When Will Reddit Stand Up To Its Racist Users?

[Initech]

Last weekend, President Trump tweeted a short video showing him wrestling a figure whose head had been replaced with CNN's logo.

The video was originally a clip from an old WrestleMania appearance by Trump. It had been edited by a user who goes by the name "HanA**holeSolo" on the online bulletin board Reddit, a largely unregulated community whose users are free to post whatever content they want to the site.

By Monday, CNN had identified the person behind the HanA**holeSolo account and attempted to contact him. In a lengthy apology posted to Reddit, he asked CNN not to publish his identity, a request that CNN obliged because it said the user had "showed his remorse."

But to Andrew Auernheimer, CNN's decision not to identify the Reddit user made no difference.

Auernheimer, who goes by the name "Weev," is a notorious hacker who also set up a comment system on the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website. Claiming that CNN had engaged in "blackmail" by investigating the account, Auernheimer rallied a neo-Nazi army of trolls to target CNN staffers with online abuse:

Just like CNN tracked down [HanA**holeSolo] and used media exposure as a bludgeon against him for posting (truthful and funny) things we don't like, we are going to begin tracking down their families as a bludgeon against them for publishing (seditiously fraudulent) things they don't like. CNN, this is your one singular chance to walk back this behavior of public blackmail. You have one week to fix this.
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2017/07/07/weekend-read-when-will-reddit-stand-its-racist-users#.WWEjVB-j7J4.twitter

These people are fucking scary. When will Twitter stand up to this kind of hate as well?

[Hoyt]

1. There are definitely some ignorant white wingers on Reddit, similar to FB and Discussionist.

Been years since I've been on Reddit, but it was pretty bad as I remember.

[bettyellen]

2. There a new subreddit for CNN memes - looks like a dozen people at most making the stupidest shit ..

And a few thousand looking at them and spreading.

[Initech]

4. Trump's anti CNN rhetoric is going to get someone killed.

And these fucking assholes will be mostly responsible for it.

[LittleBlue]

3. Reddit is just a platform

Everyone from communists, to anarchists, to far-right and progressives post on reddit, no matter how offensive. It's supposed to be a free speech platform.