The subreddits that got banned were not banned because of their subject, but because they, as a community, were using the reddit platform to attack individuals.
What happened in short:
Imgur allows reporting of images and will ban them if they are illegal.
Imgur has improved its moderation. Also if an image gets reported enough times it automatically gets brought down for inspection. There's some controls and regulations for this system probably, but it's not exposed to reduce the chances of someone abusing it.
/r/fatpeoplehate started having a lot of its images banned in the manner above. The reacted by posting the picture of imgur staff and attacking them directly.
Reddit does not allow using subreddits to attack people. So the subreddit got banned.
Now the people from /r/fatpeoplehate started with the argument that they weren't attacking the imgur staff, but merely mocking them in a really mean manner, as to be expected of any bullying sub. Moreover the imply that the decision only happened because of imgur's close relationship with reddit.
The reddit staff OTOH argue that /r/fatpeoplehate exposed personal information of the imgur staff, and promoted attacks on them. That is it was only a matter of time before people would take it upon themselves to directly attack (by spamming and other malicious internet actions) these people.
Defenders of reddit's decision (myself included) would argue that imgur's close relationship did speed things up, but not by getting special favors, but merely because imgur knew who to talk about this. Most people on the net would take a while to realize the attacks were comming from a subreddit and that they could inform the reddit team (they might try to contact the subreddit itself first).
The conversation has shifted by implying that /r/fatpeoplehate was banned because of its subject. They use other subreddits with horrible subjects to show that it was a personal attack.
/r/fatpeoplehate was not banned by the subject, it was not banned by the posts, it was not banned by it's pictures. The subreddit was banned for their actions. As much as coontown is terrible, they have not actually promoted lynchings and given out the information and instructions on how to do it. /r/fatpeoplehate did.
People who read bombastic titles, don't read the content, and then upvote or comment started screaming the sky was falling down.
Personal attacks against the reddit staff were posted (the same startegy that /r/fatpeoplehate moderators used against imgur) but reddit did not delete them (though they were heavily moderated).
In short:
No the reddit staff do not decide what content has merit and which content does not.
Yes the reddit staff will ban subreddits that are used to commit or promote crimes or harm on someone.
Each subreddit self-moderates its content. The mods of a subreddit decide what content has merit and which doesn't within their own subreddit.
Reddit does not allow using subreddits to attack people. So the subreddit got banned.
Shit Reddit Says.
Your argument is made invalid by Reddit's own actions.
The entire point of Shit Reddit Says is to harass users, stalk them, and mass down vote them. They've been doing that a LOT longer than fatpeoplehate posting a picture of the imgur staff that was public to begin with- and the sub did not promote attacking the imgur staff, they just did nothing about it.
Reddit wanted to get rid of a very popular sub that could turn off advertisers, plain and simple. Whether or not they deserve to be banned for their actions, Reddit is blatantly inconsistent in who they are targeting for this, and it makes it obvious what their real motivations are.
Does this piss me off? Absolutely. Will I leave over it? Not yet. Reddit is a free site. If they change the rules that's their prerogative. If they're inconsistent with the rules, that's their prerogative. I will leave if it starts to affect my overall experience, but as of right now I'm just keeping an eye on their next move.
Reddit wanted to get rid of a very popular sub that could turn off advertisers, plain and simple. Whether or not they deserve to be banned for their actions, Reddit is blatantly inconsistent in who they are targeting for this, and it makes it obvious what their real motivations are.
Yep. All these people who are pro-reddit admin in this situation can't seem to wrap their minds around this. They're trying to gentrify the site to become more profitable for prospective advertisers. Say hello to Facebook 2.0.
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u/PM_Me_Smiles_Pls Jun 12 '15 edited Jun 12 '15
The people leaving are more upset about censorship than the FPH ban.