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<h3 class="title">Social Media Giants Set Up “Free Speech Zones” to
Censor Dissent</h3>
<div class="picture"> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington"
title="View user profile."><img
src="cid:part1.08090805.00090407@gmail.com" alt="George
Washington's picture" title="George Washington's picture"></a></div>
<span class="submitted">Submitted by <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington">George
Washington</a> on 03/01/2012 14:56 -0500</span><br>
<br>
<p><em>Preface: Reddit is the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.alexa.com/search?q=reddit.com&r=site_siteinfo&p=bigtop"
target="_blank" title="119th most popular">119th most popular</a>
website worldwide on the Internet, which is more popular than <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.alexa.com/search?q=digg.com&r=site_screener&p=bigtop"
target="_blank" title="Digg">Digg</a>. Because news stories
are submitted and voted up social media style, it used to be one
of the best sources on the web for alternative news.</em></p>
<p><em>I am personally one of the top 100 or so posters to Reddit.
Specifically, I have submitted many stories written by other
authors on other websites, and have more than 150,000 “karma”
points.</em></p>
<p><em>As such, I am saddened to see Reddit go the way of Digg and
other sites which have been ruined by censorship.</em></p>
<p>The Bush administration gutted free speech rights by limiting
protesters to “<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone"
target="_blank" title="free speech zones">free speech zones</a>”
which were often miles away from the meetings or conventions being
protested, and well away from the media spotlight.</p>
<p>For example, here is the “free speech zone” for protesters at the
2004 Democratic National Convention:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/First_amendment_zone2.jpg"
target="_blank"><img alt="First amendment zone2 Social Media
Giants Set Up Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent "
class="lazy" src="cid:part7.01050203.02060301@gmail.com"
style="display: inline;" title="Social Media Giants Set Up
Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent " height="528" width="704"><span
id="formatbar_Buttons" style="display: block;"><span
id="formatbar_JustifyCenter" style="display: block;"
title="Align Center"><img alt="blank Social Media Giants Set
Up Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent "
class="gl_align_center lazy"
src="cid:part8.05030509.04020901@gmail.com"
style="display: inline;" title="Social Media Giants Set Up
Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent " border="0"></span></span></a></p>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/First_amendment_zone1.jpg"
target="_blank"><img alt="First amendment zone1 Social Media
Giants Set Up Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent "
class="lazy" src="cid:part10.04000604.08020500@gmail.com"
style="display: inline;" title="Social Media Giants Set Up
Free Speech Zones to Censor Dissent " height="528"></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Obviously, whatever speech protesters made went unheard. Which is
no different from censoring the speech.</p>
<p>Social media sites like Reddit are doing the same thing.</p>
<p>For example, a friend submitted the following world news stories
to the largest Reddit category, WorldNews*:</p>
<ul>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/81-of-israelis-oppose-strike-on-iran.html"
target="_blank" title="81% of Israelis Oppose Unilateral
Strike on Iran">81% of Israelis Oppose Unilateral Strike on
Iran</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/irans-head-religious-leader-the-production-possession-use-or-threatened-use-of-nuclear-weapons-is-a-great-sin.html"
target="_blank" title="Iran’s Head Religious Leader: The
Production, Possession, Use or Threatened Use of Nuclear
Weapons Is a “Great Sin”">Iran’s Head Religious Leader: The
Production, Possession, Use or Threatened Use of Nuclear
Weapons Is a “Great Sin”</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Reddit filtered the stories out, and moderator davidreiss666
said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please summit those to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.reddit.com/r/WorldPolitics" target="_blank"
title="/r/WorldPolitics">/r/WorldPolitics</a> or <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Israel"
target="_blank" title="/r/Israel">/r/Israel</a> instead.<br>
Thank you.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Worldnews has more than <em><span style="font-weight: bold;">1,200,000</span></em>
readers. Posting on Worldnews means one’s speech will be heard …
like protesting in front of a convention.</p>
<p>In contrast, Reddit’s Worldpolitics section has less than 50,000
readers. And the Israel section has just over 7,000 readers. These
are back alleys where almost no one goes.</p>
<p>So Reddit is doing just what George W. Bush did: banishing
protest to “free speech zones”.<br>
<br style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">Note 1: </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/top-social-media-websites-caught-censoring-controversial-content.html"
style="font-style: italic;" title="See this">See this</a> <span
style="font-style: italic;"> for background on censorship by
Reddit and other social media websites.</span><br
style="font-style: italic;">
<br style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">Note 2: It is not a lack of
understanding of Reddit’s rules which is causing this site to be
censored on Reddit. For example, the friend submitting the posts
to Reddit is one of the 20 most popular Redditors. Two Reddit
moderators – one who is much more popular than davidreiss666 –
support the right of this site to free speech.</span></p>
<p><em>And – prior to the involvement of 1 or 2 moderators who have
decided to censor this site – stories from this site were voted
up to Reddit’s front page on numerous occasions.</em><br
style="font-style: italic;">
<br style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">This proves that it is the
political agenda of certain moderators – rather than failure to
follow posting guidelines or a lack of interest in stories from
this site – which is the main problem.</span></p>
<p><em>* The politics category has 1,173,005 subscribers; but you
can’t post world news stories to politics. In addition,
davidreiss666 is also a moderator of the politics Reddit, he has
stated that he wants to ban submissions from Washington’s Blog,
and we appear to be censored there, as well.</em></p>
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