YAKKIN ON THE AWL: William Shatner, Reddit, and the Complications of “Free Speech” on the Internet
February 12, 2013 § Leave a Comment
Today the Awl published me-n-Kate’s third internet yak (IT MEANS: DIALOGUE). This time we considered the raaather boss comments William Shatner made regarding Reddit –aka “The Front Page of the Internet,” for rape jokes– and their libertarian-themed moderation policies (or lack thereof). My position is that Reddit’s moderation policies (or lack thereof) are broken, and that their obsession with “free speech” (scare quotes in flashing neon) is to blame. It’s a good time. (also please note that I am NOT engaging with REAL i.e. constitutional speech issues here, but rather the stupid shit users post to a privately-owned platform that is perfectly capable of cleaning out the damn trash once in a while but chooses not to).
So This Vampire Walks into a Metaphor
October 11, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I am not exactly what you would call a “fan” of online mega-aggrigator Reddit. Here are some thoughts on the matter!
I recently got into a discussion with my friend and former dissertation advisor about my strong and ever-growing antipathy towards Reddit. She described my feelings as “perplexing,” doubtlessly because I’ve been accused on more than one occasion and by more than one person (including her, in the nicest and most constructive ways possible) of being something of an apologist for trolls. Consequently I can see why it might seem odd that I’d maintain an uneasy ambivalence towards trolling but be rabidly judgmental about a site like Reddit, which is constantly being lauded (and lauding itself) for democratizing the internet, saving the world from SOPA, and delivering pizzas to the needy, all done for the loves (which I’ve just decided is the whiteknight equivalent of the lulz).
The thing is, though, Reddit irritates me. But not for the obvious reasons, namely the shameful number of subreddits that are either devoted to or permissive of rape jokes, racism, mysogyny, jailbait porn, etc. These things are objectively and demonstrably gross, and in the case of human shitbags Violentacrez and CreeperComforts, which our Chris Menning discussed earlier, outright illegal. The thing is, the site is large, and therefore contains multitudes. Just because some users are shitty doesn’t and shouldn’t mean the whole site is shitty.
Click here for my answer to the question “so what’s your problem?”
