Slashdot Mirror
Unpaid and Abused: Moderators Speak Out Against Reddit (engadget.com)
In a joint investigation, Engadget and Point spoke to 10 Reddit moderators, and all of them complained that Reddit is systematically failing to tackle the abuse they suffer. Keeping the front page of the internet clean has become a thankless and abusive task, and yet Reddit's administration has repeatedly neglected to respond to moderators who report offenses. From the report: "I've had a few death threats," said Emily, who asked to be referred to by her first name and her Reddit username, lolihull, to prevent the online harassment from spilling over into her real life. [...] "I had three death threats this past month," said abrownn, who moderates r/Futurology, with more than 13 million subscribers, and r/technology, with more than 6 million subscribers. abrownn asked only to be known by their username. All the moderators interviewed confirmed they had received death threats, which they said can take a toll.
[...] It's hard to pin down how many moderators there are: Even the moderators themselves don't know, but most estimate their numbers are into the tens of thousands. Some spend hours each day working for free on the site. Whatever the actual figure, they far outnumber the higher-ranking and paid administrators, whose job it is to respond to the evidence that the moderators collect.
[...] It's hard to pin down how many moderators there are: Even the moderators themselves don't know, but most estimate their numbers are into the tens of thousands. Some spend hours each day working for free on the site. Whatever the actual figure, they far outnumber the higher-ranking and paid administrators, whose job it is to respond to the evidence that the moderators collect.
If you wouldn't say it to their face then don't say it online. What's wrong with people?
.. like 90% of the channels you can tell people of low education and people who are young tend to be moderators. AKA people with lots of free time.
The reason reddit is so popular because it is a confirmation bias wonderland for people who are not very bright and that is most of our species. So reddit is a wonderland of egoboost for the none too bright and uninformed. It's just 100% drama generating machine between the informed, uninformed, young and old and it has to do with the karma and moderation system. Reddit is just one monkey ego war where opinions no matter how dumb are fought and defended by drive by upvoting and downvoting of whatever subgroup is most dominant on the sub unfortunately for our species .
The whole thing thrives off putting people of various ages and education backgrounds together and watching them go at it. It's just a battle royal, to a large extent.
... A great deal more is said than done.
I've been getting death threats since the FIDONET days, and once in a while one of the losers trying to scare me has mentioned where I was living or working at the time in their threat, but not one of them has even showed up to TP my house, let alone try anything dangerous.
If you can't ignore the Internet Tough Guys, then get off the internet, for fuck's sake. If you actually believe that any of them will show up, get a pump-action shotgun: problem solved.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
So many people are willing to do a job for a web site (in this case reddit) and not get paid for it. Suckers.
You can't get a tax write off for your time spent herding assholes on reddit as a moderator. If you have a need to help, volunteer at a library, food bank, or soup kitchen.
Reddit's business model heavily depends on people being so power hungry and loyal that they don't get paid for what is for some a full time job. As time goes on, the power hungry become somewhat insane, until they are deposed or regain their senses.
Vote with your feet, if you don't like the club rules, join or start another club.
Why UNIX?
It's the power and control they get from being moderators. Some people deal with this good feeling by becoming politicians. Others become message board moderators. It feels wonderful to slap people you don't like with bans, doubly so when you get to attach a shitty little message to it that the recipient can't reply to. Especially when your life offline is nothing.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
You make me want to erase my post to mod you up.
There is something wrong with people who are moderating 100+ subs. Often they have an agenda/axe to grind and moderate for the sake of power. Some subs are moderated very well but many have mods that are completely missing the point of their being there. Paid shills are rife in some subs where other people are banned for posting unambiguous facts that don't line up with the moderators tastes.
But unless there is a sub for people who spend 150 hours a week on redit moderators need to be cut way back in what they can do. Limit the number of subs any individual can moderate. Have a team who replace moderators who are clearly abusing their power.
And if that team has any spare resources, fight the shills, especially the chemical company shills.
Mate, it's a bipartisan effort. Look at the prison system. Conservative politicians looking to "create jobs" by building more prisons, criminalizing trivial stuff (or keeping it criminalized, ala Jeff Sessions). On the other hand you have people like Bill Clinton expanding the prison system in their own ways. This shit is hardly an exclusively "libtard" problem though.
My experience on reddit: I was banned from /r/the_donald for questioning Trump's allegiance to the Saudis and Israel, and banned from /r/futurology for suggesting "eat the rich" in response to an article that was about rich people shock-collaring guards to keep them under control as they worked to stop poor people from getting to food supplies in a post-apocalyptic world.
Reddit is what Usenet was. With a worse interface and images. It also made it impossible to follow a discussion.
And the majority of groups are not interesting to you. So concentrate on the ones thar are, if you can find them.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You mean like people who moderate Slashdot?
People want to build communities, for companionship and socializing or for free and open debate in a marketplace of ideas. Both of those things require moderation, and for people who get a lot from those communities it's a reasonable trade to make.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I got someone to pay me to not mute him in a forum. Also, it got me nude pics from girls and a few friends.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
Than you obviously aren't a person who uses the internet very often. I think this is one of those trial balloons for an increase in AI censorship.
Even if I was paid, receiving a death threat with zero backup from above to deal with it is a good reason to quit.
If I was not even paid, why even wait for backup from above?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oddly enough, nobody ever threatened to kill me. Not even in jest. And yes, I do moderate a few boards. None of them the size (or toxicity) of Reddit, but ... well, pick and choose your battles well would be my advice here...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
When have you been banned?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The difference is that on Slashdot, all you really do is mod them down. You can still read all the app apps and all the GNAA, not to mention the cosmonaut Golden Girls.
No idea why anyone would, but you can.
The information is still there. That's the difference.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
People desiring the power of a moderator that much, have historically rubbed people the wrong way ie. the kid who helps the teacher enforce rules.
I am 100% for worker's rights. However, being that they can leave at any time, with zero penalty (other than, you know, not getting to moderate), I struggle to sympathize here. People who crave the ability to exert power over others to the extent that they will endure death threats, for nothing, have issues of their own. It's kind of unsurprising that they evoke strong emotions from those with an equally strong hatred of being controlled. I mean, wars have been fought for less.
One the abusive nature of Reddit's management is legendary. No surprise the WANNABEES are getting shat upon by the people they fancy as their victims.
Anyway I'll just observe as long as you want to create a bubble of insanity, you better be prepared to take a lot of abuse doing it, or find true believers stupid enough to take the abuse for you. (Reddit's management strategy)
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
This is the root of why I stick around. Anyone can (and does) say anything here. I am free to read it all and make my own decision on who's an idiot and who I want to talk to.
After endless instances of being exposed to terrible moderators on Reddit, over and over for years, I finally got fed up, and decided it was payback time.
I managed to get hold of a subreddit with an inactive moderator, for a topic that I really don't like. But that has its fans. Let's call it: Anime.
The rules are now ridiculous. The fundamental purpose is to post critical statements about Anime. A combination of obscure weasel words with a catch-all "exceptions will be made when deemed in the interest of the sub". Anyone can post anything at all negative about Anime, but posts positive about Anime must be balanced, fair, use reliable sources, fully take into account the argument responded to. And not contradict the fundamental purpose of the sub which is to be critical of Anime.
Bans are liberally handed out for 6 months, but subject to appeal. People are auto-muted until the 6-month date. I haven't had anyone appeal after 6 months yet, but if they do I'll just say their appeal is denied.
Needless to say, there is a steady stream of enraged redditors.
Feelsgoodman
These days when n'erdowells make a death threat, their method of implementation is called SWATing, and no kind of weapon helps here, since they're relying on panicking law enforcement with a fake call.
You know, there still exist some countries, where the police hasn't felt the need to turn themselves into some kind of military branch.
And as long as you're not actively shooting at police, it will never cross their mind to take out their weapons.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Also, I'll kill you for your blissful ignorance ! die die die, you capitalist commie infidel nazi chicken!!
Put your labels on the pile back in the corner, I'll ignore later.
Maybe it does help to not take death threats serious. Like, well, pretty much everything else on the internet.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
C'mon, say it like you mean it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nice victim-blaming there.
There are people on the Internet that will issue death threats because they disagree with you - whether or not you enter into any argument whatsoever.
And it doesn't matter how "controversial" you are. A death threat is a criminal offence. People can, do, have and will go to jail for uttering them in a serious manner.
"A key thing about responsible web usage" is that it's no different to the real-world, because it is the real-world. And you can no more threaten someone's life online as you can offline.
Trust me, threaten my life - not in jest - offline and I'll prosecute. Do so online, and it's the same. Especially if you take it anywhere beyond actually just posting a comment (e.g. private messaging, revealing information, chasing, harassment, etc. etc. etc.). Just because it's online doesn't grant you an exception.
And there's no web-forum-argument in the world that's justifiable of a death-threat, the same way that there's no web-forum-argument in the world worth going to jail for, or living in fear of death threats of.
I have a friends who's a children's author. He's received death-threats because he posted a political comment that wasn't in any way offensive. He's had actual death-threats, over involved and proloned conversations (including literal offers of meeting him at the airport when he flies to an announced meeting to kill him, including threats of gun use) because he was mildly sexist in jest in a tweet.
Sorry, but the world's full of nutters. We can no more live in fear of saying something that might offend them in case they make a death threat than we can allow people who make death threats to say "Oh, it's just a joke", or "oh, that happens online, just deal with it".
8. There are no real rules about posting
9. There are no real rules about moderation either - enjoy your ban
Have to jump in here.
> It's the power and control they get from being moderators. Some people deal with this good feeling by becoming politicians.
I know it's all the rage to dump on politicians. But there are so many, many problems with where things are headed.
For example? Can in imagine if you're an *honest* politician? And one that just wants to solve a few problems, wants to generally 'fix' something they see broken? Not in it for the power, or money, but honestly just want to make things better.
Sure it's somewhat selfish in the end, because they want to make it better for their family, their friends, their community. But that's the sort of selfish we want!
So you have a TV interview. Or, say something on twitter. Welp. Everything is completely distorted out of context, quotes are taken and slapped together with other quotes, the list goes on. If you tell the truth? It will be distorted, taken out of context, and if you discuss something for an hour? They'll take a 4 second quote and slap it on the air.
Things I remember a Prime Minster I *didn't even like*, but couldn't believe he was being harassed for:
- he wore a sweater, and was mocked because it looked a little off
- he shook his son's hand one day, when he left for school -- everyone called him a cold, calculating bastard because he didn't hug his son (I didn't want hugs from my dad when 10!)
- his hair was too neat (boy, he sure must use a lot of hair spray!!)
- his smile is a little funny, he must be a psycho
I could list a 100 of these. What. The. Fuck.
How about people actually commenting on policy?
But no you become a politician, and every single aspect of your life is examined. People think death threats on the internet are bad? Well I wonder what sort of vile crap gets thrown your way, if you're a politician? I'm sure death threats would almost be preferable to some comments sent via no-return address letters, or phone calls, or whatever.
Yet, let's say you put up with all that. The threats, the vile spew coming out of people's mouths, the criticism for the smallest things, and hell -- even being criticized for doing what you said you'd do in campaign speeches?
Well, you put up with all that -- and you STILL get no-where often with the things you WANT to genuinely help with.
And then everyone dumps on you. Again. Because the opposition and sometimes even your own party works against you.
I don't know. I'd have to say that being an honest, open, caring politician is the worst job on the planet.
And this is what disturbs me. Because all day long, every day, I see little cracks like the one you made about politicians. I see them regarded as scum. I see what they do equated to a waste of time. I see them assumed as thieves, assholes, pricks -- when people aren't even aware of the person behind the office, nor of what they've done -- good or bad.
If people want things to REALLY turn around, then people need to create an environment where an honest, caring, loving GRANDMOTHER would be happy being a politician.
Why?
Because -- if only scum can stand the job, wtf!
So many people are willing to do a job for a web site (in this case reddit) and not get paid for it. Suckers.
Some of us are volunteer distributors of insults. It's an enjoyable pastime. We get paid by the joy in our hearts of calling silly people silly people. And you are quite a silly people.
I know from personal experience that, for one example, the AlbionOnline (MMO game) subreddit is controlled and operated by employees of Sandbox Interactive, the company that makes and sells the game. They quash any meaningful criticism of the game in the Reddit forums.
So that is an example of heavy bias in a Reddit forum where the mods are quite well paid for their effort.
I got someone to pay me to not mute him in a forum. Also, it got me nude pics from girls and a few friends.
So that's why the TLAs are hording all the porn.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
Predicted the wrong thing, I'm assuming.
There are people who threaten mods, there are mods who abuse their power, and luckily there are also quite a few people with a sense of humor, e.g. see comments in https://www.reddit.com/r/video...
I bailed when a mildly technical post I made with regards to fan nozzles for cooling prints in 3D printers generated a lot of insults and animosity. There were plenty of good people asking useful questions, but too many "my dad designed jet engines for Boeing and he said that what you're saying is impossible" childishness and name calling.
I've read the opinion that anyone who wants to be a moderator should never be allowed to be one.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I have been banned from most front page sureddits over little to nothing. I just walk on, but, I can see where someone would go bananas and take it personally. The mods ban anyone on a drop of any reason.
Seriously, you are choosing to moderate these forums.
And unlike most things we choose to get outraged about, you don't have to do it to eat (since they don't pay you anything).
I get that it sucks and all, but ... you know, just stop doing it?
I guess those folks who spend multiple hours working for free don't value their time much. It's one thing to volunteer at the local animal shelter, for example, but what actually does Reddit contribute to society?
I am pretty sure that death threats are a criminal offense, so we should be be prosecuting those individuals. I assume the moderators haven't the time to spend or the knowledge to pursue that, and I am not sure the local police would know what to do. But stopping this kind of behavior would pay probably have a positive payback because it would curb future abuses. Reddit should be helping out with that.
I admin game servers, moderate forums, write articles, etc.
I have received such things. I treat them as the worthless, uninformed, non-threat that they are (it's not like they even know who I am, thus not a threat to me).
But that doesn't mean I invited them or even, in some cases, was even part of the dialog that led to them until people were asked to moderate their tone, leave, etc.
"but behave in ways that makes them more prevalent receivers of abuse?"
Abuse is very different to a death threat. Abuse begats abuse in many cases. It's unlikely they are a moderator for a platform for long if they are the cause or incitement of such abuse. But a death threat isn't justified, no matter what. Honestly, there is no wording of a single statement in law that can justify retaliating with a death threat, even a death threat itself.
Hence why this is victim-blaming. Maybe the victim said something nasty which incited it? Still a death-threat. Maybe they were being a prick? Still a death-threat. Maybe the victim was literally threatening to beat people up? Still a death-threat. Describing them as somehow "inciting" the abuse because of the way they deal with a situation? Maybe that's a reason to question their skills as a moderator, or blame them for inciting larger arguments or trolling, but it's not a reason to blame them for receiving death-threats.
Hey, I once had a guy threaten to do all kinds of things to me "because I banned his friend, who only cheated once!". Literally nothing to do with him, and he went from server to server of mine yelling and threatening until I just banned his ID globally from all my servers.
Sure, I'm thick-skinned and know that he wasn't a serious threat, not least because he wouldn't know who I was anyway. But if I had credible belief that he would know who I was and continued to make those threats... police action (even though I know it would just be recorded and not much else).
Victim-blaming is precisely what "Well maybe they did something to prompt a death prompt" is.
Keeping the front page of the internet clean has become a thankless and abusive task, and yet Reddit's administration has repeatedly neglected to respond to moderators who report offenses.
Umm, then don't do it. If it really is that odious a task and you aren't being paid then feel free to do something else. If you continue to do it then it must not be all that bad. The nice thing about being a volunteer is that you can quite any time without any personal consequences. I assure you that the world will go on if Reddit moderators start quitting.
I was banned from /r/Futurology.
Fuck them.
Can't you leave your disagreement with /r/Futurology in the past?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
That's how he got banned!
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
A lot of moderators are people who enjoy exercising power against others. That is why they become moderators. That tiny bit of power gives their meaningless lives purpose and joy. Recently I got banned from an energy sub because I replied to someone calling me an idiot. I replied with a citation and called him an idiot back. I was immediately banned for life.
This.
I got booted from a thread, with a nastygram from the mods about 'here's where you send any appeal to your ban'. Sent email asking what post comment had resulted in this ban... got banned from ANY communication on reddit for 30d for 'harrassment'.
It's a cesspool.
These people are doing this for the epeen and (putative) power of being mods. If they don't like the consequences of being head shit-thrower in the shit-thrower zoo, walk the fuck away.
-Styopa
I don't really see the complaint here, you know what you are getting when you become a moderator. And even if you didn't you can just stop any time, as noted you are a volunteer and not being paid so why not quit if you cannot take it? There's always someone with more fervor for the job to take over that role.
I moderate a photography board and have received death threats before. So what? You get all kinds of creepy losers on the internet who can say anything.
If you can't handle the worst of the internet you probably should just stop moderating. Just laugh at the poor idiots whose lives suck so badly they send death threats over the internet.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just walk away.
Many of the major tech sites are built around profiting from user-generated content (and the users themselves). If you volunteer your time to generate content or moderate, you're fueling their business at your expense. The easy solution is to stop posting cat videos, stop moderating someone else's site and limit social media use.
(And, yes, the irony of this comment is that Slashdot is profiting from this user-generated thread).
Lots of folks sign up to be moderators not really understanding what it means to be one. They don't quite understand that using that power to silence others ( legitimate or otherwise ) comes with drawbacks. . .
You're effectively a human firewall catching and filtering out all the bad shit coming in from the net. The very nature of the job is going to generate a lot of hate for those doing it right.
A quote from Batman sums it up pretty well:
" Come on, Harvey. You're Gotham's D.A. If you're not getting shot at, then you're not doing your job right. "
This is what I have observed: Reddit is class warfare. The unhappy, alienated, lost, etc. have found a site where they can make reality appear as they want it to be, instead of how it is, and have others confirm their bias as positive. It produces truly toxic, badly-behaved users.
Reddit moderators are tasked with enforcing unpopular, biased, and vaguely written rules. For example, if someone gets killed in an article and you reply, "Good job," you are guilty of inciting or glorifying violence. If the moderators do not ban you, their sub gets banned, and all the work they put into it goes out the window.
This is why some have suggested unionizing Reddit moderators. While generally I oppose unions, moderators deserve (1) some compensation and (2) some kind of official appeals process to protect their hard work.
Alternative Right.
I do not share this bleak goal of humanity. I have pleasant and informative conversations across the net, but find that Reddit and Twitter are somehow the least likely to convey that experience.
Something tells me that any site which attracts people looking for power which they should not have, sort of like shouting FIRE! in a theater, will bring out the absolute worst in humanity.
Alternative Right.
That is essential to maintaining the echo chamber.
The point of downvotes is to let the group exclude any troubling reality that peeks into their safe space.
We might consider it the ultimate extension of democracy, where you vote for what you believe will benefit you best at the expense of the group, truth, and civilization.
Alternative Right.
It presages the American political landscape in 2018 where if you are not with Blue Team, you are assumed to be Red Team and that's the end of the story: they will censor you, exclude you, defame you, and try to get you fired from your job, depending on level of dissent.
The problem with Reddit is the users. Having seen them transplanted to other sites where they immediately begin calling for censorship and violence, I think it is something inherent to that group which makes them so hair-trigger and doctrinaire.
This might explain why they are so quick to make death threats.
Alternative Right.
All of these ring true. The people who get selected mods at Reddit are those who do not offend the hive mind. I like the "alternate reality" description. The worst part is that, in a community with that many toxic users, if you do not start out as a censor, being a mod for a few weeks will do it to you.
Alternative Right.
You mean, the Right is not actually censored with double-standards and a dogmatic admin team?
Alternative Right.
This might not be a helpful mentality outside of those sharing those same problems.
Alternative Right.
There's actually a sort of "dualism" between /r/futurology and /r/collapse. The bookends of the future. Super-great or the end of society. The nutters over on collapse are typical doomsayers. Society has always has a percentage of people who think the world is ending soon. All in all I think it's harmless when they're "preppers" as long as they don't take it too far. When they're more like "why go to work, the world is ending?" or "to be prepared for the end of soceity, I'm taking my kid out of school to learn how to dress a rabbit", then that's a problem. The nutters on /r/futurology on the other hand are much much less likely to go off the deep-end and be a sociological problem. They're still crazy, but it's more like a delusion of optimism. The UBI crowd is big over there. But recently there's been a stronger trend of "hey what if AI takes all our jobs?" which is bucking the narrative of futurology. Those posts should really stay in /r/cyberpunk so we can all live our happy little lives inside the comfortable bubbles we know and love.
Obligatory go DIAF comment that's needed in these kinds of threads so we can all pad our victim card.
It's easy to assume that everyone in meatspace is going to play nice, but reddit puts psychopaths in unaccountable positions of power over what millions of people can think.
Guess what? Not all of us are OK with that. If you put many kinds of people in the same room, you're going to get a fight. And for some of us, that includes reddit mods.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
I too, have read Hitchhiker's Guide.
Obligatory go DIAF comment that's needed in these kinds of threads so we can all pad our victim card.
Hey! I haven't received my victim card! I'm being discriminated against! Disenfranchised! Mother!
It's just a forum website basically. Good for some niche things like Windows Phone a few years back.
Whoops
It got you a few friends, and nude pics from girls? Or it got you nude pics from girls, and nude pics from a few friends?
Maybe they should be in this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskRe...
Pass a law saying that if you can prove someone made a death threat against you, you can have a contract put out on them without penalty - think of it as preemptive self defense. I think it would put an end to this death threat horseshit really fast.
That is all.
Thanks for the attempted reply, but I think you lost me when you put "Good" in the same sentence with "Windows Phone".
Maybe it would help if I understood the sense of "forum" you intended in your first sentence? I've noticed that there are supposed to be discussions of some sort, and lots of private areas, and also some kind of one-dimensional reputation metric.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
I've never been burgled in my life.
How? How have I magically avoided this? How? I'm asking specifically how I avoided that, despite living between neighbours who were both burgled and in high-burglary areas, and not having advanced security systems, how?
Yeah, it's my neighbour's fault that someone sneaked round the back, smashed the door in, and stole things, running off before anything could be done. It's the other neighbour's fault that someone forced their way into their house, threatened a teenaged girl and stole jewellery.
It's all their fault for not having advanced security systems, not keeping weapons, not training themselves in the martial arts... right?
You've been lucky (no threats). I've been lucky (by only having received threats that were never credible). When we're not lucky, does that make it not a death threat? Does that make it our fault? Do you think that someone who's stupid enough to make a death-threat on a public forum is actually applying rational logic to who they threaten and why? Do you think that because you get into a heated argument, you're "inviting" death threats?
P.S. Go ask females that you know how many times they've been threatened with violence where they had done nothing to "deserve" that... In my experience it's almost every one, whether it's because they turned down someone's advances, didn't want to be groped in a club, or were raped (1/3rd of all women). A death-threat doesn't require some impetus to be issued from the people stupid enough to issue them.
And no amount of "polite" appeasing behaviour stops them. You've been lucky. Go ask your local A&E (Casualty / ER) staff how many death threats they've had, and they're just literally trying to help people as a career. A paramedic. A firefighter. Front-line customer service staff.
You're saying that the victim is doing something "wrong" that somehow incites people to threaten them, where you don't do that thing. Then drawing the line as "victim therefore does something that causes someone to issue death threat", rather than "guy who issues death threat is the problem".
I could walk up to you in the street and swear and shout at you. A death threat, in that context, is still unjustified, uncalled-for, disproportionate, illegal and arrestable.
The problem is "people who issue death threats". Whether they claim that's because you're the wrong religion, because you insulted Mohammed by drawing a cartoon, because you "look funny", because you're gay, because you support the wrong team, because you like Donald Trump, because you're different somehow, or whatever - it does not mean that you should be blamed for those things leading to a death threat. Those things are NOT ENOUGH to justify a death threat. Because pretty much nothing is. That's it.
As such, the person on the receiving end of a death-threat because they do those things... is being blamed as the victim. And they are the victim - because it's a crime to utter a death threat. But it's not a crime to be rude to people, kick them out a game, block them from being on a website, etc. etc. etc.
"He swore at me so I hit him" is the essence of this. One of you committed a criminal act. Hence is a victim. And no amount of incitement, in law, justifies a death threat.
It's INCREDIBLY worrying that you don't get this. Your behaviour, attitude, or approach has *nothing* to do with whether you received a death threat or not. Statistics did. Similarly, your behaviour, attitude or approach also has ZERO relevance to any issuance of a death-threat - you could call the guy the worst names in the worse and harass him to the end of the earth, and do all sorts of shit. And it still doesn't justify receiving a death threat from him.