how would one go about defending this?

i want to hear from their pov

EDIT: See how I predicted change?

edit 2: At least 3 mods that voted for new mods have been removed.

http://i.imgur.com/6rEGO3p.png

Update 3: Old mods (save for 1) re-added /r/Christianity mod added and other random mod added as well. CENSORSHIP CONTINUES AND INTENSIFIES!

Update 4:

I must admit to being privy to inside information before this went down. We are now exactly 24 hours before my predictions all came true. undefaulted, mods bickering, everyone leaving, made the news. 10/10 would be involved in drama again.

Update 5: /u/Creq is likely a schizophrenic. But he did discover an interesting trend! The dust is settling and the victory goes to...NO ONE!! EVERYONE IS A FUCKING LOSER! INCLUDING THE COMMUNITY!

Nice fucking going Anut and Maxwell. Fuck you both.

Politics aren't the same as Technology. You wouldn't want a post about Feinstein or NSA on /r/Science would you? Absolutely most of it is overzealous modding, but these aren't NSA shills, they're just stupid 20 year old dudes who got caught up with too much power and went a bit crazy with an automod. You asked for the contrary opinion, this is it. I'm sure I'll get downvoted. Things will change in the next 72 hours on /r/Technology, just watch.

Edit: I've read the responses under me and I'm just going to edit here as I don't think it's appropriate to say more directly unofficially. What I can tell you is this. I personally disagree with a ton of the modding. You guys think it's some type of ridiculous conspiracy, just look at the edit number 3. How paranoid...If anyone took 3 minutes to follow that story they would see several of the mods that got booted and the mod that invited them discussing it totally publicly, along with several screen chats of private backroom dealings. And it all showed nothing. In fact, those mods are pushing heavy to change it. I don't agree with it so I'm not going to play devil's advocate, I'm just giving you the reality behind this so called conspiracy. And it is a a conspiracy...just not in the capacity you're all thinking. It's not JTRIK or whatever, it's not the NSA. It's college kids with a robot mod to help save time because they have shit moderators. It'll change. It's changing now.

In what world is the NSA not technology related? Your analogy doesn't make any sense.

It seems like what is happening is the technology mods have reduced technology to a very narrow, non-political, consumer-oriented, passive term that is not offensive. The problem, of course, is that this is a very limited definition, which serves the interests of the very powerful. If technology is only something to be passively affirmed, we have extricated it from the real world complexity by which it is actually characterized.

Exactly. And any abuses or possible negatives get shoved under the rug. At the end of the day, it's censorship plain and simple.

Ok, but what about bitcoin, net neutrality, etc.? Seems relevant to tech to me

You wouldn't want a post about Feinstein or NSA on /r/Science would you?

If what they were involved with was sufficiently scientific in nature I would. The current set up seems to favor keeping criticism of certain entities from coming to light, a list that seems to grow by the day.

If you want to know who your masters are, just look at what you arent allowed to criticize

If you want to expose real conspiracies, you should stop obsessing over stupid shit like this.

So, im not allowed to criticize reddit censorship because its stupid shit?

Please enlighten all of us by shedding light on these "real conspiracies" that you claim exist. Please list 3 "real conspiracies" that I may have overlooked

1) The fossil fuel industry's ongoing conspiracy to covertly undermine public understanding of global warming.

2) Recent banking industry scandals such as LIBOR which hint at much deeper corruption within world finance, the details of which we should all be demanding answers about.

3) The revolving doors that exist between so many government agencies and the industries that they are supposed to regulate.

Thanks for this.

I was aware of all of these conspiracies, but to address 3), this is an interesting conundrum for Americans, democracy, regulation, laws etc.

every industry has regulations. For example, baseball has many regulations that are put in place by the baseball industry itself. Congress pretty much leaves baseball alone, until steroids become an issue, because kids...

So it is with every industry. Industry sets its own rules, and the government rubber-stamps them, until something goes wrong, like miners getting killed because of unsafe work practices.

On the one hand, we know regulations are necessary, but on the other hand we have to ask if we want the industry to regulate itself, or if we want politicians regulating industries? Neither prospect seems attractive, but I would say id prefer to have competent people practicing in an industry to know best how to regulate their industry, rather than a paid-off, incompetent politician who has no idea how things work in the industry that they are trying to regulate.

Why bother regulating them at all, then?

this is a fundamental question in our economic system. to regulate or not to regulate... and if we regulate, who is the regulator?

when you think of regulations in terms of sports, we see that most sports have regulations, and most of those regulations probably had some reason for being implemented. the rule books for professional sports are probably quite thick, and referees sometimes have to talk amongst themselves to sort out a tricky call...

another example of regulations would be like for driving a car. after some experience driving, you probably appreciate why there are rules and why they are important to follow.

im not saying that the revolving door between regulators, lobbyists, and industries is the sign of a broken system, I'm saying that is by design...

If you're trying to make the case for a system where the regulators look the other way in return for cushy jobs at the companies they formerly regulated, you're doing a pretty terrible job.

im not saying i like it. I'm saying thats the way it is. and, considering all other options, it may be the best way.

Anything fake or phony is the bane of a democracy and the weapon of a bureaucracy. If we're going to have regulators, they should regulate. If they're not going to do their jobs, they shouldn't have jobs.

i have studied the problem for many years, and considered as many angles as i can.

it boils down to this.. do you prefer electricians to regulate the electrical industry, or do you prefer politicians to regulate the electrical industry?

That's a false dichotomy if I ever saw one.

What we should all want is honesty and transparency from our public servants. If we pay people to regulate an industry, we should expect them to do so with the public interest in mind, period. They work for us.

I notice your screenshot left off another mod who "stepped down" recently...

I've only followed it for 2 days. I don't much care. I'm just a messenger, true to my own name -shrug- I think you're speaking of Kn0thing (the admin), but I only know that from the updates and to be honest I don't remember seeing him on the panel at all.

/r/technology stopped being about actual technology news and more about political outrage stories that happened to involve technology. "Organic curation of content" results in really shitty, circklejerk-centric subreddits, and automating the removal of barely-tech topics saves a lot of time for the mods.

The new and improved circle jerk?

"We jerk you around so you don't have to!"

Don't you run a x-posting sub that for years called entertaining the idea of blanket spying "panic"? Must be embarrassing...

EDIT: LOL! Not only do you link to a bigoted hate-group in your sidebar, you currently give yourself the flair "Chief NSA shill, reddit division". I see it does sting a little. ;)

• http://i.imgur.com/EgkDifd.png

There was exactly one submission about blanket NSA spying before the Snowden leaks. I personally downvoted it. Here's a few of my favorite /r/PanicHistory submissions from /r/conspiracy:

• 8/6/12 - 8/9/12 /r/conspiracy predicts a nuke going off in St. Louis, a 9.5 earthquake on the West Coast, and some kind of WMD attack near Indiana, all occurring in the immediate future

• 3/2/14 /r/conspiracy's shill hunt: Clearly BiPolarbear0 is a shill, but "SNOWDEN->GREENWALD->BILLIONAIRE..and../r/conspiracy keeps his article stickied for 6+days..why?" "yeah, the major subs are 'controlled'..but so is this one. whose /u/illuminatedwax [/r/conspiracy mod] what do they do here?"+359

• 7/18/12 /r/conspiracy worries that the guy who started the Great Reddit Nuclear Disaster Panic of 2012 has been disappeared. "AGAIN I ASK, WTF happened to OCDTrigger?" +130

Here are all the /r/conspiracy submissions to /r/PanicHistory, if you'd like to keep score.

The funny thing is, there could be more submissions from /r/conspiracy, but it's considered to be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Lol, I like how when some /r/conspiracy poster posts something crazy, stupid people like you think the whole community blindly believes and supports their crazy ideas.

It seriously makes people like you look just as crazy, and actually makes you seam incredibly stupid, for not realizing that the whole /r/conspiracy community isn't one big hive-mind.

Those posts got a couple hundred up-votes? Cool beans. /r/conspiracy has over 225,000 subscribers so you'll need to do a lot better than that. As it is, if a post gets 400 up-votes that is only .002% of the community.

Stay kooky!

Mmm hmm.

BiPolarbear0

Classy.

Your use of flair to (apparently) mock and belittle the spying revealed by Snowden makes it seem like you agree with the spies. Is that accurate?

I see no good reason to think otherwise.

I agree with the surveillance (mostly). Shocking to you I know, but a large portion of Americans are okay with it.

a large portion of Americans are okay with it

Americans have been told only a small part of the full story about NSA spying. So there's not really any "it" for Americans to be "okay with."

Most people also don't have any problem with child-rapists until they know they are raping children.

Watch this (pre-Snowden) TED Talk:

• https://www.ted.com/talks/malte_spitz_your_phone_company_is_watching

Still think this is ethical or justified?

Ethical? Maybe not. Justified? Yes.

• http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/how-fbi-entrapment-is-inventing-terrorists-and-letting-bad-guys-off-the-hook-20120515

• http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/

Now I know you're just fucking around. Considering the surveillance can't be tied to catching a single terrorist you are just being obtuse.

I'm not worried about terrorists. More concerned with foreign state actors such as China and Russia.

...you're afraid of foreigners, so you happily submit to domestic spying.

Just wow... you clearly didn't think this one through.

Justified by what?

You're mad.

It's funny you think you can speak for "most Americans".

Opinion polls speak for that.

• Americans Disapprove of Government Surveillance Programs (Gallup)

• Poll: Most Americans now oppose the NSA program (USA Today)

• Update: Polls Continue to Show Majority of Americans Against NSA Spying (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Rekt.

They never asked me.

They wouldn't be if they knew about it. Too bad it's classified.

Look at that list man.

It's unconscionable to remove all discussions of politics and government subversion of the Internet and tech security. The users of /r/technology obviously think it's important or the mods wouldn't have to automatically filter these stories.

If you want curated content go to another website, right now /r/technology is a daily LIE that presents the illusion that the tech world is not concerned about the NSA leaks, or net neutrality, or anti-piracy legislation, or corporate monopolies on the flow of information.

Maybe it would be okay if these topics could be restricted to a sticky or something. Surely you understand how different subs want to avoid becoming political circle-jerks where stormfront versus JIDF or whatever all over the place.

Banning specific words is not the correct action. The words could still be relevant to the subreddit. Instead of sneaky moderation there should be transparent rules made if "political circlejerks" are wanting to be avoided.

It's still a cheap out.

At the very least they could list the banned words on the sidebar if they are pretending that their censorship is justified.

Yeah it would save the user the trouble of trying to engage in free speech.

This is exactly right. Anyone down voting this is looking for a conspiracy where there is none.

That Swartz is there just is too much for me.

Hm... Looks like one is conveniently missing from the list... as well as from the original sourced comment.

Smart people would abandon ship. Smarter people would use up-to-date jetpacks to do so...

I'm so sorry, but I'm running under a huge sleep deficit and I don't understand your comment (I'm sure it's me, not you).. Did you mean a search term missing, or the mod that got re-Added? Sorry I am dumb today!

Great job mods on the stickie. If you guys ever think about doing something this absurd, so help me God....

I wonder how quickly this would be removed from /r/technology if it were posted there.

Probably pretty fast.

[deleted]

n.sa

s.wartz

They'll still get around to deleting it eventually, and the mods seem more and more vigilant lately.

I'm writing a short story now, they gave me no choice >.>

Thou must post thine completion.

[deleted]

Wow, a little frightening. I wonder if reading posts like will be considered treason in a few years. We will all be dragged to the place where the light never ends, and these posts will pop up on a screen and the cold chill will roll down our spines as we realize it was all real, and they were always watching.

Remember how I predicted change? Two of the mods trying to change for better (Agentlame) and (TheSkyNet) have both been removed as moderators.

Make that 3

http://i.imgur.com/6rEGO3p.png

edit: The drama and dust has settled! The mods have been readded with two new ones! One from Christianity and the other from literally no where else relevant.

CENSORSHIP CONTINUES! AND INTENSIFIES

and the other from literally no where else relevant.

You make me feel so loved.

It's actually a complement. I'd rather someone off the street that can put it back on track. Unfortunately, too little too late. I commend you for your effort, but it's a dying sub because of fascist retards.

Lol, don't look to reddit for love doc. It's the dark room of the collective conscience it seems. Good luck over there.

So start a new tech Reddit - problem solved

Direct Action. The Powers That Be hate that.

/r/technews

You telling us that reddit bots document? I was millionthoughtcops last week. Throwaway accounts.

Yes, much of reddit has become an arm of big brother. Still has forgotten more intelligence than Facebook has.

So stop using that subreddit, obviously they dont talk about anything interesting to anyone. hah. They fuck themselves in that regard.

[deleted]

Looks like the quote you are replying to has been removed. Maybe the truth is too inconvenient and it doesnt fit their agenda? Thanks for highlighting what actually happened and how they are being selective with information and relying on speculation.

Now I want to post something innocuous and make the headline "Flappy Condolezza warrantless wiretaps NSA"

That sounds like some very specific fetish porn, perhaps the addition of a whip and feather duster?

Post these articles to www.hubski.com

Similar format to reddit and they don't censor anything that I am aware of.

Feinstein? Really? That's fucking stupid.

[deleted]

Yea, lets just divide politics from everything. It doesn't work that way.

[deleted]

I was saying the politics cannot be split from technology discussion. Politics is the driving force in the world. Taking politics out of a discussion about technology is dangerous and foolhardy. Technology changes everything, politics included, that's why the discussion has to include politics.

/r/technology removed as a default sub! Reddit founder steps down from moderation seat! Yeah, bitches!

It's sad to see the EFF in that list.

Wish I could upvote that more than once.

Reddit is like kindergarten now. Only here, we are not allowed to say NICE words.

I'm not impressed by this censorshit, and putting Aaron on the list is beyond reproachable.

What they are doing there is not so different from what you guys are doing here - censorship of words. The fact that you publish two words (troll and shill) while leaving a whole list of other epithets "up to moderator discretion" doesn't change anything. You still censor speech.

i.e. You, AssuredlyAThrowaway, are a hypocrite.

EDIT: Slight correction - you are a hypocrite with moderator power.

Oh, so it's not automated. It's okay then!

Quickly dodge the issue of your own censorship and hypocrisy by hiding behind a dead person. Clever. Not buying it.

If this isn't 1984 censorship, I don't know what is.

Then clearly you don't know what is then.

Maybe you should tell us what it is then. Looks like pretty blatant censorship to me. If it were totally above board, why is it being done in secret? Almost as if it were a... gasp... conspiracy.

I was more shocked by the comparison to 1984. "Censorship" on a portion of a website, that you are then completely free to talk about and complain about on that same website is hardly comparable to 1984 the book.

No discussion about this is allowed anywhere near /r/technology.

Yes, but /r/conspiracy is part of the same website that hosts /r/technology.

I'm not saying it's good what they are doing, nor am I saying it's bad. It's their own subreddit, and if they want it to suck, that's their choice. I'm just saying that it hardly compares to what the government did in the book 1984.

I was with until 'its their own subreddit' no you don't get to own words, entire words. You may own something with intellectual rights but being the first asshole to iceland doesn't give you right to all the ice.

That isn't what is happening at all. They don't own those words, nor do they claim to. They ate simply saying you can't use those words in their subreddit.

If I make you take your shoes off before entering my house, is that a violation of your rights?

If your house claims to own the rights of feet, yes. The problem with /r/technology is that they are suppressing speech, an anti-American and anti-humanitarian action.

Where do they claim the ownership of those words? All I've seen claimed is that they prevent people from using those words in /r/technology. You can shout those words from the tallest buildings and the mods over there couldn't do a damn thing about it.

Also, anti - humanitarian? Seriously? I'm a huge advocate for free speech in society, you should be able to speak your mind on whatever subject you want. However, private message boards should also be free to limit discussion to things they want.

Is this list probably overboard and silly? Yes. Is this a breach of free speech? No. Is this some humanitarian crisis? Of course not.

Yes, when millions of people visit a site, it isn't private anymore. When people rely on it for accurate information and it knowingly doesn't provide it it is anti-humanitarian and anti-American. Passing the buck by saying "it's a private forum,"or "people shouldn't rely on the internet for info" is a sad deflection of duty. It is called shirk and it is evil, just ask a muslim about shirk, they will explain.

Web forums have always moderated to varying degrees. This is no different. Also, Reddit doesn't produce news, it is just a place to find interesting stories made by actual news organizations. You can always go to those actual news sites if you so chose.

Finally, should a subreddit called technology be allowed to limit discussions at all? Should conversations of Ukraine be taking place there? How about the 2016 election?

Meh, strawman, we are talking about this issue, not them stopping off-topic circlejerks. Not allowing the mentioning of all those words is pretty much a fuck-all to free speech and destroys the implied intent of a subreddit named technology.

Free speech applies to the government restricting speech, not a free web forum. If you don't like the lack of discussion over there, don't visit that subreddit. It's not some horrible disaster or anything, it's a web forum that limits topics of discussion. That's it. Trying to make this bigger than it is just makes people look silly.

You're underthinking liberty and the responsibilities of the citizen, they (/r/technology) seem to be shirking that responsibility, and there are others who seem to think that attacking the citizens who are bringing this to light is the correct thing, they are wrong. Liberty must be defended everywhere, advanced everywhere. Hail Liberty.

I'm all for liberty, but I just really don't see what a subreddit allows or doesn't allow as an issue of liberty. Just like I don't consider what this subreddit allows or doesn't allow an issue of liberty.

I will say that I fully am for this subreddit's freedom to constantly talk about what other subreddits allow or don't though.

Huh?

We disagree that this issue had anything to do with liberty, but I think you should have the freedom to disagree with me.

Ok, thank you friend.

I think all things have to do with liberty, it is the new religion. From the Christian sprang the Libertarian Era. and now we have assmunches that rode the wrong horse that wish to derail the whole race. Sorry guys, the race is won, and we all who the victor is.

Also, I have that freedom, I need not someone to grant it as I was born with it. Hail Liberty.

Want trying to say that I was granting it to you or anything, just agreeing that you have it. Also t you may want to rethink you catchphrase. "Hail Liberty" sounds a little cultish. Just some free advice.

We are not a cult, we do not hide in the shadows, all are welcome as long as they defend liberty. I suggest a modified marine saying: Ours is not to do or die, ours is but to know why. The Why is Liberty. Hail Liberty, may she ever reign and may God himself be made jealous at our absolute devotion to His favored gift.

Wasn't saying that you are a cult, just that it sounds cultish, and may put people off from joining. As I said, just some free advice that you are free to ignore.

I get your point, but that's hyperbole.

is this allowed? is there anything that can be done about it?

Yes. No.

well, there's your problem right there...

How did they even do this? Do they just get a bot to remove it silently?

Flappy clappers! Or clappy flappers? Fcc!

Who filters these out though?

They are filtered automatically

http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/advance-publications-inc/af32309a08884c149effd39f62d93d44

What is "GHCQ"?

It's the British version of the NSA if spelled right. Should be GCHQ.

The Internet can answer that question...

It doesn't.

Than you suck at using a search engine.

But it stands for Government Communications Headquarters. It's the British version of the NSA.

wooosh

Le

I think what they're trying to do is not be overrun with major current events and be a well rounded source of information. For instance if they allowed NSA-related technology content it would probably overflow their subreddit and drown out other technology news that doesn't normally get media attention. NSA related articles are interesting but it's probably better suited for it's own dedicated subreddit at this pace.

So, what does that drug actually feel like? I've done heroin, its great, but that shit your on, is not what she's on.

Notice how Obama is on there but Bush isn't.

I busted out Reddit for censoring "Obama" posts during the 2012 election, where new Obama posts would be allowed to stay in the new queue for 2 hours then inexplicably be deleted. This two hour time frame was good because if you search for "new" Obama submissions you find a whole page of them but also because posts would never really have a chance to get big and draw a lot of attention.

When I documented this bullshit and brought it to the attention of reddit, the reddit management, instead of being concerned or curious about my findings, offered up all kinds of flimsy excuses for their "search bug". I was called a bunch of names, told I was an idiot because i couldnt understand or comprehend why the search bug would delete Obama submissions after 2 hours but not Romney submissions. I was told I was stupid because I didnt understand how a "search bug" could remove the name of the person submitting the submission and replace it with the word [deleted].

So, while the search bug seemed mighty suspicious to me, it was the reddit admins that confirmed my suspicions for me.

This search bug also affected the word "Reddit". Some of us experimented with other words but these are the only 2 we discovered at the time.

I posted this on r/Askreddit. I can't for the life of me understand the negative response.

People like their masters, its that simple. Look at the way your dog looks at you, now look at the Obamites and Bushites, same expression?

There is a definition for this. Stockholm syndrome.

There is no sense in arguing with them. Its all about protection of the image and lies.