4 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
So if people started posting child porn repeatedly to /r/Funny, they would just ban that subreddit as well?
Comment by Lesprit_de_Lescali at 08/09/2014 at 02:00 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If that subreddit happened to generate huge amounts of traffic, beyond what the entire site experiences usually (which is fucking massive in and of itself), the child porn was being posted constantly by many people, and was becoming a legitimate legal threat that may have permanent repercussions for the site, then yes. I would say that they probably would, until they worked out a solution to keep /r/funny the way it is intended to be, a(n attempt at a) humorous subreddit that wasn't intended to house CP.
That may or may not be what happens for /r/TheFappening, but regardless, they do have a justifiable reason. How are they going to prevent CP from being posted unless the subreddit is banned, images and links are completely blocked from being posted in that subreddit, or they constantly patrol it? The first two completely defeat the purpose of /r/TheFappening as there is no way to post the non-CP photos, and either would have caused the same uproar. The last would have simply been a stupid drain on resources....
inb4 "Why not just have a bot do the patrols for them?"
Without having the CP on their servers, how could they write a bot meant to detect those images? For the sake of argument, lets say they did have a bot that patrolled for copies of CP that is completely legal. How could they guarantee that edited photos didn't make it past a filter? They would still have to patrol that subreddit checking the photos. Theres no way out of it.
They are human, they panicked, and banned a subreddit. I think it was probably the easiest, safest, and best way for them to deal with the situation in an expeditious way. Were there ulterior motives having to do with public opinion of the site? Almost definitely. Were they the most important factor in the decision? I doubt it.
Edit: wording.
Comment by mystyc at 08/09/2014 at 01:49 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If a single user went there to post such links, then that user would probably be banned. It likely becomes a subreddit issue when it involves multiple people repeatedly doing something, like with some spontaneously emergent troll version of a "smart mob."
But then there's the element of subreddit mod action, and whether they are capable of controlling the situation, and are actually doing so.