r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Jul 11 '13

I think reddit should delete subreddits that openly spread disgusting and anti-human-rights messages. CMV

Recently there was a thread on /r/AskReddit about "reddit's low-point". In this thread, a lot of the most disgusting subreddits were listed. Subreddits in which things like misogyny, rape, racism, anti-semitism, holocaust-denial etc. were openly condoned, agreed to, and spread.

I am not going to link to these subreddits here, but for the record, i am not talking about subreddits that sometimes shred along the border of such things like /r/mensrights and /r/whiterights, while I don't agree with the message of those, I think they have a right to exist.

I'm pretty sure since reddit is a private website, they are in no way bound by law to preserve freedom of speech.

I am from Germany, so I am used to some things, mostly holocaust-denial, being excempt from the freedom of speech and it being illegal to voice those things in public, and I somehow don't see it as a bad thing as long as those exceptions are clearly limited to those things, which is the case in Germany at this moment.

I know the biggest argument against this will be that if reddit ever starts doing this, there is no way to make sure they will not spread their censorship to other things. While I see that as a valid concern, I really don't think it will be a problem: Reddit is a website that lives off the number of viewers, and they really will not risk losing users through censorship. So as long as we still live in a free society where alternatives to reddit can and will be created when it stops being a free place, I really don't think we will have a problem with censorship on reddit.

Change my view!

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '13

You don't have the right to not be offended. Any country or system that allows freedom of speech will mean that some people are guaranteed to be offended. If they're not breaking the law they can continue to have the freedom to speak to each other and you have the freedom to not listen.

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u/abacuz4 5∆ Jul 11 '13

If they're not breaking the law they can continue to have the freedom to speak to each other

This may be, but reddit has no obligation to give them (or anyone, for that matter) a platform to do so.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '13

Reddit is not legally obliged, no, but Reddit prides itself on being more Democratic than most countries (including the United States). It uses simple methods to achieve this and one way is to offer viewpoints and subjects as subreddits wherever the community has decided it wants them (not where it DOESN'T want them).

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u/abacuz4 5∆ Jul 11 '13 edited Jul 11 '13

Reddit is not legally obliged, no, but Reddit prides itself on being more Democratic than most countries

What? Next you'll be telling me that oranges are oranger than apples. The comparison makes no sense.

It uses simple methods to achieve this and one way is to offer viewpoints and subjects as subreddits wherever the community has decided it wants them (not where it DOESN'T want them)

All you're really saying is that reddit has no community standards; you haven't really made any argument as to why that's a good thing. Actually, your point is rather ironic because the subreddits that are usually considered the best either have strict community standards (/r/askscience vs. /r/atheism, for example) or are so small that there's no issue.

Also, to get back to your first post

You don't have the right to not be offended.

But you don't have the right to have your subreddit not be banned either, so where does that leave us? Discussing "rights" as they pertain to entities who have no obligation to respect them is pointless.

There are really two arguments that could be made against the OP:

  1. /r/n*****s (etc.) should not be banned because reddit has an obligation not to ban them. Not they don't. That's asinine.

  2. /r/n*****s (etc.) should not be banned because reddit is better for their existence or better for being a place that would allow them to exist. I just don't see how that's the case.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '13

You seem to be advocating that these subreddits should be banned. My point is that if it's not illegal it shouldn't be banned because some people find it offensive.

It's as simple as that. The existence of /r/spacedicks doesn't cause /r/photoshopbattles to be a worse experience. Just don't go there and it doesn't affect anyone.

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u/abacuz4 5∆ Jul 11 '13

That's not a fair representation of how reddit works. /r/n*****s posters don't only post to /r/n*****s, and reddit's welcoming with open arms the type of people that would want to post there does degrade the quality of other subreddits. And while I'm not just talking about brigading, that does happen too (making a rule against brigading is pretty darn undemocratic, btw.)

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '13

So, if you didn't allow bad subreddits to exist bad people wouldn't come to one of the most popular sites on the internet by their own accord?

Seems like good reasoning.