Reddit's biggest pro-Donald forum disappears from the website's most popular page.

[Aurgjelme]

Well, its a good thing Reddit is not a cake baking company, cause then they WOULD be in trouble!!!

[Xandrigity]

Well see what happened when the left suppressed the view of the non believers. Keep it up left.

[Aggrophobic]

Who cares? Start your own forum if you miss it that much.

[Sorshen]

I like how op quickly proved reddit's action was justified by actually acting like the average toxic the_donald poster and then getting banned. lmao

[Blackmist]

Freedom of speech means you can say what you want. Doesn't mean anybody has to print or even read it.

Right now /r/the_donald contains a picture accusing George Takei of being a paedo (wtf?), the word "cucks" and articles from SOURCES that use CAPITAL letters in the HEADLINES.

It's fucking wank, I can see exactly why they'd disable it as a default. It's just far-right ranting.

[Danner]

Free Speech doesn't apply to privately owned websites(Company's). So all of those pissy about it can get the fuck over it.

The idea of free speech disagrees with you.

Look, you're not wrong. It's their site, and they can legally and morally hide or ban any idea they do not want on that site. That's their right.

Still - screw anyone implying this is all perfect in harmony with free speech. It is not. And as someone who knows my basic Voltaire* (I do not agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it), your message is poisonous to the understanding of what free speech is all about. Free speech is about the ability to send and receive an idea. A very very narrow sub-definition super-popular in the USA is about being able to convey the idea without being persecuted by a very specific subset of the state. Fuck that definition, and fuck wikipedia for putting it as the first sentence in their article. It's a side-track of the grander idea of free speech. Free speech was never about freedom of consequence. Even if you don't get arrested for saying something doesn't mean there is no consequence. Holding a view means you gain enemies. There is always the court of public opinion holding you accountable.

It's about not suppressing ideas through force.

I am not opposed to removing bad actors in a debate by banning them. Being disruptive to the debate is literally worth banning over. And some ideas naturally restrict others freedom For example, I believe nobody should be forced to defend an idea they do not believe in. I do not believe Reddit should be forced to be a communication channel for dubious rallies under the guise of a presidential support group - if they don't want to. Freedom of speech obviously cannot be absolute. But that doesn't stop the principle we should strive for. Ideas should flow.

And Reddit deliberately goes against that idea. As I said, that's their right. But it's still not right. You don't kill bad ideas by banning them. You kill bad ideas by proving their lack of correctness. Banning ideas is intellectual laziness.

And that is what both you and Reddit is doing here.

*) Not actually a Voltaire quote

[Damajin]

Honestly I don't really care. Anyone who has looked at that sub for 10 minutes sees it's just one giant circlejerk with a few decent posts/highlights here and there, of which of course you don't even need to go to that sub to find out since they pull info from the usual sources anyway. It's amusing when it ends up on r/all showing stuff that Democrats and the like don't want to be confronted with but for my purposes and interest I can't even give a shit about that much either.

[Flarelaine]

Same is done on r/worldnews r/europe and other left circlejerks. Subreddits, that given their name should be impartial. Atleast the_donald gives you an idea whom they are vouching for and so on.

r/europe would be a right wing place now if they wouldnt do that. Im not present on the_donald but i was present in europe right untill i got banned for no reason.

Knowing your post history here I'm doubtful about the "no reason" part.

[Trollhammer]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgre.../#7621aac41e15

This is an intresting read.

[AeneasBK]

Having actually spent some time on reddit recently...

Who gives a fuck, place is an internet playground

[NED funded]

So I have finally decided to remove the filter and the first thing I see is an r/the_donald post in the top of the frontpage. So they are in r/all and as long as that is the case I do not really see the problem.

[noidentity]

I'm just happy Reddit added the filter option so any and all Pro/Anti Trump subreddit gets nuked the second I see them.

[prwraith]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-homepage.html

I'll never get over people who really lack this understanding of free speech

[Endus]

And Reddit deliberately goes against that idea. As I said, that's their right. But it's still not right. You don't kill bad ideas by banning them. You kill bad ideas by proving their lack of correctness. Banning ideas is intellectual laziness.

And that is what both you and Reddit is doing here.

Except that you are completely wrong about what free speech is.

Reddit's website is their venue. It's their platform for speech. You're arguing that their freedoms be restricted in favor of other people's, which is not a defense of individual liberties. It's picking a side and saying "we get all the rights, and everyone who disagrees with us gets nothing, because fuck them for not being with us".

Anything published by Reddit is their speech, at a certain level. You're attacking their right to control their own speech.

[Mad_Murdock]

Except that you are completely wrong about what free speech is.

Reddit's website is their venue. It's their platform for speech. You're arguing that their freedoms be restricted in favor of other people's, which is not a defense of individual liberties. It's picking a side and saying "we get all the rights, and everyone who disagrees with us gets nothing, because fuck them for not being with us".

I don't see where what they said is arguing to have their speech limited. He clearly stated "that's their right". The argument is more of, while you have the right, should you? If my goal is to offer a open platform for discussing and sharing ideas, closing down threads with ideas I don't like, would seem to go against the very thing I'm claiming to stand for.

I, myself, am fine with closing a sub form\reddit if the conversation has left the realm of semi reasonable, if it's nothing more than a "fuck you", "no, fuck you" conversation then any hopes for worthwhile ideas getting exchanged is out the window and that defeats the purpose of what they are after. I'd need to see some kind of evidence that it was actually changing minds to consider leaving it open.

[Magicpot]

True, but people repeat this like it's a non-issue.

Our whole media landscape and public discourse is shaped through privately owned media. This "it's not a problem if media censors certain parts of the political spectrum" idea that people have is a view that in theory could entirely stifle free speech.

I don't believe people would still repeat it if all major media outlets only shared conservative viewpoints. "Oh, it's all privately owned so it's not an issue, you can still shout at street corner, so there's no issue of free speech" is something people are fine with repeating as long as it doesn't get severe enough in their disfavor. If tomorrow all private media companies only shared anti-abortion viewpoints and there was no major platform for dissent, people wouldn't stick to this value at all.

Hyperbolic, for now, because there's still room for both views in public discourse, but the logic doesn't hold up and the people that repeat it here every time something like this come up would not stick to it. It's a nonsense view if it only holds up long as it works in your favor.

Since forums for public speech and discourse in our society is all privately owned, we can't ignore all infringement on speech and the sharing of ideas within the privately owned media sphere. If we do, free speech is an entirely empty idea that we're not willing to enforce, because it swings in our favor.

Consider that many people think conservative viewpoints are egregious and toxic enough that they should actually be illegal.

[Deleted]

Yep, Reddit is in private hands so there is not much we can say bout it.

But I guess it stung quite a bit for some people to see in in the top of the popular sub-Reddits.

[TUNISIA-]

Is it a good sign for something good will happen in the futur

[Nadiru]

Every day, Reddit moves closer to Digg.

[Beazy]

Every website does this. I bet this website deletes weird shit.

Besides, why would you discus politics on Reddit? There is so much sweet shit on Reddit, politics should be the last thing you visit. Have you ever checked out /r/politics? Its a fucking cesspool of far right and far left people arguing all day. it should be renamed to /r/MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad .