Popular online bulletin board Reddit Inc is mulling ways to make its free-for-all discussions more civil by restraining what people can post, a move that could anger some of the site’s most passionate members.
Steve “spez” Huffman, co-founder of the Web site self-titled “the front page of the Internet,” on Thursday used an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on the site to let fans know that curbs could be coming.
“Neither Alexis [Ohanian] nor I created Reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen,” Huffman said in a message announcing the AMA.
“We as a community need to decide together what our values are,” he said.
Reddit is a for-profit business operated as a subsidiary of Advance Publications. Its forums are moderated by volunteers who tend to be passionate about the bulletin board being an online venue for saying whatever users want no matter how inane, outrageous or offensive.
The talk of restrictions comes in the wake of the departure of Ellen Pao (鮑康如), who headed the company until disgruntled users called for her departure.
A number of people on the site posted sexist and inflammatory comments about Pao.
Earlier this year Reddit banned non-consensual pornography — referred to as revenge porn — because it typically involves former romantic partners who have not given permission for sharing content.
“This was largely accepted by the community, and the world is a better place as a result,” Huffman said.
“Therefore, today we’re announcing that we’re considering a set of additional restrictions on what people can say on Reddit — or at least say on our public pages — in the spirit of our mission,” he said.
Reddit last month banned a handful of “subreddit” forums, including one devoted to making fun of fat people, under terms of a new anti-harassment policy.
Other content Reddit is thinking of banning includes spam, people’s private information and anything that incites harm or violence or which could be considered abusive or bullying.
Pornography and content that “offends the sense of decency” will be sectioned off in a previously established Not Safe For Work (NSFW) zone that Reddit users will be able to opt into at their discretion, according to Huffman.
“Basically, Reddit got the huge number of users it now wants to monetize by using ‘free speech!’ as an excuse to let every user run wild and post the most inflammatory, disgusting, borderline illegal stuff imaginable,” a user with the screen-name Mrs Eccentric commented in the AMA forum.
“Now that they have that big user base, they want to monetize it — which means that they have to clean it up to make investors happy. Which is making the users scream bloody murder, because that’s not the Reddit they know and love,” Mrs Eccentric said.
Reddit has more than 163 million users and describes itself as a forum for real-time journalism.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his