Reddit bans anti-vaccine subreddit r/NoNewNormal after site-wide protest
Reddit has banned anti-vaccine and anti-mask subreddit r/NoNewNormal and has quarantined 54 other subreddits associated with COVID denial. A week ago, the company’s CEO said in a post that Reddit was meant to be a place of “open and authentic discussion and debate,” even for ideas that “question or disagree with popular consensus.” In today’s post, the company has clarified its rules with regard to health misinformation.
The subreddit NoNewNormal has been cited by many in the Reddit community as a source of vaccine misinformation, and it was known for “brigading” other subreddit’s discussions by butting in on conversations about COVID or related policies in other communities. NoNewNormal was the source of 80 such brigades in the past month, according to Reddit security, and the behavior continued after the community was warned, leading to its ban. The community had previously been quarantined. For the 54 other subreddits that have been quarantined, Reddit warns potential visitors that medical advice should come from doctors rather than forum members. ...
Reddit continues to insist that its sitewide administrative policies are based on behaviour rather than content, though it appears that this is a somewhat narrow distinction, and that behaviours which draw attention ... tend to be associated with questionable content.
I'm not criticising the action. I support it. (The reasons are complex and difficult to articulate, though what I had to say ... on Reddit ... about limitations on speech some six years ago seems strongly appropriate.
The more so as what I'd based that argument on at the time --- falsely claiming no harm where a harm clearly existed is precisely at the centre of current discussions of the topic. This also seems to be a major, though under-discussed mode, of deceptive speech, and more pointedly a mode in which the downplaying of risk accrues benefits and gains to the parties promoting that message.
That said, Reddit's lack of principled leadership and very-late-to-the-party redress continues to erode trust. Which is one of the key challenges the firm faces: neither of the two principle sides in this matter are or will be happy with how it aquits itself.
I'll note as well that the principles of "free speech" are not synonymous with the US first amendment, that speech on a privately-operate platform is both not the same as government censorship, but also not dissimilar in many regards. I've been thinking in terms of a set of related, though often conflicting principles as #AutonomousCommunication (discussed in "Which has primacy?"). The rights to privacy, free-assocation (both positive and negative), against self-incrimination, of obligated disclosure, and to accurate information, all collide, though there are some common principles which might help in adjudicating amongst them. I'm not aware of others offering any similar construction.
See: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/622677903778013902fd002590d8e506
https://www.theverge.com/22652705/reddit-covid-misinformation-ban-nonewnormal-health-policies
#reddit #FreeSpeech #disinformation #misinformation #covid19 #ClearAndPresentDanger #denial #InformationalAutonomy
