Was Reddit always about free speech? Yes, and no
www.theverge.com
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m sharing this old article because it’s useful to contrast the situation back then (protests against hate speech) and now (protests due to the APIcalypse).

Here are a few highlights:

  • Back then, the admins were already eager to shift their discourse back and forth, depending on the convenience. Reddit was always about free speech, then it never was.
  • Former CEO Yishan Wong’s “[shutting down subreddits] won’t become a regular occurrence”
  • If you try to follow the link sourcing the quote above, you’ll notice that most Reddit blog official communications towards users are gone. Instead you’ll find a blog clearly geared towards investors, vulture capital, and corporate.

Any other old piece of news that you guys feel like sharing, that can be contextualised to show Reddit going downhill?

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
      4·
      1 year ago

      He probably didn’t but I wonder how much of a role he had on the “corporate culture” of Reddit Inc. Probably close to zero, regardless of his contribution to the platform as a whole - let’s say that things like “information should be widely available, specially scientific knowledge” aren’t exactly too popular with vulture capital.

      • Tag365@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        How about we call that leech capital instead? They’re trying to profit at the cost of a good user experience.

        • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          “Leech capital” sounds good. They’d gladly suck the blood out of society for their own profit.

          I usually call them “vulture capital” for the wordplay (vulture vs. venture). And because they’re a lot like vultures: they fly on circles around anything moribund, in groups, almost as if asking each other “is it dead yet? can we rip off its flesh?”

          • Tag365@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            I like vultures so I don’t like the association with one of my favorite animals. Leeches are 100% known for being parasites though.

        • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlOPM
          3·
          1 year ago

          The fact that they sold Reddit to Condé Nast is on its own a sign that they were already corporation-minded. Otherwise they’d simply say “nah, we thank you for the offer but we see Reddit as a public service, not as a business”. That’s likely what Swartz would’ve done.

          Also the fact that kn0thing remained in Reddit a long time after it was bought, and that Greedy Pigboy is still there as its CEO.