Stromfront is a literal white supremacist neo-Nazi forum. As in the logo on their website has “White Pride World Wide” written around a Celtic cross. If you’ve ever seen The Boys, that site is the reason the character Stormfront is named that, and she’s positively nice compared to some of what goes on in that forum.
The whole point is to liken Reddit to Stormfront, and it’s connected to hexbear because ChapoTrapHouse is on hexbear and ChapoTrapHouse is more or less the only lefty subreddit to ever be punished under rules against brigading, calls for violence, etc. They were quarantined and later banned. So since Reddit banned an explicitly lefty sub that one time, that makes Reddit akin to a white supremacist hate forum.
There is a stormfront subreddit, but it’s a different thing entirely. Someone snapped up the sub name and made a sub about severe weather, specifically to snub their noses at Stormfront the neo-Nazi group.
Not as much fun as the worldnews and anime_titties subreddits.
It’s a lot more nuanced than that. The Chapo mods wanted to follow site-wide rules but reddit refused to explain what was in violation of them.
Reddit actually has a weird history of flipflopping with the banhammer.
Back in the day, the XKCD subreddit was run by a guy who linked a Holocaust denial subreddit and the red pill in the sidebar. Reddit didn’t do anything about this. In fact The Red Pill still exists.
But then when the subreddit owner closed KotakuInAction, suddenly reddit doesn’t mind interfering with the free market of ideas.
The Chapo mods wanted to follow site-wide rules but reddit refused to explain what was in violation of them.
And here I thought it was all the brigading and the calls for violence. Admittedly mostly violence against police, though not exclusively.
Reddit didn’t do anything about this. In fact The Red Pill still exists.
TRP generally doesn’t brigade, and doesn’t engage in calls for violence. It’s a shitty view of the world for sure, but they dont at least do those two things, they mostly grouse about shitty and unreasonable they think women are.
But then when the subreddit owner closed KotakuInAction, suddenly reddit doesn’t mind interfering with the free market of ideas.
KiA has heavy handed mods that are basically the only reason the sub continues to exist, and an outright ban on certain topics they expect to cause contention. When the original sub owner killed it, the next willing mod down the line asked for it back and it was given to them. That’s not radically different from what happens with other abandoned subs, except that usually they are actually abandoned and there has to be more talk about who should take over.
That’s not radically different from what happens with other abandoned subs, except that usually they are actually abandoned and there has to be more talk about who should take over.
Reddit’s policy has always been that subreddit requests only apply if someone actually goes vacant. The only reason XKCD still doesn’t have holocaust denial in the sidebar is because the guy who owned the sub disappeared. The XKCD case is especially egregious because I’d argue that associating a public figure’s webcomic with a horrendous opinion he doesn’t hold is something that would actually open you up to a lawsuit.
