Reddit CEO Says Banning Hate Speech Is Really Tough, But Suspends User For Revealing This

Social media platforms take connected the world, but they have besides brought hurting in the course of random strangers hurling abuses and harassing others.

While Twitter and Facebook have taken a articulate stance on what qualifies equally hate speech – even though in that location are controversies on that front every now and and then – Reddit'south approach is quite passive, and its CEO, Steve Huffman, simply confirmed that.

In a leaked private message chat with a Reddit user, Huffman argued that 'detest speech is difficult to define', and that it is not the task of a private company to regulate and control what users can say on its platform.

Reddit CEO Says Banning Hate Speech Is Really Difficult — Image Courtesy: Reddit/Zachary Swanson

Huffman, who goes by the username 'spez' on Reddit, recently got into a give-and-take nearly hate spoken communication with cybersecurity researcher Zachary Swanson aka whatllmyusernamebe.When asked about the visitor'south docile role in putting a check on the rampant hate speech on Reddit, Huffman responded that Reddit's fierce voice communication policy is effectively the ane which regulates hate oral communication.

But the existent shocker came with Huffman's response to calls to completely ban hate spoken language on Reddit, or ask those who tin't abandon their hateful behavior to leave Reddit. "Hate speech is difficult to ascertain. At that place's a reason why it'southward not really done. Additionally. we are non the idea police. Information technology's non the office of a individual company to decide what people tin can and cannot say", he responded.

He later added that imposing a platform-wide ban on detest speech is 'a nigh incommunicable precedent to uphold'and enforcing such a rule consistently is incommunicable. Interestingly, as shortly as Swanson posted the screenshot of his chat with Huffman on another subreddit, he received an email informing him that his account has been suspended for online harassment.

Since when did sharing the record of a conversation with a tech company's master became online harassment, especially when it was zilch like a confidential, highly secretive topic of conversation? Nonetheless, it remains to exist seen how Huffman deals with the brewing media storm, and whether Reddit can finally solve the hate speech issue which is very, very real.