Unlike many other sites similar in scale, Reddit has stayed fairly true to the anarchic, freewheeling spirit of the early internet. Why is this any more than just a stupid online argument between Gawker and some forum moderators? The answer lies in Reddit's almost unique online role. For a time, the site's paid staff even introduced a site-wide ban on links to the article, before backtracking. Want to post a link to Gawker's stories on Bain Capital's internal documents on Reddit? You can't.
The volunteer moderators who run many of the largest sections of Reddit elected not just to ban links to that particular article, or even articles by that particular writer – instead, they imposed a ban on all links to Gawker, or any other sites affiliated with it.
New media's reaction to the dilemma was far more extreme than that of old media: Reddit moved to stamp out the article, and punish its writer. Reddit reacted furiously, in large part because the user, "violentacrez", was a prominent one and on friendly terms with many of the people who run the site. The problem stems from several boards on the site (knows as "subreddits") concentrating on "creepshots" and "jailbait" – sneaked photos, taken on the street or lifted from profiles – which focused on obtaining and publishing revealing pictures (including upskirt shots) of unwitting women, or underage girls.Īfter sustained outcry, the site banned most of these subreddits, but Gawker writer Adrian Chen – a journalist who regularly seeks online notoriety, often successfully – had tracked down the real identity of the man behind many of these forums, interviewed him, and on Friday published a lengthy article "outing" him. An article posted on its front page can expect to pull in half a million extra visitors, at minimum – and it was given extra gravitas last month when it was judged worthy of an online campaign stop by President Barack Obama himself.īut just when it should be celebrating a moment of triumph and recognition, the site has been thrown into chaos by a bitter row stemming from its seamy underbelly – and it's a row that could have far wider consequences across the internet. The self-styled "home page of the internet", it can pull in more than 3bn page views a month. R eddit is the biggest and most influential website you've probably never heard of.
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