A Reddit thread reporting on the recent firebomb bus attack in France was shut down after users made “too many violations” of the subreddit’s “hate speech” rule.
“This thread has been locked due to too many Rule 8 violations,” stated a moderator on the popular /r/videos subreddit shortly after it went viral. The thread, which had received nearly 5,000 upvotes, was shut down just two hours after being published.
The majority of the comments in general criticized Islam and the negative effects of the recent influx of Middle-Eastern refugees into Europe.
After being heavily criticized for their decision to close the thread, the subreddit changed the reason for closure to “misleading title,” claiming that there was no proof the attack was committed by Muslims.
The thread has also been significantly downvoted since being locked, with the current favorability rating at just 66%.
Users of Reddit have alleged the site to be involved in an increasing amount of censorship recently, with moderators of the Donald Trump “/r/thedonald” subreddit even being asked by admins to stop reporting on the censorship itself.
Reddit’s news subreddit has faced most of the recent criticism, after censoring stories related to the Orlando terrorist attack in June. Users found themselves banned and their posts deleted after sharing stories that connected the perpetrator, Omar Mateen, with Islam or ISIS, and a post offering blood donation advice even found itself swiftly removed from the platform.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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