MakeUseOf: 6 Free and Fantastic Alternatives to the Official Reddit Website & App. “Are you still using the plain old Reddit through the official website and official apps? Check out some of these best Reddit websites and apps to see what you’re missing. There’s nothing too wrong with the official Reddit apps, but they’re severely limited in features. Given the online forum’s open nature, it makes no sense to use these when there are much better apps made by third-party developers. Try them out, and you’ll never go back to the plain old website.”
MIT Technology Review: How to talk to conspiracy theorists—and still be kind
MIT Technology Review: How to talk to conspiracy theorists—and still be kind. “So how do you talk to a person who believes a conspiracy theory? This is something that the members of one of the internet’s most vibrant communities, r/ChangeMyView, deal with on a daily basis. This is the place on Reddit where people go to have their own beliefs challenged, and it is known as a calm, moderate place for debate. We asked some of its most active users, as well as some conspiracy theory researchers, for their tips.”
Los Angeles Times: Reddit moderators spent years asking for help fighting hate. The company may finally be listening
Los Angeles Times: Reddit moderators spent years asking for help fighting hate. The company may finally be listening. “When [Jefferson] Kelley, a Reddit moderator, booted hateful users off threads where Black people discussed sensitive personal experiences, racial slurs piled up in his inbox. Crude remarks about women filled the comment sections under his favorite ‘Star Trek’ GIFs. The proliferation of notorious forums, including one that perpetuated a vicious racist stereotype about Black fathers, stung Kelley, a Black father himself. Kelley and other moderators repeatedly pleaded with the company to back them up and take stronger action against harassment and hate speech. But Reddit never quite came through. Then, all of a sudden, that seemed to change.
Mashable: Netflix drops ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ evidence on Reddit to help internet sleuths solve cases
Mashable: Netflix drops ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ evidence on Reddit to help internet sleuths solve cases. “Netflix’s recent revival of the beloved Unsolved Mysteries series is a hit, with the show appearing on the site’s Top 10 Most Watched list since premiering. While a lot has changed in the reboot itself, the biggest change is arguably how the show now exists in a world with Reddit sleuths.”
Engadget: Reddit and LinkedIn will fix clipboard snooping in their iOS apps
Engadget: Reddit and LinkedIn will fix clipboard snooping in their iOS apps. “The clipboard privacy feature in iOS 14 is prompting more major developers to tone down their apps’ nosy behavior. To start, Reddit told The Verge in a statement that it would fix code in its iOS app that copies clipboard data with virtually every keystroke, as Urspace.io co-founder Don Morton discovered.”
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home. “Monday, Reddit banned thousands of subreddits including The_Donald, a conservative community of nearly 800,000 members accused of inciting violence, spreading white supremacist propaganda, and other repeat offenses since its creation in 2015. The takedown marked Reddit’s latest push to curb hate speech on the platform, and The_Donald was a ripe target for moderation. But while the community was purged from Reddit, its members have been relocating to an alternate website for months now, suggesting that users were expecting the ban — and serving as a reminder that ‘deplatforming’ is only so useful.”
CU Boulder Today: As the coronavirus spread, two social media communities drifted apart
CU Boulder Today: As the coronavirus spread, two social media communities drifted apart. “On Feb. 11, 2020, the World Health Organization put a name to the mysterious respiratory disease spreading with alarming speed around the globe: COVID-19. Around the same time, two of the internet’s most popular communities for discussing this unfolding crisis began to drift apart—with one increasingly embracing racist language and conspiracy theories, while the other tended to avoid those topics. Now, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are exploring this tale of two online communities: the r/Coronavirus and r/China_flu discussion boards on the social media site Reddit.”
CBS News: Reddit bans pro-Trump forum “The_Donald” in hate speech crackdown
CBS News: Reddit bans pro-Trump forum “The_Donald” in hate speech crackdown. “Reddit has banned ‘The_Donald,’ a forum that united fans of President Donald Trump on the social media platform. While announcing policy changes, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said Monday that the popular subreddit was shut down because it continuously violated its hate speech rules.”
Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page (Mashable)
Mashable: Reddit turns 15: The dramatic moments that shaped the internet’s front page. “It may seem like it has been part of the internet landscape forever, but Reddit — which turns 15 Tuesday — is a mere teenager. An uncoordinated, gangly teenager that still struggles with its size, its group of friends, and truly damning content in its browser history.”
CNET: Reddit appoints Michael Seibel as new board member after Alexis Ohanian resignation
CNET: Reddit appoints Michael Seibel as new board member after Alexis Ohanian resignation. “Reddit has made good on its promise to hire a black board member to replace cofounder Alexis Ohanian, who quit last week in an effort to push the platform to become more diverse. Michael Seibel has joined the board of directors, Reddit announced Wednesday.”
CNET: Reddit’s long history of tolerating racism is coming back to haunt it
CNET: Reddit’s long history of tolerating racism is coming back to haunt it. “As people and companies around the world reflect on the ways in which they contribute to upholding the racism that still runs rife in society, this moment serves as a reckoning of sorts for Reddit. The site, often referred to as the last bastion of free speech, has a long history of allowing racist content to circulate. And that history is coming back to haunt Reddit.”
The Verge: Alexis Ohanian asks to be replaced by a black candidate as he resigns from Reddit’s board
The Verge: Alexis Ohanian asks to be replaced by a black candidate as he resigns from Reddit’s board. “Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian — the co-founder of Reddit — resigned from Reddit’s board of directors today. He announced the move in a tweet, urging the company to hire a black candidate in his stead and promising his future gains on Reddit stock to serve the black community.”
Reddit CEO: Remember the Human – Black Lives Matter
Reddit CEO: Remember the Human – Black Lives Matter. “We work for this platform because we care deeply about community and belonging. But community and belonging are not possible without safety from violence, and now is the time to stand in solidarity with the Black members of our communities (locally, at Reddit Inc., on Reddit, and beyond). As Snoos, we do not tolerate hate, racism, and violence, and while we have work to do to fight these on our platform, our values are clear.”
The Register: Twitter, Reddit and pals super unhappy US visa hopefuls have to declare their online handles to Uncle Sam
The Register: Twitter, Reddit and pals super unhappy US visa hopefuls have to declare their online handles to Uncle Sam. “Twitter, Reddit, and the Internet Association on Thursday filed a legal brief in support of a challenge to the US State Department’s policy of requiring visa applicants to disclose their social media handles and profiles.”
CNET: Reddit is publicly tracking all political ads on its site ahead of 2020 election
CNET: Reddit is publicly tracking all political ads on its site ahead of 2020 election. “Reddit is updating its political ad policies in an attempt to increase transparency ahead of the 2020 election. All political ad campaigns running on Reddit will now be publicly tracked in a subreddit, r/RedditPoliticalAds, and include information like spending and impressions, the company said Monday.”
