It’s been a rocky couple of days for the front page of the internet and it looks like the waters surrounding Reddit are going to keep crashing into it relentlessly.
Less than two weeks ago interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao resigned from her post, a move Redditors hailed as progress due to the mismanagement Reddit suffered during her tenure as CEO. While there were a number of controversial actions made during her position as interim CEO such as a the abrupt firing of Victoria Taylor, the head of the “Ask Me Anything” subreddit, she did however have the best intentions for the social platform at heart. She moved to have harassment and bullying eradicated from Reddit by banning a number of abusive subreddits, a move I wholeheartedly supported but one which many of the 160 million Redditors were critical of, claiming it to be an attack on freedom of speech, an ideal which the Reddit community thrives on.
While she may no longer be CEO of Reddit, her ideas of cleansing Reddit of trolls and hateful personalities did not die when she left office. One of the first moves her replacement Steve Huffman, one of Reddit’s founders, did was to announce that Reddit was taking a strong stance against abusive material.
“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,” he wrote in a post.
Since the announcement a healthy number of things have been banned from the site, including bullying, the sharing of private and confidential information as well as “anything illegal”. It should be noted that whilst anything illegal (such as copyrighted media) is banned, discussion of illegal actions (such as drug abuse) is not.
Already many of Reddit’s users are crying foul at the new rules, describing it as akin to broadside cannon fire on freedom of speech. Others, myself included, breathe a sigh of relief knowing that one of the most popular sites on the internet is having unsavoury characters weeded out. It’s going to be a few months before Reddit settles down and it isn’t going to be a pleasant process but the alternative is having a weed squeeze the life out of the Reddit, leaving behind a blight.
What do you think of Reddit’s firm stance on banning abusive material? Do you think it’s an attack on your freedom of speech? Comment below to let us know your thoughts!
