Reddit mods have to destroy freedom of expression and openness in order to save it.
Gawker outed one of the biggest Reddit trolls on Friday.
Since them Reddit moderators are banning anyone who posts Gawker links.
While Reddit's owners may argue that their policies are conducive to growth and freedom — after all, any of the 1.9 million r/technology readers are technically free to break off and start their own subreddit — it's evident that a small group of volunteer moderators are systematically suppressing users and stories, drawing further attention to their ability to censor open discussion on the site.
When asked about the recent uptick in censorship, Reddit GM Erik Martin told us that "moderators are free to ban whoever they want for whatever reason. We don't treat big subreddits differently from small ones." Martin admitted that "it's not a perfect system, it's not a fluid market, but we have seen instances where moderators of a certain subreddit take a subtle policy and people start new subreddits or move to other ones."
The only question now is how far Reddit's owners will let moderators go in subverting its own values, including expression and openness, two of five principles of the Declaration of Internet Freedom that the company literally carried on its shoulder along the trail of the Internet 2012 bus tour.
It's hard to see how letting moderators covertly squelch discussion at their whim fits the company's democratic view of the internet.
