Reddit Moderators Defend Decision to Remove Greenwald's Story

'The Guardia newspaper reporter Glenn Greenwald talks to The Associated Press on June 11, 2013, in Hong Kong.

Image: Vincent Yu/Associated Press

It's been called "Censorship Fiasco 2: Electric Boogaloo."

News over the past 72 hours has been dominated by the implosion of Mt. Gox, once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, and a report from Glenn Greenwald on how British intelligence agents have engaged in an extensive disinformation program to mislead Internet users.

Mt. Gox's imminent demise has particularly gripped Reddit communities like r/Bitcoin and r/news following rumors of a $300 million hack that crippled the Japan-based business. Redditors from r/news have also obsessed over Greenwald's latest Edward Snowden leak only his story has been banned from the default subreddit.

All links to Greenwald's piece on the Intercept, a publication founded by First Look Media and home to Snowden's leaked materials, titled "How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations," has been removed more than six different times from r/news and at least once from r/worldnews.

In the article, Greenwald provides images from a Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) documents that show how the clandestine agency has tried to "control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the Internet itself." Greenwald also provides a great deal of context and explanation in his article, comparing it to similar programs allegedly carried out by the National Security Agency. Greenwald's story was subsequently picked up on Boing Boing, RT.com, Daily Kos, Zero Hedge, and Der Speigel.

The removals have been the subject of numerous threads on r/subredditdrama (where redditors discuss "Internet fights and other dramatic happenings from other subreddits") and r/undelete (home to submissions that moderators remove from the top 100 in r/all). Redditors are calling it an act of censorship.

"Sooo... the topic of discussion is direct evidence, in the form of leaked top secret documents, that the intelligence community goes to rather remarkable lengths to manipulate online social media," damnface commented. "Does anyone see how the comments in this thread might look a little ironic at some point in the near future?"

The removal of the article was carried out by r/news moderators, volunteer gatekeepers of subreddits who have the power to ban users and content that either break Reddit's official rules or rules instituted by each individual forum. Moderator positions, particularly those on default subreddits like r/news, are coveted positions. All new registered Reddit users are automatically subscribed to these subreddits when they join, and most never unsubscribe from them. And thanks to Reddit's 112 million plus unique visitors last month, a permanent place on Reddit's front page results in tremendous traffic and attention for sites submitted to these forums.

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Reddit Moderators Defend Decision to Remove Greenwald's Story