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Reddit CEO Admits To Editing User Comments Amid Pizzagate Malarkey (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the abusing-power dept.

Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, today admitted to editing several comments that criticized him on the site. He made the admission on Reddit, where he posts under the username Spez. CNET adds: Huffman got a lot of flak from members of the The_Donald, a subreddit for supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, after Reddit banned the Pizzagate subreddit. Pizzagate was dedicated to a debunked conspiracy theory linking Hillary Clinton to a paedophile ring. In response, he edited comments reading "fuck Spez" to instead be directed at moderators of the The_Donald subreddit. "I messed with the "fuck u/spez" comments, replacing "spez" with r/the_donald mods for about an hour. It's been a long week here trying to unwind the r/pizzagate stuff," he wrote. "As much as we try to maintain a good relationship with you all, it does get old getting called a pedophile constantly." Huffman added: "Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won't do this again."

18 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Debunked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Debunked by who?

    1. Re:Debunked? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Debunked by who?

      Wrong question. If there's no evidence then it's automatically debunked.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:Debunked? by clampolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      By anyone who looks at it. A pizza restuarant posting pictures of kids does not make it a pedophile ring. Hell they were so far lost they were convinced the birthday bracelet biden made for obama had a slice of pizza on it. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cp... If you can't see that that's a piece of cake you really aren't in touch with reality.

      The question isn't whether or not it is true. The question is a message board deciding what is true and deleting things they disagree with.

    3. Re:Debunked? by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1) Alefantis is not a "friend" of Clinton; he's just a supporter. He's never met her.

      2) The art in his restaurant is weird, but it's not "kids being tortured or placed in sexual poses"

      3) The case in Haiti was 10 Baptist missionaries from Idaho trying to rescue children after the earthquake without permits. The missionaries had previously planned to build an orphanage and school in the Dominican Republic. There are Podesta emails that mention Silsby, but in the context of current events and how the US government should handle what had become an international diplomatic issue between the US and Haiti (aka, Hillary's job). Example here. Silsby is in no way a "friend" of Clinton.

      You all have a strange way of declaring everyone to be a "friend" of Clinton.

      --
      Wingus, Dingus! Listen up!
    4. Re:Debunked? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, he didn't delete anything. He edited some insults directed at himself.

      It's still bad, but it's not like he was trying to stop people posting their conspiracy theories. The more I think about it the more stupid it seems. Wow, the site owner can edit posts, what a shock.

      Reddit isn't some highly respected debate forum that claims to be totally non partisan and allow absolutely any content.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Debunked? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ask yourself why voat and gab.ai are getting massive amounts of refugees from reddit and twitter OVER THIS ISSUE

      Because reddit has realised that angry, toxic crazies are making it miserable for the more sane majority, so they're finally not letting them have the run of the place. All those people are off to voat. I do not have a problem with that.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    6. Re:Debunked? by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because reddit has realised that angry, toxic crazies are making it miserable for the more sane majority, so they're finally not letting them have the run of the place. All those people are off to voat. I do not have a problem with that.

      Really? Because they sure do seem to be catering to those angry, toxic crazies that are there. You know the ones, in /r/shitredditsays /r/circlebroke /r/offmychest and so on. Those same subs that have a history of doxing and harassing people. Oh I get it, you're okay with the insane angry left-wingers that attack people for perceived insults and slights, while engaging in witch hunts.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    7. Re: Debunked? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      8th biggest US site (according to Alexa rankings) altering user comments isn't newsworthy? If I'm an investor, I might be concerned that the CEO is trolling in a way that could endanger safe harbor provisions.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  2. And what else? by nefus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But what else has he edited and not fessed up to?

    1. Re:And what else? by Cederic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, he should. That's called moderation and is a reasonable activity for a site owner to undertake, in an open and transparent manner (which may preclude 'shadowban', depending how Reddit interprets/implements that).

      Instead of destroyed any credibility Reddit may have had remaining by guaranteeing that you can no longer trust that anything posted there has any relationship to what the person identified as posting it intended to say. It may instead be pushing an agenda the CEO or one of his friends wants instead.

      It's a grotesque betrayal of trust, an utter lack of ethics and completely fucking unforgiveable.

    2. Re:And what else? by Cederic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't see the difference between banning and editing someone else's words?

      It's a massive difference. It's the entire difference.

      4chan made the choice to ban GamerGate. Their choice, and there were consequence but those were predictable and accepted. Reddit has been banning users and discussions for years, and that causes a lot of noise but most of the moderation is "We removed your comment" and the bans (shadow or otherwise) are simply preventing people posting, not changing what they say. Youtube and twitter similarly provide a "obey or don't participate" policy.

      What this CEO has done is very different and very dangerous.

      Interesting that Slashdot is now preventing posts containing certain words. I hadn't encountered that and I do think it's stupid and counterproductive. It's still infinitely better than changing the content of someone's post.

    3. Re:And what else? by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      GamerGate was using 4chan to organise their harassment. That's why it was banned, allowing it to continue would have made it impossible to keep the site going with hosting and ad revenue.

      You know, 2 years on you've yet to ever show proof of this harassment. But you'll happily claim that 3rd party trolls are "gamergate people" even when it's shown that yes, they're actually 3rd party trolls.

      4chan gets a lot of traffic and can only get low paying ads due to its content. 8chan can only tolerate the harassment because it needs much less cash to keep going, being much less popular. The operator being outside US jurisdiction helps too.

      And another bit where you don't have any idea of what you're talking about. I'm sure next you're going to claim that the owner of 4chan is really, really short on cash and needs money. FYI 8chan's owner is a US citizen and the site adheres to US laws.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  3. its not just an oopsie by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won't do this again."

    Huffman might not know it, but hes just torpedoed reddit as a source of valid independent discussion by exposing the ability to not only edit posts he didnt author, but to inject a political message in his favour. Im sure Stalin is applauding from beyond the grave.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:its not just an oopsie by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Forget 'discussion' there are active investigations that use Reddit as evidence.

      There are multiple celebrities and political figures that have accounts to do AMA. What if Spez was caught editing comments by the 'president'? (Ok, President's Social Media handlers).

  4. Admits by ChoGGi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but doesn't apologize...

  5. Are you naive ? by aepervius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For all practical intent and purpose, all BBS and reddit like can be edtable by default. in fact you have to spend money to add security , encryption, and ensure non editability. Unless it is a selling point, you should always assume that everything is editable to match whatever goals political or not.

    --
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    visit randi.org
  6. And.. by Nostalgia4Infinity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This *should* be the end of Reddit. No post can ever be reliably attributed to it's author again.

  7. Apology? by Alypius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suppose this is what I get for not RTFA, but the CEO admitted to doing it, obliquely mocked the people pissed at him for doing it, and never apologized? So not only do we have social media moguls decrying "fake news" but now we have social media moguls actually manufacturing it.