The Student Room Group

Censorship regarding the Orlando massacre on Reddit and Facebook

Reddit's /r/news has locked comments and begun deleting hundreds on it's thread about the Orlando massacre. The only threads on the front page about it are from the /r/The_donald and you are not able to upvote them. https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/4nql8f/orlando_nightclub_shooting_megathread/

There is no sign of the massacre being mentioned on Facebook trending since the attacker has been confirmed as a Muslim.

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Original post by KingBradly
Reddit's /r/news has locked comments and begun deleting hundreds on it's thread about the Orlando massacre. The only threads on the front page about it are from the /r/The_donald and you are not able to upvote them. https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/4nql8f/orlando_nightclub_shooting_megathread/

There is no sign of the massacre being mentioned on Facebook trending since the attacker has been confirmed as a Muslim.


Why do you think there's a conspiracy?
Reply 2
Original post by Ras' Al Ghul
Why do you think there's a conspiracy?


I'm just reporting what's happening. Interesting thread where people are saying how they are being banned for even mentioning that the attacker is Muslim https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4nq3ib/rnews_locked_the_thread_about_orlando_shooting_as/
How many more of these threads do you intend to make?
live coverage here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/live/
Reply 5
Original post by Plagioclase
How many more of these threads do you intend to make?


This is the biggest mass shooting in recent US history, and two of the biggest and most influential websites are purposefully neglecting it, and you don't think this is worthy of attention?
Original post by KingBradly
This is the biggest mass shooting in recent US history, and two of the biggest and most influential websites are purposefully neglecting it, and you don't think this is worthy of attention?


Deleting comments that break a website's rules is not "purposely neglecting it".
Reply 7
Original post by Plagioclase
Deleting comments that break a website's rules is not "purposely neglecting it".


That is not what is happening. Facebook is not reporting it on trending. The /r/news report has been taken off the front page. There is now a report up in /r/askreddit, but that is a sub which has nothing to do with news. /r/worldnews completely nuked their thread on it. People are being banned for simply linking to articles that say the perp was a Muslim, according to people in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4nq3ib/rnews_locked_the_thread_about_orlando_shooting_as/
Reply 8
Original post by Mathemagicien
Yup, literally thousands of posts deleted. Honestly, TSR moderation is much more hands off than some of the major Reddit subreddits. And the removal of upvotes is significant in that it removes the thread from the front page.

Shame we have to resort to the subreddit of a politician to even hear about these news stories. Any wonder the right wing is gaining popularity, since they are the only ones who will tolerate any discussions?


TBH, even I'm thinking "well crap, maybe the world does need Trump".
Original post by KingBradly
Reddit's /r/news has locked comments and begun deleting hundreds on it's thread about the Orlando massacre. The only threads on the front page about it are from the /r/The_donald and you are not able to upvote them. https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/4nql8f/orlando_nightclub_shooting_megathread/

There is no sign of the massacre being mentioned on Facebook trending since the attacker has been confirmed as a Muslim.


Perhaps they have a policy about defamation or hate speech. They are private sites so they can do what they like.

Seems to me not much is known about the suspect at the moment or exactly what happened other than the basics.

Why not start your own site or go to one of the many that have forums that appeal to you?
can you keep your trashy opinions on this incident in the one thread which already exists?
The only comments I ever see removed on news sites are crude and abusive ones. Most of the time it emerges as a common factor among those who complain their comments have been deleted.
Reply 12
It's the internet, obviously people will be making hateful comments that breaks the rules of the site. That's exactly what's going on. Oh, and check facebook you mug. It's getting reported on.
Reply 13
Original post by 999tigger
Perhaps they have a policy about defamation or hate speech. They are private sites so they can do what they like.

Seems to me not much is known about the suspect at the moment or exactly what happened other than the basics.

Why not start your own site or go to one of the many that have forums that appeal to you?


Just go on to the front page of reddit and read about what has gone on: https://www.reddit.com/r/all
Reply 14
Original post by drogon
It's the internet, obviously people will be making hateful comments that breaks the rules of the site. That's exactly what's going on. Oh, and check facebook you mug. It's getting reported on.


https://www.reddit.com/r/all

Just read what is going on.
Reply 15
Original post by KingBradly
https://www.reddit.com/r/all

Just read what is going on.


look, i can see people complaining and yes, this is censorship. But we havent heard from the mods at reddit who could have taken them all down because of the influx of hate comments for all we know.

Censorship of reddit means nothing. I see it trending on twitter which is a bigger platform for this kind of stuff.
Original post by Plagioclase
Deleting comments that break a website's rules is not "purposely neglecting it".

They're deliberately interpreting the rules very liberally to encourage a particular consensus on the issue. In the case of reddit it's just idiotic mods, in the case of Facebook most likely Engineers tinkering with news feeds unless Messi is somehow a more trending topic than a massacre according to their algorithm. In the case of Reddit of course no one has to use their reprehensible forum, but Facebook should be completely impartial.

EDIT: Having looked into it I don't see any evidence Facebook are skewing things. The reddit thread is a joke though.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 17
Original post by drogon
look, i can see people complaining and yes, this is censorship. But we havent heard from the mods at reddit who could have taken them all down because of the influx of hate comments for all we know.

Censorship of reddit means nothing. I see it trending on twitter which is a bigger platform for this kind of stuff.


That is not what happened. Just read what is going on https://www.reddit.com/r/all
Reply 18
Original post by Unkempt_One
They're deliberately interpreting the rules very liberally to encourage a particular consensus on the issue. In the case of reddit it's just idiotic mods, in the case of Facebook most likely Engineers tinkering with news feeds unless Messi is somehow a more trending topic than a massacre according to their algorithm. In the case of Reddit of course no one has to use their reprehensible forum, but Facebook should be completely impartial.

EDIT: Having looked into it I don't see any evidence Facebook are skewing things. The reddit thread is a joke though.


On my FB it's not showing up but maybe that is just mine. The trending topics aren't based on an algorithm, they're selected by a team. A news story recently came out about ex-Facebook workers who said that the team who selects the topics deliberately cater them to suit left-wing agendas, although of course FB fiercely refuted it, so believe who you want.
Original post by KingBradly
On my FB it's not showing up but maybe that is just mine. The trending topics aren't based on an algorithm, they're selected by a team. A news story recently came out about ex-Facebook workers who said that the team who selects the topics deliberately cater them to suit left-wing agendas, although of course FB fiercely refuted it, so believe who you want.

If it's selected by a team I'd definitely believe Facebook are suppressing it then.

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