OPT: Reddit allegedly censors pro-Palestine news and threads by users violating its own online democracy slogan
Summary
Date Reported: 7 Mar 2022
Location: Location unknown
Companies
RedditAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Issues
Censorship , Freedom of Expression , Security Issues & Conflict Zones , Political Activists , Racial, ethnicity, caste or origin discrimination , Other DiscriminationResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Journalist
Action taken: The journalist's attempt to contact Reddit moderators failed to elicit a response.
Source type: News outlet
"Reddit's silencing of pro-Palestine speech betrays its own ethos" 7 March 2022
...In the Israeli context, far-right users have posted incitement to violence with impunity and face no consequences for it, while pro-Palestinian users face suspension and permanent bans. Studies have highlighted the censorship of pro-Palestinian voices on the two major social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook.
Users face suspension for content which supposedly violates the companies’ “community standards.” These community standards seem to apply mainly to criticism of Israel or amplification of the Palestinian perspective...
Reddit’s slogan is that it is the “front page of the internet.” It has 48 million active monthly users, 130,000 subreddits, and is ranked 20th globally in terms of internet traffic...
Reddit empowered people as a major venue for online democracy...
It has also generated heated controversy for hosting subs accused of promoting hate speech, misogyny, and homophobia. Reddit admins, responsible for enforcing the rules for the entire site, began banning subs.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International released a report declaring that Israel was an apartheid state. While many celebrated this recognition, on Reddit, the response has been dispiriting, as some subs have censored attempts to highlight the report. The r/worldnews sub has blocked multiple attempts by Redditors to post links to the report. My attempt to ask the mods to explain their decision failed to elicit a response.
One user’s post linking to Amnesty’s report was allegedly censored because it was “opinion,” rather than “news".