everyone?

            edit: ty

            [–]courtiebabe420 3ポイント4ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            Can you provide a definition of what that means?

            [–]KaliYugaz 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Thanks for doing this AMA, Mr. Huffman. I'm going to go ahead and ask a primarily theoretical question here: What exactly is your comprehensive, coherent vision for what you want this site to be?

            The admins seem to be finally aware now, at least, that Rousseau was Wrong, people are not inherently good when allowed to be absolutely free, and it is not possible for Reddit to exist as a lawless scoundrel infested free-for-all and still be useable for any constructive purpose. So far that's a great start, you've told us what you don't want Reddit to be like. But more importantly, you haven't told us what you do want Reddit to be, and how that theoretical vision will determine your content policy moving forwards.

            What, in your opinion, is the basic principle or point of Reddit? The basic point of Western governments is to ensure individual liberty, equality, and self governance for their citizens. The basic point of free markets is to distribute and allocate resources efficiently. Similarly what is the point of this site?

            Do you just want something that can be easily monetized? If so, then you would have to ban not just the hate but also all the politics and the controversial stuff and the metasphere and the less tasteful porn, place the site under highly centralized control, emphasize the defaults and large subs, and thereby convert Reddit into a fluff click bait and cat picture factory like Buzzfeed. It's a tried and true business model by now.

            Or would you rather Reddit be known primarily as a place for high-level, sophisticated discussion, expression, and learning about science, academics, art, media, and politics? If that's what you want, then you absolutely must foster the proper site wide environment to encourage quality expression and discussion. Stuff like hate speech, disruption, incivility, and bullying certainly cannot be allowed, since they have a chilling effect on artistic expression and on open and rational discourse. Furthermore, mods will need strong tools to remove content that is deemed by experts to be factually incorrect beyond reasonable doubt. Experts themselves will have to be encouraged to join the site in order to enrich it.

            Or do you want Reddit to be a libertarian "place for communities" where anyone can make a sub and do whatever they want with it? If that's the case, then you will have to put stringent rules in place to protect the fundamental principle of the absolute sovereignty of a subreddit's mods and subscribers over their subreddit, which would entail strictly enforcing brigading control, strengthening mod tools for subreddit management, and playing an active role in negotiating peace between sub communities that hate each other. The admins also can't violate the basic principle of sovereignty by banning or regulating communities if they're just sharing offensive content amongst themselves, which means that a certain level of nastiness (though not the blatant hate group evangelism that we have now) would have to be tolerated and strictly contained to its own space.

            I've just given you 3 distinct visions for the site that I came up with myself (personally, I hate the 1st, favor the 2nd, and don't mind the 3rd). Now I want to hear what ideas you have, in similar form and in as much detail as possible.

            [–]donkey_democrat 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            One of the biggest problems with restricting speech is that the rules against speech are often vague, and open the door to further restrictions. A law against hate speech could define hate speech as whatever it wants, including anti-government speech.

            Specifically, I would like you to go into more detail with these points:

            • Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

            • Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            What is inciting harm defined as? Is it as simple as being against a type of person, or do they have to threaten death?

            Same goes for harassing and bullying people. Would fatepeoplehate be allowed, assuming it stayed within its own bounds, or would it be banned, due to it harassing fat people?

            How do subreddits protect against false flags or a few bad eggs? Was it right, in your mind, for fatpeoplehate to be banned entirely over the actions of a few users?

            All of these questions need consideration. Thanks in advance.

            [–]MMZephyr 14ポイント15ポイント  (2子コメント)

            1. If a subreddit like /r/fatpeoplehate was banned, why aren't similar ones like /r/punchablefaces banned?

            2. Now that you've decided to take on the responsibility of making speech safe on reddit, how will you keep up with the hydra-effect of online users? (Eg. How do you keep up with harassment if users can just make a new account and keep going?)

            3. Why did you say reddit isn't meant to be a bastion of free speech, when you used to say the exact opposite?

            4. What do you have against free speech? Hasn't it gotten the US pretty far, despite the lame people who abuse free speech?

            5. How do you determine if an entire subreddit should be banned for an instance of harassment, rather than the individual users involved? If a moderator is involved, why not ban them instead of the entire subreddit?

            [–]redpillschool 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            In the past I have contacted the admin for guidelines to keep our mildly unpopular subreddit above board. The rude and short response I got was "just follow the rules" which seems to be as ambiguous as it gets, given that I was just asking what the damn rules were.. The site rules are open ended and unenforceable by mods- Mods don't have the ability to track brigading, how could we ever be responsible for stopping it?

            Let's skip the excuses and call it what it is: Are the rules a red herring? Will you be removing subs you don't like, regardless of rulebreaking?

            Here are some scenarios that scare me as a moderator:

            • Users can go literally anywhere on the site and troll. It's one big forum, there are no rules against participation anywhere.
            • If those users vote or comment their opinion and also subscribe to my subreddit, it can be seen as brigading.
            • Anybody can do this, especially if they want to frame the subreddit for misconduct.
            • There is no physical way for mods to prevent users from voting- there doesn't seem to be a reason to prevent users from voting (since that is the entire purpose of reddit).
            • Despite the popular rhetoric that users "belong" to certain subreddits, most users subscribe to multiple subreddits, so telling them not to participate site-wide when you're involved in discussion from certain subreddits seems antithetical to the purpose of the site, and again, totally unenforcable.

            Why would any of these actions cause an entire subreddit to be banned?

            [–]OGwilly 5ポイント6ポイント  (1子コメント)

            are you going to ban vicious hate subs like /r/ledootgeneration?

            [–]ImAKidImASquid 8ポイント9ポイント  (0子コメント)

            So if reddit is not a bastion of free speech then what about all this?

            (Credit to /r/BoFS)

            [–]bilde2910 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi, /u/spez, and thank you for doing this AMA regarding the upcoming content policy update. I've got a few questions that I would appreciate being answered.

            Content policies are a highly controversial topic among redditors, and no matter which position you choose to take, there is bound to be a lot of drama and hate over the decision. First question, how do you intend to deal with the reaction of such a policy change? The last time this happened (banning of FPH), harassment and threats to Ellen Pao were floating around on the front page for days. Are you afraid that too many people will leave reddit to join alternative sites in order to voice their opinions without being censored?

            Several subreddits are worried about whether or not their subreddit is going to be banned following the content policy update. So the next question is, where are you going to draw the line as to what content is considered acceptable, and what is considered reprehensible? How serious does the harassment have to be to call for a sub deletion? What if it is confined to a single or a few subreddits, and does not spread into other parts of the community? What if it does spread, but still remains within the boundaries of reddit? Will brigading subreddits be banned?

            Next, I'm wondering about the reasoning and purpose behind the policy change. So, why do you change the policy that has been in place for over a decade? Is it for financial reasons? Is it to protect the individuals being harassed? Is it to protect reddit's reputation in the media? All of them?

            Harassment subreddits have been around for a while, and some even for several years. Why have you waited until now to implement the policy changes? This surely has been a problem for you for a while, so is there any specific reason as to why this happens now, as opposed to maybe a year or two ago?

            And finally: The [/r/announcements/comments/3dautm/](announcement post) has sparked a lot of controversy regarding reddit's goals as a free speech platform. You said in your announcement that:

            Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech

            Yet, initially, free speech was exactly what your goal was for reddit. Why do you now say that free speech never was the intention?

            Thank you in advance for answering my questions. I hope the changes turn out to be good for reddit.

            [–]FlyingPeacock 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

            In your earlier post you said, “Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech…” You also went on to say, “We as a community need to decide together what our values are”. Since free speech is a value that by and large is represented throughout the community, how do you plan to reconcile this? Will we only get free speech when it is convenient for the reddit admin and marketing teams? I understand that threats are not covered under free speech, but where is the line? People don’t have a right to not be offended. Is that your goal for reddit?

            [–]Darr_Syn 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Thanks for doing this AMA.

            I'm a moderator of more than a few NSFW subreddits, including /r/BDSMcommunity and /r/BDSM, and as I stated in the teaser announcement earlier this week: this decision, and the specific wording, is worrying.

            I want to specifically address this:

            Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

            As well as your earlier comment about things being seen as "offensive" and "obscene".

            There are sections of the world, and even the United States, where consensual BDSM and kink are illegal.

            You can see where this is the type of announcement that raises more than a few eyebrows in our little corner of the world.

            At what point do the minority opinion and positions be accepted as obscene, offensive, and unwanted?

            BDSM between two consenting adults has been seen and labeled as both offensive and obscene for decades now.

            [–]DetectiveGodvyel 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

            What do you span to do about growing neo-nazi presense and brigading? As you may or not may know Stormfront and VNN have been targetting places like /r/news, /r/worldnews, /r/europe, /r/videos and so on for years. They do this with divide and conquer tactics. They have subforums dedicated to Reddit links where they storm threads here with a burst of people while the natural on-site visitors flow in gradually. They also link their own submissions and vote manipulate them.

            This has been going on for years but I'm noticing that it's grown worse in recent times. SPLC actually formally classified Reddit as having "rampant white supremacist activity".

            [–]PeBeFri 2ポイント3ポイント  (3子コメント)

            Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency.

            And whose code of decency would be the basis for this new classification?

            I have enjoyed this website for many years now. It has been superb as a collection of communities where news, ideas, and interesting new things on the Internet can be shared. And its success is owed largely to its reputation as a space where free expression can thrive.

            But the structural integrity of Reddit is under threat. It has been for many years. And it's not from those who engage in hate speech. It's from another community of Redditors, one which simultaneously denounces and profits from the site's hands-off policy towards its users. Their most problematic community is /r/shitredditsays, and they are unofficially known as social justice warriors.

            Here is my stance on this latest Reddit controversy in a nutshell:

            I would rather use a website populated by racists and bigots than by social justice warriors.

            Say what you will about those who frequent the hate subreddits. At least they only want their voice to be heard, even though what they say may be unpalatable. By contrast, social justice warriors aim to suppress the voice of others. Only one of these groups pose a threat to a free and open marketplace of ideas.

            It is understandable that you would wish to restrict hate speech, either for moral reasons or to placate potential advertisers. But long before you ever discussed the censorship of hate speech on your site, you strongly opposed the actions of vote manipulation, of which there is substantial evidence of guilt by SRS.

            Here is my suggestion for you, to avoid hypocrisy:

            If you censor the hate subreddits, you must censor /r/shitredditsays as well.

            If you do not comply, I will cease my regular activity here, migrating my presence to Voat and other competitors that may arise. I will not purchase Reddit Gold, for myself or anyone else. And I will use ad-blocking software when visiting your site.

            I have no moral qualms about this. Reddit may no longer call itself a "bastion of free speech," but it still advertises itself as a place where one can make their voice heard without being subjected to downvote brigades, and would be given equal footing with the censorious. If you shut down subreddits for their ideas and not others for their behavior, you would be guilty of false advertising.

            [–]bhalp1 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            I generally agree with the outline above. Do you have ideas for the name of this second classification? I feel like this kind of thing is easy to conceptualize, hard to bucket and actually classify, and will come down to semantics. The naming of things is such an important factor in how they are accepted and understood by the community. Is there a list of names you are considering?

            Thanks for the transparency. My favorite thing about Reddit is that it is a platform that gives a voice to the many without garbling in down to the lowest common denominator (but that also happens sometimes.) My least favorite thing are the hateful subcultures that exist and feel entitled to never have their views even questioned or criticized. I appreciate that Reddit does not try to decide what is right or wrong but I also appreciate a clear stance against hate and harassment.

            [–]Pierce28 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            content that violates a common sense of decency

            What exactly do you mean by this? NSFL content, or content such as hate speech? If not NSFL, will you finally separate out NSFW from NSFL? There's a major difference between boobs and someone literally losing their mind.

            [–]mcctaggart 1ポイント2ポイント  (2子コメント)

            Spez, there has been accusations for years that a cabal of mods have sought to control a number of subreddits to suit their own political agenda. They censor posts and comments. This censorship has been documented on subreddits like r/politicalmoderation, r/subredditcancer r/moderationlog and r/undelete. You can search these subs for individual subreddit names to see the content they have removed.

            r/worldnews, r/politics, r/europe, r/unitedkingdom, r/ukpolitics have all been guilty.

            To give a couple of examples, r/europe bans people just for saying ISIS are inspired by the Qu'ran.

            When the Tunisian terror attacks happened, the removed the thread about it saying it wasn't relevant as it happened in Africa despite the shooter targeting Europeans on holiday. This was one of those rare ocasions when it was such a big story, there was uproar on the sub so they had to relent. Many deleted stories go un-noticed by the community though.

            Another exuse they will use to remove content they don't want people to see is to claim something is "low quality". Recently for example When someone posted amateur footage of African immigrants shouting that they had a right to live in Germany, they removed it and said the footage wasn't professional.

            They also removed a thread about African migrants attacking tourist in Mallorca for the same reason.

            Here is a thread about the time they removed all threads about Muslim migrants throwing Christians out a boat in the Med because "racists are using the story to post racism". This was another time they had to relent after so much uproar.

            This "low quality" excuse has been used on r/unitedkingdom too. One time a user posted a picture he took of a poster in a public school. It read that music was haram and the work of the devil and warned students not to dance. It was a top post and then the mods removed it. They eventualy had to come up with this reason that the picture was not taken by a professional. They then added this rule to the sidebar. r/unitedkingdom has become famous for purging UKIP supporters (a political party which wants to leave the EU). This is often talked about on r/ukipparty. People are banned for no reason other than this. One banned user was recently told in a modmail that "he sounded a bit ukipppy".

            This happened during the last election for Ron Paul supporters on r/politics. They would use tactics like remove posts and then an hour later re-approve them when they were much further down the queue, once someone protests or make up some excuse why it was deleted.

            There was a lot of uproar when r/worldnews kept delting any Snowden stories and would not consider Glen Greenwald's The Intercept a news source. Pretty sure they did this for RT News too IIRC.

            That's why there has been so much anger from some of us here and support for transparent moderation. People like u/go1dfish have been banned for trying to bring transparency to reddit. He created a bot to re-post deleted posts which some mods hated and even banned people for posting on his subs.

            Reddit used to be a great forum over five years ago when conent was not curated and censored by a band of particular mods who have dug their claws into this site. Are you planning anything to make it great again and bring transparency to the moderation? As you know many of the subs who are censored now grew large when there were free-er. Some became default subs and it is extremely difficult to get uncensored alternatives off the ground and make people aware of them. Maybe alternative subs could be advertised on large or default subs so people know they have options?

            [–]RodrigoPer 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

            When will /r/crackertown be removed?

            PSA: one of the mods there is also a mod at /r/blackladies (an openly prejudiced sub in my view, have a look, see if you agree) and has been one of the most vocal /r/coontown critics.

            [–]PrivateChicken 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Can you clean up your house? Frankly I've found the behavior of /u/Yishan and /u/kn0thing incredibly unprofessional in light of the recent drama wave. I realize Yishan is not an employee, but maybe as the CEO you could politely ask him to stop starting shit.

            [–]fight_for_anything 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            • Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            you will need a much clearer and specific definition of these things. there are groups on both sides of every issue that are basically guilty of this. while subs like FPH were clearly guilty, all of the SRS subs do basically the same thing. attempting to silence people, and lets not kid ourselves, they brigade like its their full time job, despite what their sidebar says. its important to be fair and unbiased, in this kind of thing.

            honestly, i think its better if you just tell eveyone to grow a pair, before this place turns into an idiocracy of people saying they are being harrassed just because someone else expressed a different opinion.

            [–]sleeps_with_crazy 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Fifty years ago, the overwhelming majority of people would have been deeply offended if I suggested that two men should be allowed to get married. They would have gone apoplectic if I suggested they should be allowed to adopt children. If history tells us anything, it's that there are things we consider self-evidently morally true now that in fifty years, our grandkids will be laughing at us for and they will be right. So my question is: if reddit existed back then and I created a sub dedicated to why gay couples should be allowed to adopt, would you have banned it?

            [–]TransKike 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

            So what's happening to r/coontown ?

            [–]seamslegit 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Yesterday you said that Reddit would be creating policies and tools for removing:

            more offensive and obscene content

            I get that there is plenty of disturbing and reprehensible content on reddit but isn't this very subjective? I work in medicine and have no problems seeing pictures of surgeries while others might find this obscene. I find plenty of content on r/republican an d r/democrats to be disgusting. Others probably find religious( r/christianity or r/atheism), pornography (r/gonewild r/nsfw) and shock (r/wtf) subs to be offensive and obscene. The only way to find common ground values for the majority is to dumb down reddit to the point that is a whitewashed disnyesque political correct shell of its former self. Why do you think taking the censorship route of banning subs and limiting free speech is better than improving the tools to view and participate in those areas of reddit they want to be a part of?

            [–]ontott 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            First I wanted to say many of us know that running Reddit isn't an easy job and we appreciate what you /u/kn0thing/, /u/ekjp have done and continue to do to support Reddit. To me the best subreddits are the ones that are heavily moderated so I think the most important you should focus on is giving mods the tools they need to their job without fear and harassment (they put up with a lot shit from user).

            With respect with what you posted today, I guess I have question about how it is going to be implemented. Will you rely on the community to report subreddits that break the content policy or will reddit act proactively. There are many sub on reddit right now that already break these rules imo.

            edit - missing word

            [–]Honestly_ 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Thanks for doing this AMA. A couple of concerns:

            Have the admins/ex-CEOs collectively decided that the best way to move forward is to introduce WWE-style drama with these public spats between Yishan, Ellen Pao, kn0thing, etc?

            It's starting to harken back to when Vince McMahon stopped pretending to be a neutral announcer and became his own character/villain. Throw in the power mods who thrive in creating drama and we now have what's starting to feel like the SuperStars of Redditing.

            But seriously: with all the focus on admin drama, the relatively few terrible subs, the issues held by some mods, and those associated distractions it's becoming a headache for those of us who run and those who simply enjoy the normal, uncontroversial, successfully operating communities hosted on reddit. Is the focus of the site on producing varied, interesting content for the 160m monthly visitors or arguing with the less than 1% who participate in these silly drama-fests?

            Do those in charge of reddit HQ even know what reddit is good at doing anymore?

            How would you define what reddit is good at doing?

            For example: In all of this, the major sports subs (/r/NFL, /r/NBA, /r/hockey, /r/CFB, et al) are some of the best communities hosted on the site. They have all done their best to stay out of the outside drama (none went private) while thriving because they manage to make vast amounts of rival fans come together without degrading into the cesspits seen on comment sections sports websites elsewhere. They all continue to host their own AMAs without problem, heck /r/CFB has just managed to get credentialed as a media organization by several athletic conferences. They're all doing it based on the reddit platform you helped create, as independent communities hosted on reddit. Is that still the emphasis? Will reddit HQ push harder to control that aspect of the narrative? Some of us are tired of being dragged along by these spats and the terrible PR they generate for all of us whether our subs are involved or not.

            [–]CloudTheWolf 3ポイント4ポイント  (2子コメント)

            Wow 1 minute in and people have 6 paragraphs on how subs they don't like are bad.

            Obviously prewritten.

            [–]Gandesa 10ポイント11ポイント  (0子コメント)

            GET THE FUCK IN

            [–]NUMBERS2357 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            I have a question about "group harassment.". Reedit defines harassment as something that would make a reasonable person think reddit isn't a safe platform for their participation, or that makes them fear for their safety. Given this, it sounds like " safe" means more than just physical. Is this the case?

            If so, what else counts? Many people talk about "safe spaces," defined similarly to the definition of harassment you use, and such spaces usually ban certain ideas. If users (credibly so!) think certain ideas (even mainstream ones!) make reedit not a safe platform for them to participate, will you ban those ideas from being discussed?

            [–]ItsMeCaptainMurphy 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            You really need to clarify

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            because that's rather vague and is very much open to interpretation (one person's definition of harassment is not necessarily another's - is it harassment just because one person says so?). To be honest, I see nothing here that's really new to the existing content policy outside of "the common decency opt in", which I'm probably ok with - that will depend on how it's implemented and what is classified as abhorrent.

            [–]AdamColligan -3ポイント-2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            1. Different rules for behavior, popular behavior, or organized behavior?: A fundamental fact about reddit is that it encourages visibility and participation from large numbers of people in otherwise obscure situations. When you make rules to limit your behavior, will your philosophy be: (a) each user's actions are either against the rules or not? ... (b) a user's allowed actions can become against the rules if enough other users are also acting the same way? ... or (c) a user's allowed actions can become against the rules if they are part of a large enough group, but only if the user is actively organizing or being organized by others in the group? If (b), will there be some warning to the 500th user that she cannot pile on to what the first 499 have done spontaneously? If (c), how do you practically distinguish between linking to some outrageous reddit post or news story (core to the site's purpose) and "organizing" a downvote brigade or harrassment campaign?

            2. Public vs. private people, or just public vs. private information ?: Will the rules for how reddit is used to encourage or organize people to contact, lobby, protest, etc. depend on the identity of the person or people on the receiving end, with some "on limits" and some "off limits"? Or does the site simply ban certain types of behavior or the posting of certain types of contact information, regardless of the subject?

            3. Collaborative platform?: Will you post site rules and other relevant documents on GitHub? Let pull request submissions be an ongoing opportunity rather than something for special consultation moments.

            4. Consistent format?: Will you consider a more standardized scheme for moderators to use to indicate what is allowed or not in a given subreddit? Rules should always appear in the same place. Each sub's tolerance or ban on a few behaviors should be listed on every sub. And there should be more tags for subs and/or posts along the lines of the successful "NSFW" and "SERIOUS" tags, which have become terms everyone understands.

            5. Admins and sub policies?: Can you clarify the role, if any, of admins in creating or enforcing subreddit-specific rules that are not site-wide? For example: (a) Will admins directly help mods enforce sub-specific rules when standard tools can't handle a situation? (b) Will admins impose rules from above on some subs but not others, such as a ban on some subs being taken private or deleted by their mods? (c) Will admins be an avenue of appeal for users who object to moderator action/inaction on sub-specific rules? (d) Do any of the above depend on admins' judgment about whether moderators' rules or decisions are good ones?

            6. Site-wide rules interpretation: local or unified?: Since mods are required to enforce site-wide rules, do you intend to have admins intervene or settle disputes/appeals in order to standardize this enforcement? Or will different subs be places that not only have different custom rules but also different interpretations of the site-wide rules?

            7. Appeal/support panels?: If admin resources are stretched too thin, would you consider Wikipedia-style panels of mods to handle complaints or appeals on certain issues? Mod-mod and mod-admin interaction is already becoming more orgnaized and formalized.

            8. History visibility?: Are you prioritizing the development of site functionality that allows users to view their entire post history as well as any data being kept about their site use? This is crucial to helping users understand what can be known or inferred about them, especially if they intend to be anonymous but are eventually at risk of being "outed".

            9. Rule precision?: Would you consider choosing more precise terms or descriptions rather than ambiguous or contested ones in the harrassment policy (like "safe"), even if it makes a policy statement longer or less conversational in tone? Edit: in this new post, you use the phrase "harm or violence". Okay, so harm is officially separate from violence, which isn't inherently unreasonable. But now it can stop anywhere between encouraging suicide and harming someone's sensitive feelings about cross-stitch patterns. What does it really mean here?

            10. Six degrees of personal information?: reddit clearly tolerates user accounts that identify the user himself/herself. And because The Internet, it is increasingly difficult to tell any story using any account without some breadcrumb trail that, now or in three years, could unmask the subjects. Do you think that the time has come to articulate more precisely what the ban on personal information means in this environment? There is a huge gray space between -- on the one hand -- publishing an organized doxxing and -- on the other hand -- telling every interesting or unique story with a new throwaway account while also changing not only the names but most or all of the important facts in a Quixotic attempt to make it impossible to recognize through careful research or another user's personal connection. Will your rule revisions give some better idea of what lengths the site wants users to go to here?

            [–]Mutt1223 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

            3 minutes 307 comments. Some multiple paragraphs long. He could have just posted nothing but the word "kitten" a thousand times and the thread would still look exactly the same.

            [–]-Massachoosite 4ポイント5ポイント  (2子コメント)

            Hey Steve, thanks for doing this AMA. I think you lay out some interesting and thoughtful ideas.

            That being said, I'd like to get your response to the following comment made by u/kojak488:

            Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech

            Aside from the Forbes quote Alexis' own Reddit account has some exerts that imply otherwise:

            We're working to spread empathy + understanding to as many people as possible -- people aren't just coming here because it sets the media agenda for the rest of the internet, it's because of the connection that happen when diverse people from across the world can speak freely about things they care about.

            https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2vfh78/im_planning_on_doing_a_project_on_steve_huffman/cp13bul

            We designed reddit to allow users to create the experience they want -- subscribing to communities they're interested in and creating distinct spaces with their own cultures, languages, and values. Any decision we make is always tested by: "Is this moving the reddit platform toward a place where it can be the best way for as many people as possible to find great communities to share freely and openly discuss the things they care about."

            https://www.reddit.com/r/DiscussingDTOL/comments/2urgiv/lets_write_our_own_letter/colokor

            We made reddit so that as many people as possible could speak as freely as possible

            https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/35ym8t/promote_ideas_protect_people/cr91bpm

            reddit should be a place where anyone can pull up their soapbox and speak their mind, or have a discussion and maybe learn something new and even challenging or uncomfortable

            https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/35ym8t/promote_ideas_protect_people/cr92h5j

            And many more. I mean fuck, kn0thing says in plain English:

            You know what inspired reddit? Speakers Corner's in London

            It's okay if you've changed your mind, but I think many people would like an honest statement to that point if you have.

            [–]Stink_Snake 2ポイント3ポイント  (4子コメント)

            First off why is the first priority about content policy and not all the other MASSIVE problems with Reddit? There is 50 MILLION in the bank. SPEND IT. I don’t like having to hit F5 to pay my respects to Reddit’s 503 error.

            How are all your promises given to the mods going? Your lead engineer just quit because she did not believe she “could deliver on promises being made to the community.” Ayyy lmao, that doesn’t bode well. Can you be certain that you will hit your target dates?

            More importantly why is this not a power grab? You are asking the users how Reddit should wield more power.

            Remember when the US government said, “The vast majority of Americans are law abiding good people we need some new tools though for those few folks that wish due harm to our communities and bring terrorism to our soil. Don’t worry folks ‘cus if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.”

            We gave our government more power and look how well that worked. This feels the same.

            While I find the oft-mentioned subreddits that would be banned under new content rules vile; I disagree with Reddit wielding any more power. Why? Reddit tends to fuck things up. Rules are have been applied arbitrarily in the past; if we even know what the rules are in the first place. Could we clear that up first?

            From what I see, Reddit is embarking on a journey of sanitize and monetize. First step is to sanitize the subreddits but how far will it go in order to get ad revenue Reddit needs to make its stockholders happy?

            Usernames? Never fun when a news story goes something like, “ According to reddit user, cum_on_her_titties.” What is to stop future rules on comments? Soon we could have a content team removing comments.

            I fear our community has set us in its haste down a dark rode. A rode in which our up vote buttons will become Doritos and Downvote Mountain Dew. A rode where we can all enjoy the site being wrapped in Suicide Squad banners. We did it Reddit!

            [–]figureinplastic 62ポイント63ポイント  (13子コメント)

            I'm just here for the popcorn.

            [–]konzine 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Let's talk about the recent unprofessionalism that you and other admins have been displaying lately.

            You were caught red handed saying reddit was not a bastion of free speech, and you caught lying.

            The sacking of Victoria seemed to be a complete ruse to somehow gain company control.

            Ellen became a scapegoat Alexis has been failing at every corner, even other admins and co founders calling him out on it.

            A single, professional response to your absolute lack of ethics and competence would be perfect.

            [–]nixonrichard 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            So what about what we did to Comcast?

            What about what we did to George Bush?

            Rick Santorum?

            What is the point of banning intimidating others into silence when there are entire subreddits that explicitly ban people simply for disagreement? What value would that serve unless you're going to say you can't ban individuals from subreddits for ideological differences?

            [–]AliceBones 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

            CRY 'POPCORN!', AND LET SLIP THE MODS OF WAR!

            [–]Rytlockfox 6ポイント7ポイント  (2子コメント)

            Remember, if you don't like what's said here don't buy reddit gold.

            [–]RealHumanHere 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Reddit was and has been a bastion for free speech, that is why we came here, that is why it succeeded over Digg. Reddit was inspired by the Speaker's corner in London. Therefore, I don't believe any subreddit should be banned despite those illegal and those attacking individual persons (doxxing, especially).

            As much as we can hate r/coontown and others, they should exist for the sole principle of free speech, the most important part of our constitution in the US.

            [–]QuinineGlow 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            Why do you believe that people are unable to defend and speak-up for themselves without your protection, and can you provide a comprehensive list of groups you believe are particularly incapable of doing this, along with some reasons why you think they can't look out for themselves without some form of assistance?

            [–]man_and_machine 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            I think it’s clear to most everyone that reddit is interested in making money. It’s what companies do. Now, the obvious ways of monetizing something like reddit are placing advertising on the website and offering a premium membership. But there are a number of problems with those methods of gaining revenue, the worst being: they’re just so boring. I mean, that’s what everyone does. Why can’t we do something actually original here? So I’ve taken the liberty of making a list of a few far more interesting ways reddit could increase their revenue:

            • Add an autocorrect feature for commenting for users with Reddit Gold

            • Add an autocorrect feature for everyone, and the ability to disable autocorrect for users with Reddit Gold

            • Bring back Reddit Mold

            • Bring back The Button. Let users pay for extra clicks. Promise an actual award for when The Button reaches zero, that grows the longer it hasn’t gone clicked.

            • Add the ability to transfer karma between accounts (not points on individual posts or comments, just overall karma). Thus, karma becomes the next digital currency!

            • Allow users to pay a fee to change their username, while keeping their account

            • Reddit Trading Cards! Akin to Steam Trading Cards, allow subreddits to create a set of trading cards. When users reach a certain amount of activity in a particular subreddit (i.e. posting, commenting, or even just voting on posts), a random trading card will drop for that subreddit, until that user has reached the drop limit for that sub. After that, users will have to either buy or trade for the other trading cards to complete the set! And then I don’t know, give them a trophy or something. Or don’t – just let them have some trading cards.

            • Let users pay to make posts more visible. I don’t mean letting people buy extra upvotes – that would work against the ranking system that helps make reddit so good. Instead, I mean literally make posts more visible, with things like larger text, bolded font, bigger thumbnails, and so on.

            • Start selling Reddit SuperGold. I don’t know what you could do with it to make it better than Reddit Gold, but I’m sure someone could think of something.

            So, uhh, I was hoping that this list of interesting ideas for monetization would inspire someone else to come up with some good interesting monetization methods for reddit. Because these are terrible.

            [–]andkylrob 6ポイント7ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Are you going to be censoring reddit even more so in the future?

            spez answers here

            You stated reddit was not a bastion of free speech, which contradicts what Alexis said previously, why is this?

            spez answers here

             

            Edit: The policy towards content that is hard to define, such as hate sub-reddits like /r/fatpeoplehate I imagine, I personally think that this is one way to tackle the issue, but the question has to arise, how are those groups meant to be seen by people who haven't opted to be part of it? If this policy was put into place, I'm sure it would go against that policy to discuss these sub-reddits outside of said sub-reddit, is that correct? Do you have an outline of this new subreddit-wasteland policy is going to work?

            [–]colin_moore 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

            Who defines this "common sense of decency"? isn't someone always going to be offended, not matter what the content?

            [–]PhantomandaRose 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi u/spez. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions. As a user who was drawn to reddit by AMAs, this feature of the site is one of my biggest concerns. u/kn0thing went on record before you were appointed CEO that admins have no intention of monetizing r/iama. Now that you're CEO, I would appreciate if that pledge were renewed by you.

            Can you please clearly answer the follow questions regarding r/iama policies/content with direct answers? I anticipate a response like "we're not monetizing, but I can't give details about board discussion" or something to that effect. I understand that is normally how things are done, but reddit leadership right now is at odds with a large chunk of its userbase, and I think more transparency is warranted here.

            1. Is reddit, inc. currently under pressure from the board of directors to monetize on r/iama? If so, how demanding is the board regarding this?

            2. Has the reddit admin team ever considered capitalizing financially on r/iama? I'm talking official plans that were scrapped all the way down to batting around informal ideas that never came to fruition. If so, how recent have discussions regarding this been? If you can't answer this because of your departure from reddit, please encourage u/kn0thing or other people who would have information to weigh in.

            3. Can you, as newly appointed CEO, pledge that reddit, inc. will not implement a monetization scheme with r/iama? I asked here and here, but got no response.

            4. In a semi-related question, u/kn0thing has explained his goal of getting celebrities to participate regularly in reddit rather than just isolated AMAs. Is the push to ban offensive content part of reddit's plan to lure celebrities to reddit? I.e., make reddit noncontroversial so celebrities can avoid potential scandal? 4a. Why don't you think it would be better to poll the userbase to see if they want to make this sacrifice for a celebrity presence? 4b. Wouldn't this give celebrities a power of ultimatum over reddit, inc. E.g., Tom Cruise wants all jokes about his sexuality deleted or else he leaves forever.

            Thank you for your time.

            [–]303onrepeat 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            You know you have to get rid of all the hate right? Places that let this stuff foster are not good in any regard. Reddit has turned into a place where Stormfront and other hate groups actively recruit.

            http://www.salon.com/2015/03/18/reddits_ugly_racist_secret_how_it_became_the_most_hateful_space_on_the_internet/

            This stuff needs to be cleaned up ASAP. No reason for us as a community to let it continue and move forward.

            [–]aplaceatthedq -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

            I am uneasy with the idea that because you put things in a kind of demilitarized zone on your website and say you won't profit from them, then you aren't responsible for it. It is still attracting users for you and thus you still benefit from it.

            Still, I think this is mostly a step in the right direction if you actually enforce it, especially:

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            Again, we'll see if you enforce it. Here are my mostly prewritten thoughts on free speech and the direction of reddit:

            Freedom of Speech

            Once we move past the obvious truth that reddit is not the United States Congress and has no obligation to support free speech, it remains whether or not reddit should support it. Is freedom of speech a good thing? Is it worth maintaining and fighting for even as our corporate overlords tighten their clutches around the Internet, at once their most exciting opportunity for exploitation and their most potentially dangerous foe?

            The words free speech have been repeated so many times they feel divorced from any actual meaning— just mouth sounds signifying a particular ideology in some never ending internet debate. But what is so great about freedom of speech in the first place? The idea that everyone can say anything anywhere anytime to anyone without any consequences is obviously absurd. Everyone agrees that there are some limits, but I think you can't begin to describe what freedom of speech you are defending without describing why you are defending it. I support freedom of speech because it is the last most basic dignity of the downtrodden, the oppressed, the forgotten, the right to be heard, the refusal to be silenced, a whispered truth against all power and reason and hope.

            And so it is in this context that I ask, what the hell are we even talking about? What does fomenting massive harassment campaigns against anyone who doesn't fit the site's majority demographics have to do with freedom of speech? What does using dehumanizing slurs to chase already severely underrepresented and oppressed minority groups out of the conversation have to do with freedom of speech. What does celebrating a racist terrorist and hosting the communities who if allowed to continue will no doubt groom the next one have to do with freedom of speech. And in all the seven hells what does trading sexual pictures of people taken and shared without their knowledge or consent have to do with freedom of speech? How can reddit be for free speech when it has done so much to actively chase away if not outright terrorize anyone who disagrees with it? How do any of those things actually contribute to a free and open conversation about anything?

            Here are my suggestions:

            • Site-wide ban on hate speech (there are different definitions, but my rough draft principle would be any language with either the intent or the clear effect of driving people from minority or underrepresented demographics away from the website or conversation)

            • Site-wide ban on pictures a reasonable person would surmise were likely taken or publicized without the featured persons consent for various purposes at a minimum including demeaning, mocking or sexually objectifying the subject and possibly extending to anything other than being of legitimate public interest in a journalistic sense (yes, like the above this requires some subjectivity (like all rule enforcement), but while there are always edge cases most aren't even trying to hide it)

            • Tools to actually enforce the above as well as the recent harassment policy and other forms of rule breaking including witch hunts and the like. People should be able to report this activity direct from any comment they see with confidence that an admin equipped and willing to investigate will see it. I honestly have no idea if admins ever review some kind of "global" report queue or not or if only subreddit moderators who have limited options see things from the report button right now, and that is part of the problem. Too much of this knowledge feels like it is in a cellar behind a sign that says "beware of the leopard".

            • Seriously consider to what extent the upvote/downvote karma system has played a role (especially with regards to comments) on this communities tendency to form massive witch hunts, brigades, harassment campaigns and a general feel of negativity. Of all the sites I have seen with up and down voting systems, reddit seems far more liberal with the latter option, reddiquette not withstanding. While I am generally skeptical, you seem to believe in technological solutions to some of these kinds of human problems. Surely there might be some improvement from this ten year old model that might encourage more engagement and less downvoting of anything outside the majority opinion.

            • Better moderation tools for the unpaid labor you exploit to run this site who will be called upon to make a lot of the previous work.

            • Don't do whatever that thing you were talking about with disabling deleting is. There are already a million mirrors of reddit and making it easier for people to stalk / harass people who made a mistake or just attracted the ire of the hivemind is a giant step in the wrong direction.

            Yes these will not be easy or likely go over well at first, but reddit is one of the largest websites in the world. Take some responsibility and find away to do it.

            I stand for freedom of speech. Not a circlejerk of reddit's majority demographics hating people not like them while enforcing the status quo and downvoting those who disagree, but an actual free and open discussion with diverse viewpoints from people of all backgrounds free of intimidation, hate and harassment.

            My question is, which character from ABC Family's Bunheads are you?

            [–]DoBetterReddit 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi there. I'm a member from ShitRedditSays. (Disclaimer: I don't speak for all SRSters, just myself). This is an important turning point from Reddit, so I have some questions:

            • Can Reddit do something about the pedophile - excuse me, ephebophile apologia? Will you do anything about people that openly admit they're pedophiles and get 2000 upvotes for it or people that literally recommend others to encrypt child porn? How about all of the cartoon porn - excuse me, lolicon - apologia for material that frequently depicts drawn children being raped, and is illegal in many places in the world?
            • Will you still be giving in to the vocal minority? There are not one, but two cases where black ladies on Reddit have been banned since they had the audacity to speak out about getting harassed by bigots. This attitude would explain why, say, there are only five black people in an Atlanta Reddit meetup album.
            • Will you have increased watch on subs like SuicideWatch? I know ex-FPH members like to whitewash history, but let us not forget the time they literally bullied a suicidal person.
            • Can we also cut down on the ableism? I can't tell you how many times I've seen Twitch kiddies or 4chan rejects use the word "autism" as an insult. Plus, you'll see plenty of eugenics advocates in AskReddit, despite the fact that a group of manchildren that whine about free speech on Reddit would never pass a eugenics test.
            • Can you shut down /r/conspiracy? They've flat out harassed a daycare and are notoriously racist.
            • Can we do something about Men's Rights Advocates? Let's not ignore the hundreds of posts that hate women and the frequent rape advocates and apologists.

            Well, that's it for today. I'm off to go bathe in male tears and prepare for the nightly SRS/admin orgy.

            I'll look forward to the popcorn.

            [–]anticapitalist 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            All these censorship rules will be enforced selectively. (Depending on the personal views of the admins.)

            eg:

            "Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            That's the whole goal of many anti-male hate subreddits.

            (Like ShitRedditSays.)

            But they've never been targeted. eg how they've been brigading for years, & always get a pass.

            [–]birdguy 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

            Introducing Reddit Hugbox! Now you'll never have to see anything you might find offensive.

            [–]verdatum 6ポイント7ポイント  (1子コメント)

            ITT: People who have been waiting to hit ctrl+v "save" for at least a day now.

            [–]PotatoMusicBinge 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Everything sounds reasonable, except

            another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency

            That seems unnecessary to define, and impossible to implement in a satisfactory way. Why include it? What kind of content would fall under that classification, but not the ones you already listed?

            [–]AlphaWolf101 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            When will something be done about subreddit squatters? The existing system is not working. Qgyh2 is able to retain top mod of many defaults and large subreddits just because he posts a comment every two months. This is harming reddit as a community when lower mods are veto'd and removed by someone who is only a mod for the power trip. Will something be done about this?

            [–]freekill 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi /u/spez,

            Concerning the free speech vs. "better overall community" argument, why are there no discussions from the admins regarding solutions that are democratic and involve the entire community? Instead, it seems the only option being proposed involves only bans handed down by admin decision making? In my opinion, admin bans based on monitoring of "appropriate" subreddit content seems so counter to the Reddit spirit that it has to be the absolute worst solution for the long term survival of the community.

            For instance, instead of banning communities outright that post content the majority of Reddit might find reprehensible, why not force those subreddits simply to be private subreddits? You could setup a subreddit where such communities are submitted and the Reddit community decides if it should be private by default. No shadow banning, no admin policing of content (other than existing policies on illegal content) and you get the added advantage of keeping Reddit a bastion for free speech, even though you apparently no longer believe it should be such. You don't have to worry about people stumbling upon "reprehensible" content, since you explicitly have to opt in to see it. Even search engines can't parse it while closed, so your reputation remains intact. You could even potentially mark such subreddits differently denoting that they contain content that may be offensive and require people to explicitly consent to joining.

            There are many subreddits I personally find reprehensible, but that's why I don't subscribe to those subreddits. I would never want Reddit to be a place where a community could not exist simply because I don't agree with the content. The beauty of Reddit, and I believe its core strength, is that my experience on the site is tailored to my own preference and the same goes for every other member. That benefit would rapidly decline if I was unable to find communities of interest due to censorship efforts attempting to whitewash content.

            [–]avoidingtheshadow 4ポイント5ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Why was /u/Dancingqueen89 shadowbanned mere DAYS after your claim that shadowbans were only for spammers and not "real users"?

            I'm going to presume that /r/neofag was banned for using publicly available pictures of NeoGAF users in its banner, since there was a complete lack of transparency regarding this ban. Why then, was /r/starcraftcirclejerk let off with a slap on the wrist for including the leaked nudes of a user, and subsequently spamming his inbox with username mentions in order to post said pictures? Is this not considered harassment? Why did one warrant a complete ban, and the other simply having the offending material removed?

            Also, Why was /r/neogafinaction banned despite being created months before the banning of /r/neofag?

            I'm hoping you'll live up to your promise of transparency /u/spez

            (Disclaimer: I think Destiny is an asshole. I didn't browse NeoFAG. I care about fairness, equal application of the rules, and transparency).

            [–]jstrydor -2ポイント-1ポイント  (3子コメント)

            Hey Spez, Obviously there's a lot of questions to be answered, so let's get right to the point...

            1. 3 years ago you made a comment about being extremely vigilant in having a clean desktop. Do you still hold that same stance today? If so, are you willing to provide proof?

            2. It's clear that you have some type of direct connection with the catholic church. Do you think this will hinder your ability to be a fair CEO for Reddit?

            3. You've admitted to founding Hipmunk.com What would you say to the tens of conspiracy theorists that believe your main goal is to dissolve Reddit in the hopes of driving traffic to your other site?

            4. Based on this comment It sounds like you had a "confusing childhood". Can you talk a little bit about how that's affected you today?

            5. Considering that you said this not too long ago, is it safe to assume that you still feel that way? That you're "Happy" to have moved on from Reddit!?!?

            Thanks for taking the time to answer these, I know they're tough but I think it's important to be transparent on these issues.

            [–]naffrodisiac 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            My question is simple. Why abandon all the principles that made Reddit so successful? If you ban "distasteful" subreddits, you are ruining everything that made the site what it is - and thus less appealing to advertisers. If a company wants to advertise with Reddit, they should understand WHY it has the reach and impact that it does.

            [–]Its_Bigger_Than_Pao 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            While it's important to talk about what is NOT allowed, I also think we need to address what is expressly endorsed by reddit. Specifically, why is /r/twoxchromosomes a default sub? The mods there very clearly push a certain political agenda. In addition, much of the content there relates to individual personal issues. While this is good, it seems very sexist and backwards to tell women that they should feel comfortable sharing their feelings and talking about personal problems while effectively telling men that we should continue to stay silent about our own issues. Why are women's feelings more important than men's? Why is a woman's problems more important than a man's? I see no justification for that sort of sexism coming from reddit.

            [–]2211108646 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Who is the arbiter of "content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it"?

            [–]elfofdoriath9 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people.

            Where are you going to draw the line between mockery and harassment/abuse? Will this line be different for public figures than for private? Will it matter if personal information or names are attached the the person?

            [–]TheCid 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Publication of someone’s private and confidential information

            Can we get a clarification on what is classified under this? Gawker wrote an article outing a reddit user's real name a few years ago and they suffered no punishment from the reddit admins. Some subreddits banned all Gawker content, but this policy should have been handed down from the top.

            • Is a reddit user's real name considered private and confidential information? What if they've already validated that user name against their real identity somehow (admins, people who've done verified AMAs, etc)?

            • Is a pseudonymous user of another site's real name considered private and confidential information? What if they're an e-celebrity and this real name is already widely known (TotalBiscuit, PewDiePie, anyone with a verified Twitter account, etc.)?

            • Is the reverse of this considered private and confidential information? (Going from real name to username on reddit or another site, such as Twitter.) What if this has been validated?

            • Is "giving credit" to a cosplayer or an artist, given just a image hosted off-site (such as on imgur), considered releasing personal information?

            That should be sufficient to clear up most of the gray area on personal information.

            I have concerns about the "harassment/bullying" rule, as certain political groups on the internet like to claim that any and all disagreement with them is harassment, but this is a rule whose quality can only be measured in its enforcement, rather than its phrasing.

            Similar to NSFW, another type of content that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it, is the content that violates a common sense of decency. This classification will require a login, must be opted into, will not appear in search results or public listings, and will generate no revenue for Reddit.

            Will it be evident when this classification has been applied to a subreddit? Will subreddit creators be allowed to label themselves under this classification? Will other subreddits be able to apply this label to comments or posts rather than deleting them outright?

            [–]TunicSongForKaren -3ポイント-2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Hi,

            A lot of people on this site don't like that there are hateful subreddits like C__nTown, GasTheK_kes, TRP, Anti Pozi, White Rights etcetera. By tolerating those subreddits' existence, you give off a strong signal to everyone who is not a white, straight male that they are not very welcome on this site.

            I have three main questions right now:

            • What are the communities that you consider not having a place on this website?
            • What is the current status of the update of mod tools?
            • How are the responsibilities of moderators regarding hate speech going to change?

            Furthermore, I'd like to soapbox to express a sentiment that has been drowned out a lot amidst the two extremes of this debate:

            In this AMA you'll see a lot of people in the coming hours speaking up about "sliding scales", "free speech" and "censorship"

            However, the vast majority of this site understands that this is a privately owned website and that banning a sub that is literally dedicated to the dehumanization of people of color is not a precedent for "sitewide censorship" or other hyperbolic outrage. Virtually every community website on the internet bans hate speech and I don't see why Reddit can't do that: by allowing hate speech subreddits you're effectively saying to non-white, non-male, non-straight Redditors that their rights end where other people's rights begin. It is a big fuck you to a very large portion of your userbase, just to please a very vocal and very paranoid minority that has been spamming this site with manufactured outrage about "censorship" for months now. It is embarassing to see a couple of thousand emotionally stunted manchildren influence the discourse of this site so much.

            For all the talks about "cancer ruining this site" in the past few months, a lot of people miss that the admins are not the cancer ruining Reddit; no, the whiny kids spamming Swastikas, derailing threads everywhere and stirring up drama on a daily basis are the ones ruining this site. We're better off without them - the site I grew to love over the past couple of years has been put in a chokehold by those people. Years ago, the most drama you'd see were euphoric /r/atheism may-mays being crossposted to smug metasubreddits, now you can't move yer left great toe without being called a SJW and cancer. It has made a lot of great people leave this site en masse, now that the inmates of the hate subs are running this proverbial asylum.

            This brilliant comment sums up my feelings about it all quite well:

            First they came for jailbait, and I was happy, because fuck pedos.

            Then they came for Fat People Hate, and I was happy, because fuck those guys.

            Then they came for the Red Pill and I was happy, but nobody will fuck those guys.

            Then they came for the White Supremacists, and I was happy, because fuck those guys.

            Then...well, that's it really. It wasn't any form of oppression, they just banned some shitheads from a website.

            Just to clarify something to people reading this and itching to talk about "muh freedom of speech", here is what freedom of speech is:

            • freedom of speech is being guaranteed that you won't be prosecuted by the government for what you say.
            • freedom of speech is not a guarantee that a private website should host your shit opinions. Compare it to your own home: if somebody would stand in your frontyard and rattle of a monologue about "black crime", would you let him remain on your frontyard or would you spray him with your water hose?

            Bonus points if people are willing to address my comment in a constructive manner without using buzzwords; I am willing to discuss this in-depth with y'all, and I hope that you can show the maturity that befits an adult when addressing my comment.

            [–]Dworkinator 20ポイント21ポイント  (5子コメント)

            If any place deserves to be banned, its r/SRS. They’ve been allowed to doxx and harass people for years. They even banned np links allowing their users to vote brigade every single thread they link to. Plus it’s filled with the worst sexists and racists I’ve ever seen.

            [–]Inglonias 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            How will things that break the rules be handled?

            How broad will the strokes be with that brush? Is it individual posts or entire subreddits?

            What sort of appeals process will there be, if any?

            How will moderators be able to enforce these things? Will they be given new tools?

            [–]MoobyTheGoldenCalf 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            That seems to be open to a vast variety of interpretation. Who is going to arbiter when individuals disagree on what is "harassment" or "bullying"?

            [–]DriftingSkies 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Alright, let me start with a little prefacing.

            I think we can all agree that there is speech that is actually illegal (e.g. yelling fire in a crowded theater, inciting others to violence, etc.), and there is speech which is legal, but distasteful (Neo-Nazi paraphernalia, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.). I accept that Reddit is a private company and that you have absolutely no legal or moral obligation to host speech which you, in your sole discretion, deem distasteful or unsuitable for Reddit.

            However, there is speech which isn't universally considered distasteful, immoral, offensive, etc., but which is considered controversial and sometimes politically incorrect. I'm not going to list examples here so as to not call any group out, but I think we can agree that there are opinions in this category. Once again, Reddit is under no legal obligation to host this speech, but Reddit claims the values of being an open platform to free speech, and in order to claim that without hypocrisy, Reddit ought to tolerate speech which need not line up perfectly with political correctness.

            My question to you is, where will Reddit draw the line between offensive hate speech that will no longer have a place on Reddit under a revised content policy, with controversial opinions and discourse that has room for reasonable and valid debate and discussion, which should be free to discuss.

            I understand from reading this post that the intentions are to hide certain "offensive and inflammatory" content behind an opt-in wall. However, the choice of what goes behind that wall is obviously going to be subject to Reddit, Inc.'s sole discretion, and I think it can be reasonably argued that this will serve as a sort of censorship, analogous to the infamous "free-speech zones" seen in the real world. What criteria does Reddit plan to use going forward to determine what speech is inflammatory or indecent enough to warrant going behind the opt-in wall?

            [–]RedxSmoke 14ポイント15ポイント  (0子コメント)

            /u/spez and /u/kn0thing following this AMA

            http://i.imgur.com/6T7WNTW.gifv

            [–]gaardyn 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

            How is harm defined? According to dictionary.com, the meaning is

            1. physical injury or mental damage; hurt:

            Does that mean if a posts that cause someone to feel depressed are prohibited?

            [–]Vladimir_Is_Pootin 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Alright, /u/spez, in that announcement post a few days ago, you claimed that you never referred to Reddit as a “free speech platform.” I have a few pieces of evidence that point to the contrary.

            Interview where /u/spez calls Reddit a free speech platform, original video went conveniently private.

            Reddit rules page Archive in case of sneaky revision

            Reddit FAQ page Archive

            /r/blog post Archive

            “A bastion for free speech on the web…?”

            How would you like to respond to the people calling you out for your blatant attempt to rewrite history?

            [–]hansjens47 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

            www.Reddit.com/rules outlines the 5 rules of reddit. They're really vague, and the rest of the Reddit wiki has tonnes of extra details on what the rules actually imply.

            What's the plan for centralizing the rules so they make up a "Content Policy" ?

            [–]ponoka 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

            Howdy Steve,

            Just popping in to ask if you have any comments on or clarification about /u/yishan’s comment here.

            While I’m here, this is my two cents on the matter: I feel like a lot of folks are assuming (and reacting accordingly, misattributed Voltaire quotes and all) that by backing down on your free speech policy, you’ll only let certain voices with particular stances occupy discussions. I strongly doubt that this is true (feel free to confirm/deny!). After all, colliding opinions and the sweet, sweet internet points that accompany them are really what make reddit worth reading! The best thing about Reddit is that it has arguably the most diverse userbase of any discussion site on the whole World Wide Web.

            I’m really hoping that you do go through with full-out kicking out all the exclusively racist, homophobic and misogynistic subreddits (instead of the policy idea provided), and it has little to do with my ideological beliefs and a lot to do with my desire to kill time reading interesting discussions. At the end of the day, folks only here to propagate hateful content make up a small percentage of users and do lots more harm than good to reddit’s community, cluttering up comment sections on defaults and smaller subs alike with vitriolic comments chock full of ignorance that add little to actual discussion (Putting a ton of stress on mods! Remember who we’re fighting for here!) and making other users feel reasonably unwelcome, and in some situations, unsafe. Saying that keeping the darker subs around contains prejudice to that corner of the site is kinda naïve; each time a hateful comment soars to the top in a larger subreddit (which happens a lot, especially when users use the upvote button as an “agree” button), those places gain a few more subscribers that wind up contributing less and less quality content. In my opinion, getting rid of communities bound by mutual hatred will hopefully encourage bigots and trolls to leave or at least think twice before spouting B.S., ultimately improving content site-wide.

            [–]athrowaway_a 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            So that includes SRS? A subreddit dedicated to linking to other users comments so they can make fun of them. Doesn't that also intimidate users into silence?

            [–]jmk4422 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            What I think many of us long-time redditors, mods, and casual lurkers are concerned about right now is your seemingly flippant attitude about free speech on this once (and maybe future?) great site. While few of us want reddit to be used as a platform for racists, trolls, and other hate-groups, many of us understand that that is the price of admission for any community that wishes to welcome free and open discussion.

            Would you consider adding another layer to reddit's NSFW filter? Already we have the 18+ filter (generally? Subreddits dedicated to porn). People are warned before entering such subreddits, they can easily filter them out from their feed, they never reach the frontpage for users not logged in.

            Why not instead of banning the more hateful groups and despicable subs (like /r/... actually, I don't even want to give examples, but you know the subs I'm talking about) don't you mark such subreddits as "hate groups"? The same way the Southern Poverty Law Center does in the real world for groups that preach intolerance and hate? Make it so that searching for such subreddits such labeled don't turn up in the results unless the user searching for them specifically states they don't mind seeing such nastiness. Make it so that linking to threads on these subreddits gives you at least a warning.

            Reddit is large and strange, wonderful and brilliant, curious and absolutely ridiculous. Embrace that. Own it. Why not just accept that some of its users will be childish, racist, sexist assholes? Accept that fact while making it easy for the average redditor to ignore such types and then wear that as armor. No one, then, will be able to harm you.

            [–]JP_Rushton -2ポイント-1ポイント  (3子コメント)

            What is wrong with race realism? Why can't we talk about interracial crime, crime statistics, IQ statistics, biological differences, etc? What's wrong about that? We are a "hate group" because we talk about what the mainstream media won't talk about and covers up? Biological differences between the races that are the reasons for the crime disparity as well as IQ differences that are the reason for low scholastic achievement between the blacks and whites?

            Why is that "hateful" to talk about those differences when no one else will? A few places talk about it, but a place for like minded people to get together and talk about these shared interests at what doesn't get talked about in the mainstream media is bad? Why is that?

            Why do you want to cull discussion on reality and attempt to make us out to be a bad place? Seems like people are scared of the actualities of the world around them and the actualities of racial differences in looks, cognitive ability, behavioral and genetic differences between races so you have to attempt to use these buzzwords to make us look like bad people. We aren't. We work, have families and are just regular people who want to live in a safe area, and according to statistics, African-Americans are the most dangerous people in America. These come directly from the FBI stats.

            We also have many differing opinions and have rules against calls to violence,

            Explain how it's hateful to talk about the truth?

            [–]Tox77 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Can you elaborate on what 'incite harm or violence' actually means? Is this, for example, the 'mental harm' of people calling you or your post stupid? Or the harm of your post being linked to in another subreddit and brigaded?

            [–]Mach_Two 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Either ban all hate/brigading subs that are against Reddit rules (Coontown, shitredditsays, subredditdrama) or don't ban subreddits at all. It feels like you're just picking and choosing what suits you best at this point.

            [–]HashtagRebbit 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Im just here to say that you can ban me for hate speech, again and again and again. I'll just make new accounts.

            The more these SJW's cry about different opinions the more pleasure i get in calling out their bull shit.

            [–]stln00b 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            /u/spez, I honestly don't have many concerns over this. The bullet points seem rather agreeable, with this exception:

            • Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            The concern that I have over this is how, or what metric, reddit is going to use to determine what constitutes this behavior.

            An example is two days ago, I told a user to "die in a fire" and another user chimed in to tell me to stop harassing them. First - "die in a fire" is an extremely cliched phrase and no one (or at least I hope no one) literally wants people to die in a fire. Secondly, and most importantly, the second user told me to stop harassing the first person. In my mind, harassment is repeated interaction with someone that's asked/told you to leave them alone and you simply don't, not a single comment.

            But reddit, while a massive website, can also be very small in the metasphere. Point is, going back to the first person I mentioned in the previous paragraph, lets say they told me to leave them alone. Am I then obliged to stop responding to them publicly in that thread? In that subreddit? At all? PMs? Or is harassment a username mention?

            I can see how easily this vaguely worded guideline can be massively abused, and I would really like a clear definition from the admins as to what they think constitutes violation of this policy. Especially when there are certain subreddits that are filled with people that are dedicated to being offended at damn near anything.

            [–]MollyClock 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

            Is that specific people, or groups of people? People have brought up a concern about communities with consensual harm to each other

            [–]Namrok 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

            Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people

            Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)

            I have questions about these two things in particular. Namely, what counts? Outrage culture seems to have gotten wildly out of control, regardless of your specific politics. Everyone wants to "name and shame" people. But at the same time, some of the worst victims of this are also perpetrators. They live by the sword and they die by the sword.

            Doxing clearly falls afoul of this policy. But on the other end of the spectrum, you get people linking to absolutely idiot things people have tweeted or blogged publicly, and then everybody piles on. Then the idiot saying idiotic things feels harassed by the sheer volume of disagreeing responses.

            After the fact, all too often our interpretation of the events is colored by our politics. We think it's acceptable to dog pile the things we think are stupid, but we think it's unfair when our "side" gets dogpiled for the things other people think are stupid. And all over people are quick to claim they feel harassed, or bullied.

            So my question is, is the policy going to be rooted in objective measures, or in how someone says the actions made them feel? Are we going to say "No linking to twitter, no linking to other subreddits, no linking to facebook posts", or is the rule going to revolve around whether the target cries uncle, and you sympathize with them?

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