[governance] Social Media Giants Set Up “Free Speech Zones” to Censor Dissent

[Riaz K Tayob]

      Social Media Giants Set Up “Free Speech Zones” to Censor Dissent

George Washington's picture 
<http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington>
Submitted by George Washington 
<http://www.zerohedge.com/users/george-washington> on 03/01/2012 14:56 -0500

/Preface:  Reddit is the 119th most popular 
<http://www.alexa.com/search?q=reddit.com&r=site_siteinfo&p=bigtop> 
website worldwide on the Internet, which is more popular than Digg 
<http://www.alexa.com/search?q=digg.com&r=site_screener&p=bigtop>.  
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./

/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./

/As such, I am saddened to see Reddit go the way of Digg and other sites 
which have been ruined by censorship./

The Bush administration gutted free speech rights by limiting protesters 
to “free speech zones <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone>” 
which were often miles away from the meetings or conventions being 
protested, and well away from the media spotlight.

For example, here is the “free speech zone” for protesters at the 2004 
Democratic National Convention:

First amendment zone2 Social Media Giants Set Up Free Speech Zones to 
Censor Dissent blank Social Media Giants Set Up Free Speech Zones to 
Censor Dissent 
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/First_amendment_zone2.jpg>

First amendment zone1 Social Media Giants Set Up Free Speech Zones to 
Censor Dissent 
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/First_amendment_zone1.jpg>

Obviously, whatever speech protesters made went unheard. Which is no 
different from censoring the speech.

Social media sites like Reddit are doing the same thing.

For example, a friend submitted the following world news stories to the 
largest Reddit category, WorldNews*:

  * 81% of Israelis Oppose Unilateral Strike on Iran
    <http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/81-of-israelis-oppose-strike-on-iran.html>

  * Iran’s Head Religious Leader: The Production, Possession, Use or
    Threatened Use of Nuclear Weapons Is a “Great Sin”
    <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>

Reddit filtered the stories out, and moderator davidreiss666 said:

    Please summit those to /r/WorldPolitics
    <http://www.reddit.com/r/WorldPolitics> or /r/Israel
    <http://www.reddit.com/r/Israel> instead.
    Thank you.”

Worldnews has more than /1,200,000/ readers. Posting on Worldnews means 
one’s speech will be heard … like protesting in front of a convention.

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.

So Reddit is doing just what George W. Bush did: banishing protest to 
“free speech zones”.

Note 1: See this 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/02/top-social-media-websites-caught-censoring-controversial-content.html> 
for background on censorship by Reddit and other social media websites.

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.

/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./

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.

/* 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./



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