Reddit moderators are struggling to control hate speech proliferating in Reddit communities, blaming the app itself due to its lack of user restrictions.
Reddit Moderators vs Hate Speech or vs Reddit?
In December 2021, Reddit moderator asantos3 was not surprised to come across racist comments inside the group r/Portugueses, according to a report by Time. The group or subreddit is often populated with nationalist and nativist sentiments.
However, in this particular case, users were angry at a new law which increased the freedom of movement between Portuguese-speaking nations, including African nations such as Mozambique and Angola.
One comment from a Portuguese Redditor, which received 19 likes, read, "Wonderful, more stupid black people to rob me on the street." Another Redditor also commented that Portugal is being 'Africanized' and in return, will lead them to become worse than a third-world country.
As a moderator, asantos3 went to report such comments to Reddit. Although a Reddit staff immediately replied, the moderator was met by an automated and rather disappointing response: "After investigating, we've found that the content reported does not violate Reddit's Content Policy."
For more than six years, asantos3 has been weeding out comments that contain racism, homophobia, sexism, or other offensive language, and reports these comments to Reddit.
Due to the moderator's duties, he claims he has been threatened and doxxed, resulting both of his Instagram and LinkedIn profiles being exposed online.
What has been most disheartening about the whole ordeal is that Reddit has all but ignored reports of harassment he and other moderators have made. "We mostly stopped reporting stuff, since we don't have any feedback," he says.
This is not the first and especially not the last case to ever come forward if Reddit refrains from intervening. Looking beyond feedbacks from reports, former and current moderators collectively agree that Reddit has a 'global problem' when it comes to incidents like this.
Moreover, there are subreddits that promote terrorism against Muslims and advocate genocide, like r/chodi and r/DesiMeta. Many subreddits devoted to China, like r/sino and r/genzedong promote attacks on Uyghurs.
Now, asantos3 is a living testimony that r/Portugueses regularly features anti-black and racist sentiments.
Reddit's Response
While Reddit faces these issues, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have also struggled to control hate speech and misinformation as they expanded out into new markets.
In an effort to be closer to their global communities, a spokesperson said that Reddit opened offices in Canada, the U.K., Australia, and Germany. The company also claims that they regularly roll out features to help moderators enforce peace in global forums.
Last year, Reddit announced Mod Council to connect with moderators. In the same year, the company stated that they were working toward "internationalizing safety" by scaling their content moderation and growing international communities.
In the end, Reddit also encourage its users to individually do their part by providing advanced blocking capabilities to limit the mobilizing power of hate speech.
Related Article: Reddit Rolls Out New Features Like Real-Time Typing and Reading Indicators-Is It Becoming A Chat App? | Tech Times
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Written by Thea Felicity
