Future of Free Speech Grim on Social Networks: New at Reason

Reddit has suffered a rocky year, having weathered months of censorship concerns and subreddit shutdowns. Recent revelations that co-founder and current CEO Steve Huffman was surreptitiously editing Reddit posts critical of him have thrown the community into still more chaos. But Reddit is far from the only social network struggling with the tension between speech and sensitivity, writes Andrea O’Sullivan. Similar snafus at other services have been dominating recent headlines: there’s “fake news” on Facebook, “hate speech” on Twitter, and the continued scourge of rude comment sections.

Initially, the social Internet seemed to deliver the promise of pure online voluntaryism, O’Sullivan notes. And in terms of delivering content and communication, it’s worked pretty well. We have more access to more media on more subjects than ever before. But it is clear now that the relative harmony of early online platforms did not scale very well. As more people with radically diverse beliefs and backgrounds joined in, clashes and controversy were sure to follow. Today, one person’s “free speech” is too often another’s “bigotry.”

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