Reddit’s ex-CEO says: “Deplatforming works”, “We don’t need to protect speech”
The former CEO of Reddit, Ellen K. Pao, has made some pretty pro-censorship statements in her time.
And this last week was no exception.
On June 17th, she stated, “Deplatforming hate works. It worked on reddit in 2015, and now it’s working on YouTube.”
The key part there: “Deplatforming … works”.
These words from the former CEO of Reddit appear to closely follow those of the current leadership of Mozilla as well, who are calling for “more than deplatforming” of conservative and “right wing” voices.
Not exactly a big statement advocating for Free Speech. Well, two days later, she put out some clarification on her Free Speech stance by saying, “We don’t need to protect speech that makes you dumber by just looking at it.”
The key part there: “We don’t need to protect speech.”
To be fair, the email she was referencing was — most certainly — not the most brilliant or inspired bit of writing I’ve ever read. Does it make the reader “dumber by just looking at it”? You know what? Possibly.
Was she simply being sarcastic and exaggerating? Normally, I’d say, obviously. Of course she is! She tweeted a snarky retort to a rude email. Something I can certainly appreciate.
But, in Pao’s case, this isn’t exactly the first time she’s come out against Freedom of Speech in one form or another.
Not even the first time this week.
Seeing so many leaders in the Tech world take such extreme stances against Freedom of Speech — and pro-censorship — of specific groups of people (typically grouped by political ideology) is, at the very least, worth noting.