Reddit

Reddit's trademark

Reddit is a social media website dominated by internet trolls. Like flypaper, Reddit attracts the trolls and holds them there so that other internet sites can be educational and enjoyable.

Reddit users submit content and vote submissions "up" or "down" to determine their position on the pages of the site. These votes give a user 'Karma', one for links and one for comments. The best content would reach the front page, hence the slogan "the front page of the internet." Reddit was a defining representation of democratization of culture and promoting the free flow of knowledge across the net. As the site grew and new CEOs took over, free speech became a casualty. Content and groups have been deleted by corporate management, this has generated a loud backlash. The Chinese company Tencent has a 10% stake in the company, and this results in anything mentioning the Tiananmen Square massacre or rightfully blaming China for COVID-19 being banned, and allows racist subreddits such as r/Sino to thrive.

Unlike other social media sites, the user page consists largely of previous posts and comments, no detailed user information, no avatar, no real names requirement, no friends list, no bio.

Nearly all social media sites are created/owned by liberals and Reddit is no different. Unlike Twitter where there is a large conservative user population, the exact opposite can be said of Reddit. While there is a small conservative following, their posts are downvoted by liberals.

In an interview with the New Yorker, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman admitted their ability to manipulate public opinion: “I’m confident that Reddit could sway elections,” Huffman told reporter Andrew Marantz, lamenting the 2016 election of Donald Trump. “We wouldn’t do it, of course. And I don’t know how many times we could get away with it. But, if we really wanted to, I’m sure Reddit could have swayed at least this election, this once.”^[1]

Subreddits[edit]

Reddit is organized into "subreddits", each for a subject or area of interest, where users submit their content. There are currently 50 default subreddits which automatically appear on the front page, but registered users can customize which subreddits they subscribe to and therefore which appear on their personal front page.

Reddit atheism subreddit is one of the largest, most active communities of atheists on the internet. In 2013, it was removed from the default subreddit list for not being up to standards of the site.^[2]

The website is awash in NSFW "Not safe for work" content. A quick search for subreddits of 'Pics' turns up group after group of porn, deviant fetishes, and nudity. So much so, younger people should not become a registered user.

Gaming the system[edit]

Reddit is hopelessly gamed. Rules are in place to prevent overzealous moderators and vote fixing but liberals easily circumvent this. Conservatives are subject to 'Downvote brigades'. This team effort leads to content not appearing popular. r/Politics subreddit is an example faking non-bias. Only liberal news content is allowed and removal of conservative content is the standard operating procedure.

During 2009, it was believed that the infamous Digg Patriots were actively engaging in censorship on the website by collectively banning liberal users and hiding liberal posts while promoting conservative posters. These actions were revealed in 2010, after a year long investigation leading to most of these users being banned from the service.

In August 2020 Reddit shut down in mid-livestream a broadcast by Bill Binney^[3] related to the fake news allegation of Russian hacking of the DNC during the 2016 presidential election.^[4][5]

Conservative subreddits[edit]

Despite the overwhelming liberal bias on Reddit, there are a small number of subreddits a with conservative populations; such as r/Conservative and r/Republican.

However, many conservative subreddits have been censored by Reddit. r/pizzagate, was banned^[6] as well as r/The_Donald being unfairly banned for being "anti-police" after a Media Matters hit piece was released. Recently, in 2020, r/Wuhan_Flu was quarantined, within 3 days of its creation.^{[7][8][9][10]}

On August 23 2021 a Reddit user made a post on the Marxist subreddit r/vaxxhappened calling for Reddit to "take action against the rampant Coronavirus misinformation on their website".^[11] What this Redditor meant by "take action" is for Reddit to censor views that opppose vaccine mandates and totalitarian lockdowns. This post was reposted to hundreds of other subreddits resulting in Reddit making the decision on September 3 2021, influenced by Chinese oligarchs, to quarantine and ban dozens of pro-free speech subreddits such as r/NoNewNormal.^[12][13]

Capitalist subreddits[edit]

Reddit is unique among social media conglomerates for the active community of pro-capitalist users who populate many subreddits such as r/anticomaction, r/anarcho_capitalism, r/greatmanchuria, and r/volunteerist_memes.

See also[edit]

• R/CNNmemes
• Reddit atheism

References[edit]

1. ↑ https://bgr.com/2018/03/12/reddit-election-interference-steve-huffman-interview/
2. ↑ http://www.redditblog.com/2013/07/new-default-subreddits-omgomgomg.html
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/Burke4Senate/status/1298318463610560512
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1135541638711906304
5. ↑ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/reddit-shuts-bill-binney-provides-evidence-refuting-russia-collusion-sham/
6. ↑ https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-23/reddit-bans-pizzagate-we-dont-want-witchhunts-our-site
7. ↑ https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/pro-trump-subreddit-full-calls-violence-support-oregon-republicans. Oddly enough subreddits like R/Communism, R/Beholdthemasterrace and R/Fragilewhiteredditor, R/Fuckthealtright have not been banned and have thousands of followers dispite being hypocritical of reddits "anti harrassment policy."
8. ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/06/26/reddit-censors-the_donald-community-of-750000-trump-supporters/
9. ↑ https://reclaimthenet.org/the-donald-subreddit-quarantined/
10. ↑ http://archive.is/u61WC
11. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/vaxxhappened/comments/pbe8nj/we_call_upon_reddit_to_take_action_against_the
12. ↑ https://www.cnet.com/news/reddit-bans-active-covid-misinformation-subreddit-nonewnormal/
13. ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/03/04/censor-happy-reddit-bans-links-to-russian-state-media/