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Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by commandlinefan on Thursday September 22, 2022 @11:49AM (#32940615)
My reddit account was permanently suspended for upvoting COVID lockdown skepticism. I'm in Texas, too - I'm half tempted to use the recent 5th circuit decision to force them to reinstate my account purely out of spite.
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by notch656a on Thursday September 22, 2022 @11:56AM (#32940735)
I don't understand the evil-capitalist rationale for that. I would think reddit, like facebook, gets much of its revenue (or viewership, that turns into revenue) from people squabbling over the topic of the day/month/year and thus benefits from outrage at skeptics. Why not keep them around?

Anecdotally I've found if I just say something relatively unbacked or 'stupid sounding' that the mainstream can easily attack to make my argument sound dumb, I don't get the ban/removal. It's only when you present a factual argument, and especially if you start winning people over, that reddit is especially quick to ban you.

I've noticed this same progression on HN. If I lose the debate due to not enough facts/persuasion, then people tend to leave it at that and rest satisfied they put an idiot in their place -- why would they want that comment removed when it can stay there as a head on a spike. If I introduce facts but they are unpopular, it will get downvoted to hell and people seem satisfied with that. However, if I actually start winning people over then my comment gets flagged, because we can't allow the wrong view to 'win.'

Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by flenserboy on Thursday September 22, 2022 @01:32PM (#32942075)
It helps the understanding when it is recognized that Reddit, as with other, similar sites, is a propaganda/opinion-reinforcement platform and not primarily aimed at advertising or making money.
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by adamsb6 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @12:45PM (#32941426)
Truly religious people value their religion and its values over the pursuit of profit.
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by marcusverus on Thursday September 22, 2022 @01:48PM (#32942286)
Relevant C. S. Lewis:

  "It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by thrown_22 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @05:12PM (#32944693)
>I don't understand the evil-capitalist rationale for that.

Reddit's anti-evil team is not evil-capitalism, it's AI wokeness run amok: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/u374pf/reddits_...

Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by anigbrowl on Thursday September 22, 2022 @06:08PM (#32945261)
A bold claim.
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by mrshadowgoose on Thursday September 22, 2022 @08:55PM (#32946627)
If you take a few seconds to do the requisite googling, you'll find out that this is actually a thing that Reddit does and has admitted to doing.
Re:Censorship by big tech at the behest of the U.S. government? by anigbrowl on Thursday September 22, 2022 @09:54PM (#32947079)
I have a feeling that I'll also find this fact to be true within very specific contexts which are missing from the claim above.

One could interpret it as 'I got permabanned and made to feel bad afterwards for upvoting an unpopular opinion one time' or 'I got permabanned after upvoting an unpopular opinion for the 1000th time during an ongoing raid feud.' I presume the truth lies somewhere between those extremes.