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.

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.

It is one thing for it to not be reported on the news channels (it is) and another for discussion groups to be closed down, especially given the emotive issues at state i.e. gay club shot down by Muslim gunman from ISIS. Some feel that this is a perfect opportunity to spout the worst language imaginable. So it is shut down. Everyone loses - just as security is tightened to the public after a terrorist attack. That is the way of the world sadly. A few nutcases spoil it for everyone else.

That isn't what happened. People were getting banned for simply posting new stories that the perp was a Muslim. JUST LOOK AT https://www.reddit.com/r/all AND SEE WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING.

Perhaps that is because we don't know much about the gunman yet?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36512308

"Officials said the killings were likely to be ideologically motivated, though there was no information that the gunman was associated with a particular group."

So whilst there is no conclusive evidence one way or the other at this time, perhaps it is reasonable to stop people stereotyping and inflicting their own prejudices in public?

I think we need to have a bit of a reality check here. If I stood in Trafalgar Square with a megaphone spouting about this I am sure you would think it reasonable that I was moved on and at the very least, asked to be quiet. Yet if anything like that happens online, we cry censorship straightaway.

Perhaps that is because we don't know much about the gunman yet?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36512308

"Officials said the killings were likely to be ideologically motivated, though there was no information that the gunman was associated with a particular group."

So whilst there is no conclusive evidence one way or the other at this time, perhaps it is reasonable to stop people stereotyping and inflicting their own prejudices in public?

I think we need to have a bit of a reality check here. If I stood in Trafalgar Square with a megaphone spouting about this I am sure you would think it reasonable that I was moved on and at the very least, asked to be quiet. Yet if anything like that happens online, we cry censorship straightaway.

Again with people who use the BBC as their only news source, I think you're the one in need of a reality check.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-orlando-shooting-pulse-nightclub-story.html
http://news.sky.com/story/1710889/suspects-links-to-islamic-state-probed
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting-claim-idUSKCN0YY0VU

And even with this information, what is the harm in speculation? If people are proved wrong about it, they'll look like idiots and have to move on. Censoring discussion about it simply fuels speculation even more. Expecting that not to be the case simply because you think in principio that they shouldn't is, quite frankly, borderline - sorry, let me phrase that more intelligently. It's arrogant, obsessive and counterproductive.

They weren't just stopping discussion. They were stopping people posting links of reports from major news sites that suggested he was Muslim.

I also read that it could be due to the mods wanting their own news-sites to report on the information before Reddit. Allegedly some of them work for news organisations and/or websites, as such there's some advantage to not having Reddit report it first.

It's happened before (again, allegedly) where they removed people's first-person photos of such incidents.

I also would imagine there's an algorithm involved in dictating what is permissible and what isn't (if such a large number of posts were removed)? As such that could be partially to blame.

Hence the deleting of threads.
Plausible but I reckon censorship occurred to an extent (i.e. deleting a few speculative comments, most removals probably break the rules....)

can you keep your trashy opinions on this incident in the one thread which already exists?

Who are you talking to?

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.