Ask HN: Does reddit now allow hate speech against certain groups?
There has been a recent policy change:
https://www.reddithelp.com/en/categories/rules-reporting/account-and-community-restrictions/promoting-hate-based-identity-or
"While the rule on hate protects such groups, it does not protect all groups or all forms of identity. For example, the rule does not protect groups of people who are in the majority or who promote such attacks of hate. "
There are still existing policies against promotion of violence however. There are also existing policies against harassment and bullying. These all still apply.
Does this mean that before the change, hate against any group was bannable, but today it means that it's not bannable if its against certain groups? Before was there no rule against hate speech?
For example "punch a nazi" would not be hate speech as the nazi's promote hate but it might come under the violence rule. But "you should hate white people" would not be classed as hate speech now, nor violence, nor really would it be harassment or bullying. Before it would have been bannable I think? It would be classed as hate speech on Facebook.
9 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 26.7 ms ] threadThis particular sentence is something that anyone who has taken a single public relations class or law school class (or really just has any common sense) would read and immediately cross out from the announcement. Even if this is indicative of how you operate internally, it just isn't something that anyone with half a brain would include in an official public policy announcement.
That means that either 1) nobody reviewed this, 2) people reviewed this but didn't think this huge dumpster fire of a statement was a big deal, or 3) people reviewed this, caught it, but then reddit decided to keep the statement in.
I honestly don't know which is worse.
it makes sense if the lawyers and PR people are american and the focus is what is important to them - where they live: America,
I think it's more narrow-minded than that. My guess is that reddit employees are operating within a "silicon valley tech" bubble, where white men are the majority and are (what I assume to be) their intended target with this statement.
However, completely disregarding who this statement is targeted at, it's a statement that explicitly says that hateful acts are okay towards some people. And to put it bluntly, I just can't believe that someone in a position of power at a multi-billion dollar company would be stupid enough to put such a statement in a public announcement.
It's vague enough so Reddit and the powermods can have an easier time banning people who post unfashionable opinions.