A couple of weeks ago I reported the sad tale of bitter feud brewing between the moderators of a politics forum on Reddit and the community they supposedly serve (See this article for background). The “mods” unilaterally implemented new rules that amounted to censorship by banning dozens of Internet sites, including some well known and respected sources for political news and analysis like Mother Jones and National Review (and News Corpse).
In the intervening weeks they have slowly begun to unwind some of the bans. About 20 sites were freed from purgatory one week. The next week another four were paroled. On that event I posted an opinion piece (re-posted below) that criticized the mods for selecting four sites that were either overtly right-wing or affiliated with conservative media. The response from the Reddit/Politics community was overwhelmingly positive. Within a few hours the piece was one of the top three on the Politics main page.
However the response from the Reddit/Politics mods was decidedly more negative. First they tagged my article with an editorialized prefix. Later they simply removed it entirely from it’s high spot on the main page and made it inaccessible without having the specific URL. Finally, they deleted the entirety of what I had written and replaced it with the word “[removed]” and no further explanation.
Prior to the deletion of my post it had accumulated over a thousand “up-votes” from the community (73% positive), and more than 700 comments. Nevertheless, the mods saw fit to make the whole thing disappear, despite the clear approval and interest from readers. And to compound the problem, the mods have refused to respond to my inquiries. It is as if they regard this forum to be their own private playground where they can rule with a tyrannical authority.
I want to make clear that these acts of censorship are the work of the moderators of the Politics forum or “sub-Reddit.” The rest of the Reddit website is not responsible. However, the Reddit administrators ought to be concerned that a group of volunteers are behaving in a manner that is casting a disreputable pall on the site that is damaging to its credibility, its commitment to free speech, and its future success. Hopefully, someone in an official capacity will intervene to address the situation and impose the necessary changes in policy and personnel.
Below is the original opinion piece I wrote that has since been deleted by the Reddit/Politics moderators:
The controversy over this subreddit’s policy of censoring domains has not gone away. In fact, this week it has become even more controversial.
There is a notice at the top of the page that announces that “AmericanThinker, Reason, NationalReview, & Vice now unfiltered.” Is it just a coincidence that all four of those are either stridently conservative or associated with conservative media?
American Thinker is one of the most far-right fringe sites on the InterTubes. National Review is the establishment conservative publication that regularly posts diatribes against progressives and features openly racist contributors. Reason is arguably less objectionable, but as a Libertarian publication it most frequently sides with the Tea Party agenda.
As for Vice, how many people know that Rupert Murdoch recently bought a sizable chunk of the enterprise? And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but his son James was just given a seat on their board of directors.
Meanwhile, the moderators of this subreddit neglected to announce that Media Matters and Mediate were apparently “reviewed” and have been moved from the “Under Review” section of the Filtered Domains page to the “Rehosted Content” section. That seems to suggest that these highly respected sites that produce original and unique content have been reviewed and deemed “unacceptable” by the moderators. Presumably because they both conduct media analyses, which requires posting the source material, they have been banished.
Also still in limbo are ThinkProgress, Alternet, and Salon, all of whom publish original articles and have been honored by journalistic associations and professionals. Yet American Thinker and National Review are now free to be posted.
I just thought everyone should know about this. I hope this post is not censored. We’ll see.
[EDIT: 12:42pm] Wow. The mods have just appended an editorialized comment to my post headline without permission or notice. They added “25 domains total” in an apparent attempt to justify themselves. That is wholly unethical. They could have posted a comment with their opinion, but to insert it into the headline of my post breaks all standards of decency. What’s next? They could just put a big “Bullshit” in front of submissions they don’t like. It is an abuse of power that users cannot contest or respond to in kind.
And what is the point of their intrusive edit? Apparently they failed to comprehend that my headline was referencing only the newly unfiltered domains in the announcement at the top of the page. The others were covered extensively in metaposts a couple of weeks ago. But the mods seem to want to ignore that in order to misrepresent the gist of my post.
[EDIT: 11/24/13 11:52pm] An hour ago this post was in the top 10 on the front page of /r/politics. It had over 1,100 upvotes and 73% liked. Now it has disappeared. I searched back 200 posts and it isn’t anywhere to found. Is this censorship?
