Due to their insistence that "freedom of speech" includes the right to spout hatred and discrimination, Reddit has gained notoriety as a home for numerous racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes, and other bigots, who group together and create subreddit communities dedicated to inciting hatred and violence against marginalized groups. A group known as the "Squatzis" are known to "squat" on subreddits with names related to racial issues - these users have taken the subreddits /r/holocaust, /r/TrayvonMartin, and /r/ferguson, among others. This group of neo-Nazis quickly snatch up subreddits like these so that other people - who aren't Nazis - won't get to use them.
Recently, however, these people have been ramping up their efforts.
The disgusting "Chimpire" network of subs - which includes communities like /r/WatchNiggersDie and /r/TheRacistRedPill - gained notoriety when it snatched up the subreddit /r/ferguson before anyone else could. Sensing an opportunity, these white supremacists also recently snatched up the subreddit /r/Eric_Garner.
The user who took the /r/Eric_Garner subreddit is prominent Reddit neo-Nazi /u/European88, who regularly calls for violence and genocide (including against children). Not content with just Eric Garner, "Chimpire" subreddit mods have also snatched up /r/RumainBrisbon, /r/Rumain_Brisbon, /r/LennonLacy, /r/Lennon_Lacy, /r/JordanBaker, /r/Jordan_Baker, /r/CedricBartee, /r/Cedric_Bartee, /r/DontreHamilton, /r/Dontre_Hamilton, /r/AntonioMartin, and /r/Antonio_Martin. All of these are black people who were recently murdered in high-profile cases.
The subreddits dedicated to these men are now devoted to mocking and celebrating their deaths. The sidebars of the subs refer to these black murder victims as having been "goodified". This is a term from the popular racist site chimpout.com, where users believe that "the only good nigger is a dead nigger".
In any future cases of black men being murdered, expect these vile Nazis to quickly take the Reddit subs by those names. They are very quick now - the /r/RumainBrisbon sub, for example, was taken the very same day that Rumain Brisbon was shot.
They can be seen talking about it here: https://archive.today/...
In their conversation, the members of /r/CoonTown brag about swiping these subs:
I got the subs for that nigger in Arizona! ;)
Good, I wonder if SRS is ever going to start scooping them up before us.
Knew an article like this was coming. Proud of us. Great idea /u/European88. Woo-hoo shout to coontown.
Clearly, this isn't going to stop any time soon. Until Reddit starts protecting basic human rights on their website, neo-Nazis will continue to fill it with hate speech and they will continue to use it as a platform to spread their toxic ideology. Of course it's important to uphold freedom of speech, but hate speech is not free speech and freedom of speech does not give anyone the right to maliciously hurt others or to engage in racial discrimination. Hate speech is illegal under international human rights law and, as any human rights lawyer will tell you, freedom of speech must always be balanced against the fundamental human rights of others.
Ultimately, Reddit's administrators have to ask themselves: do they want their website to be known as a place where white supremacists gather to celebrate the murders of innocent people of color?
If you're as appalled by this as I am, then contact the media and let Reddit know that hate speech has no place in the 21st century.
Tweet Reddit's CEO here: https://twitter.com/...
Contact Gawker here: http://gawker.com/...
Email Talking Points Memo here: talk@talkingpointsmemo.com
Contact The Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Contact The Daily Dot here: info@dailydot.com
Contact the No Hate Speech Movement for Human Rights Online here: http://www.nohatespeechmovement.org/
