How the Reddit exodus illustrates the state of free speech on the Web

Reddit, the long-time haven of weirdos, perverts and miscreants the Internet over, has been, from its beginning, the mainstream bulwark for free speech online.

But in a strange twist that perfectly illustrates the current culturewide debate around online speech, a group of disgruntled users has begun an exodus off the site claiming, against all odds, that Reddit is censoring them as a matter of corporate policy.

This is, for the record, the same Reddit that defended Violentacrez, the Texas man who ran forums on beating women and sexualizing underage girls. The Reddit that allowed rampant speculation about the Boston bombing, even when it became dangerous. The Reddit that, just this past fall, supported a booming trade in stolen celebrity nude photos, and still, even now, hosts a variety of racist, misogynistic, homophobic and otherwise NSFL content that I dare not link to.

If this isnt enough free speech, what is?

To understand that question (let alone the answer to it), you have to start with a working knowledge of Reddits labyrinthine depths. The site is, for the uninitiated, basically a social news service divided into tens of thousands of themed forums, called subreddits. Users submit links, photos and in-jokes to the forums, which are voted up or down by other users.

The forums themselves are run by volunteer moderators, or mods, who can basically make and enforce rules as they see fit. In general, corporate Reddit Advance Media-owned Reddit, $50-million-funding-round Reddit, only-35-employees Reddit doesnt step in unless the company is at risk of being sued.

The core philosophy, co-founder Alexis Ohanian explained in a book on Reddits early days, was giving the people what they want. Whatever they want. Accordingly, each forum looks a little different. In r/aww one of my personal favorites mods ban slurs, harassing comments and anything sad. In r/thefappening, where users shared the celebrity nudes that ruled Septembers news cycle, slurs and harassing comments were basically the norm. (And that was, on its own, pretty sad.)

We will not ban questionable subreddits, Reddits CEO, Yishan Wong, wrote in the aftermath of that catastrophe. You choose what to post. You choose what to read. You choose what kind of subreddit to create and what kind of rules you will enforce. We will try not to interfere not because we dont care, but because we care that you make your choices between right and wrong.

That echoed Reddits official line on the Violentacrez scandal in 2012: We stand for free speech. This means we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits.

That said, Reddit doesnt necessarily stand for absolute free speech i.e., free speech above/to the detriment of every other human right in existence. Its important to note that corporate Reddit does explicitly prohibit five types of speech, including child pornography, personal information and requests for up-votes, which manipulate post rankings. It also allows, and even encourages, individual moderators to make their own rules, which can range from dont post the same thing twice to no disrespectful commentary.