I’ve been watching the downfall of reddit with a smirk on my face.
Here is a platform that was built on the tenets of community and free speech by exiles from a site that was ruined by corporate control and censorship. How ironic, then, that reddit is being destroyed by corporate control and censorship. Tim Wu is probably looking on with great interest at the microcosms of his Master Switch happening on the Internet.
Something new is happening with reddit, though.
The Hugbox and the Echo Chamber.
Community-created and community-moderated discussion forums can be useful, but not when they’re centred around specific opinions and viewpoints. Then they can be dangerous.
Reddit has created a means for people with dangerous and unhealthy opinions or beliefs, which would otherwise be condemned in any other social setting, to get together, validate each other and reward themselves.
And if anyone goes against their strict narrative, the community moderation will ensure they are removed from the ‘discussion’.
I started this blog to find the hugboxes and the echo chambers and talk about them, because this is a new phenomenon of Internet culture I find interesting, worrying and hilarious.
Thanks for reading.