Re:Reddit Bans Five Communities In New Anti-Harassment Campaign
by nindalf on Thursday June 11, 2015 @05:07AM
(#9698542)
Your comment seems to boil down to "this speech is ok, but that speech isn't". I think the point of free speech (something that reddit stands for) is that any speech is ok, as long as it isn't outright illegal (child porn for eg). If you begin to pick and choose ("I'm happy to see behaviour I don't approve of banned"), then its not really free speech.
Here's an example unrelated to harassment. Many people strongly disapprove of consumption of drugs, including marijuana. Reddit has a forum with 750k members who actively promote the consumption of this drug. It isn't even considered 18+ only, so reddit is ok with children subscribing to this forum. Shouldn't the promotion of acts which are illegal be banned too? Shouldn't we go after this before we go after the people who are merely insulting others?
But individuals being singled out to slander and poke fun at is not acceptable in my opinion, regardless of whether you define it as free speech or not. There's a world of difference between simply saying "I hate fat people" and putting up a specific image or video of a fat person and then gathering around to verbally abuse them. Quite happy to see that sort of behaviour banned.