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Reddit Bans Subreddit Dedicated To Finding Navy Yard Shooters
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Reddit became a gathering place for amateur sleuthing in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year, fueling what some reports called 'online witch hunts' that resulted in some people being falsely identified as the bomber. Now Andrea Peterson reports at the Washington Post that a section on the popular online community for finding the Navy Yard shooters has been banned. 'We banned it because it violated site rules by encouraging the posting of personal information,' says Erik Martin from reddit. The shooting at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning left at least 12, including a gunman dead. But police say there may be another suspect at large, and they 'have reason to believe' this individual was involved in shootings."
Since 4chan will just get it wrong for them.
Just tell me who to beat senseless with mob justice and I'm there
And right after they'd managed to finger Lee Harvey Oswald.
Coincidence? Follow the money, sheeple!
As I recall and TFS states these Sherlocks managed to wrongly identify at least one person in the Boston bombings and correctly identify none, so good riddance to any further efforts in that direction.
And are safer in general with less crime in general?
You might want to look at those crime stats again. The USA has a fuckload of homicides compared to Western Europe, especially by gun, but violent crime overall is not bad. And that's a minor miracle considering our public policy regarding the urban poor. So yes, in the US if you are involved with gang warfare, you stand a larger chance of being murdered than in Europe. On the other hand, if you are just walking down the street, you are a lot more likely to get mugged in Europe. So there you go.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
What's wrong with a massacre? You make it sound like nipples were shown during the killings.
Sure they can. Reddit can allow/disallow whatever they want - the First Amendment covers rights of free speech against the government only.
For values of "you" which equal the Federal government, a State government, a municipality, or some other government actor.
First amendment: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech..."
Fourteenth amendment: "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"
Held to bring the States within the umbrella of the first amendment in Gitlow v. New York.
However, Reddit is not a government actor. More to the point, Reddit has absolute editorial discretion under the Communications Decency Act -- so that even case law concerning speech in company towns and shopping centers cannot be used by analogy to create any obligation for the site to permit it.
Reddit could ban it, your local paper could ban it, and your ad-supported or paid email service could ban it. They simply don't have the power to throw you in jail or confiscate your money if you violate the ban.
In America, you have freedom of speech... but it's the 18th-century definition of "speech", which is more accurately described by today's use of the word "expression", because you have the freedom to claim any idea you want, rather than being required to pretend you like whatever the government likes. Speaking of government, that's the only entity offering you that freedom. The government promises you free expression, but others are equally free to express displeasure at your expression, to the extent of their other rights. Businesses can refuse to serve you, newspapers can reject your letters to the editor, and other people can even burn you in effigy... because those are all protected speech/expression as well.
Of course, in the past 237 years, people have abused that freedom of expression to curtail others' rights. The Supreme Court has determined that the right to free expression is not as important as someone else's right to life, and it doesn't override rule of law, either. Speech that incites "imminent lawless action" is not protected, even from the government.
Americans have the freedom of expression. You can post your ideas on a billboard and display them (in a lawful manner), and you are completely safe from government prosecution and persecution for holding those views. You are not safe, however, from the consequences of pissing people off.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
well said
it is unfortunate so many people out there think freedom means "i can do whatever the hell i want without consequence" like an immature child
and don't understand what freedom really is: something that goes hand in hand with responsibility, as any true adult understands
please note:
where there is no responsibility, there is no freedom
if you don't understand or agree with that statement, you don't even know what freedom really is
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
more like "your freedom to swing your fists ends at my nose"
i can't play my music at 3 am, i impinge on my neighbor's right to sleep
i can't speed 120 mph on the highway, i impinge on other driver's right to live
i can't smoke in the office, i impinge on my fellow worker's right to breathe
and when the boss/ police/ landlord comes by and complains, there will be some, like yourself, who in their immaturity, will see it as the state taking away their rights, when the only person infringing on other people's rights is you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Except the purpose of this banned subreddit wasn't actually to find the shooter. It was satirical. All the posters were making fun of how bad they fucked things up during the Boston bombings.
And you know that:
1. Some posters will miss the /sarcasm tag, take it seriously and post personal information of real life people. /sarcasm tag and flog stories about how Reddit is screwing the lives of innocent people. Again.
2. Some posters will take the opportunity to post personal information of their ex's, their enemies, their bosses...
3. Some media company will miss the
Reddit did the right thing by shutting it down.
Guns owned by Americans still outnumber Americans, as they have since WWII. Americans are still more likely to be killed by an agent of the government, or themselves, than another armed citizen. Ownership of guns is not the problem. Lack of mental health care is the problem.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I like the definition I heard a Black man on TV use once a few years ago.
"Freedom does not mean doing what you can get away with, doing what you please. It means, instead, having the opportunity to do what you ought to do--for family and for community and for humanity as a whole."