Reddit.com co-Founder Alexis Ohanian fires back at CNN and Anderson Cooper

[Phazonaddict]

BEST OF THE INTERNET

AHAHAHA

[particle409]

Reddit represents a lot of the internet at its best? Child pornography and memes ran into the ground is not the best of the internet. It may be more popular, but a lot more people watch American Idol than PBS Masterpiece Theater.

[itsazy]

@particle409 There's more to reddit than f7u12, look about.

[lednerg]

From the Something Awful message which exposed this: "... [/jailbait] had a message on the sidebar asking young girls to submit pics to their jailbait gone wild subreddit, which still exists, and even wants these 'jailbait' girls to get verified before submitting photos. You're also told to 'Be respectful. Don't insult the ones brave enough to submit photos / videos' ..."

Unbelievable.

[particle409]

This video is hilarious. The interviewer glosses over the jailbait forum quite handily. Point out the child pornography on Twitter, they'll remove it in a heartbeat, and ban the user. To have a forum titled "jailbait," in which child pornography is linked to, is an easily fixed problem. There really is no need to defend it.

[itsazy]

@particle409 I just watched a documentary in which twitter were shown to be terrible when it came to removing reported content involving children.

[MrBackInBlack123]

Hey dudes. I'm heading over to watch "The Skin Gun." Sounds cool right? I guess I'll see you there!

[Jbizzlies]

1) this host looks like a typical hipster douchebag

2) reddit KNEW about the content and it's more than just a "collection of links that go somewhere else" it's a COMMUNITY. A community that has been fostering the absolute worst of society for the sake of "mah freedoms" and "liberty"

[420treesburning]

NEWSFLASH: Reddit is full of pedophile apologists. "It is cool for an adult man to steal a 14 year old girl's private Facebook photos and post them on a large public site for other adult men to jack off to and make obscene comments about her. (She's a stupid slut for posting a picture of herself, anyway) There should be no moderation of this activity because ~FREE SPEECH~" Literally a majority opinion on website Reddit dot com

[SpecialOlympiks]

@420treesburning "private Facebook photos" that's adorable. Privacy on the internet.

[snoringdormouse]

Looks like reddit got the hint, and won't be so openly catering to pedos (see their "necessary change in policy"). Sorry for all of you people that were supporting his stance. XD

[Urmean15]

You are horrible and Reddit is fucking garbage

[fightingpokemon]

if a child is being abused, educating the child isn't gonna help! and if you think that's a reasonable response, you should feel fucking bad about your life!

[officernarc]

FUCKING IDIOTS. CHILD PORN IS ALL OVER REDDIT.

[officernarc]

Yeah man, I totally agree. I mean, why SHOULD Reddit be held responsible? I mean, they're just the ones hosting child porn and helping disseminate it throughout the world.

[Zaetix]

@officernarc they're not hosting shit dumbfuck, watch the interview again and take the cotton out of your ears this time

[TheMolotovTaco]

@9695236 Please, tell me when they said it wasnt an adults fault? He said children need to be educated about this, please try to refute this. Argue with that, I dare you. You'll be taking the same side as the people who you hate so much. -.-

[TheMolotovTaco]

@Daedelous2k No they don't! They can do whatever the HELL they want within the law! They don't owe you jack. This isn't a democracy, it's a private company. Keep trying bud.

[Daedelous2k]

Reddit is a fucking disgrace, you have responsibility to your users

[MrJowasup]

Guys, calm down and look at this go to reddit amd you will see on the front page that they are no longer showin CP on any subreddits

[LCCDirewolf]

It is illegal to host links to sexualized images of clothed underaged girls

[Robzz]

pedo defense force

[FriendlyFaithPlate]

It might not be illegal to host links to sexualised images and videos of clothed underaged girls ran to benefit unfortunate individuals, but it is absolutely morally wrong. Reddit should remove this content rather than facilitating it under the guise of free speach. In fact, it'd be easier to remove the unfortunate content that no-one wants to see than to defend it.

[AndOtherSalads]

Whole bunch of child porn apologists in these comments...

[TheMolotovTaco]

One thousand times yes! Children need to know that anything they put into a digital format is public! he is not blaming the victim at all!

[MrSavageReindeer]

He's not blaming the kids. He's stating that a more effective way of combating child pornography is education.

[haggistacos]

Why does this have dislikes? His words are completely true. Reddit itself is not responsible for these "child porn" subreddits. The scumbag loser users who submit the LINKS to the "child porn" are the people who should be blamed.

[Ca1mdownplz]

@haggistacos Ya, his point was those shitty users that post the content can post it to any website. There is nothing you can do to stop people from being scummy (unless they are doing something illegal), you can only make it more challenging by educating everyone involved.

No one is blaming the kids, just understanding what is going on can help prevent further issues.

[godholio]

@haggistacos And who should do the blaming? How about reddit, for a start?

[DavidvanKasteren]

Alexis Ohanian is absolutely right and if you know much about humanity, you will realise it. It's impossible to control it, you can only monitor it and don't let it get out of hand.

Learning people how to PREVENT it, (EG NOT BLAMING THEM!), is critical in this internet era.

[jasonroxorz]

So nobody here thinks that the kids taking these pictures of themselves are at all at fault? He's not saying it's OK.... lol.

[Pachuho]

If the site were breaking the law, it'd get shut down.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

There's worse content on Toddlers & Tiaras on TLC.

[MrFriendlyFella]

Where does he victim blame again? Reddit sucks shit but this guy is just telling it like it is.

[arseropes]

@MrFriendlyFella

He's not, fat septum-pierced hipsters just invented terms like "rape culture" and "victim-blaming" to paint anyone who doesn't share their ultra-PC fearmongering as bad people. It's just a witch hunt.

[Laoghaire2]

Aaahahah I don't even like Reddit, I hope this fiasco gets it shut down, but Jesus there sure seem to be a lot of butt hurt women in here.

[godholio]

You go from saying you uphold the law to saying you can't police your own site. What?

[DavidvanKasteren]

@godholio Big difference. You can uphold the law by not supporting it, but sometimes you simply cannot police it in time to prevent it. It's like me putting a nuclear bomb in your house. You try to prevent someone planting it there, but oh no now you failed. Are you to blame then?

[godholio]

@DavidvanKasteren Wait, so I did try? Because reddit hasn't. Their admins have removed posts questioning the legality of some of the stuff posted. Several of them trade personal tweets with the most prolific CP poster on the site. SA, 4chan, fark, all the other major sites can delete illicit posts and ban egregious offenders, but reddit refuses to even make a token effort. It took being lambasted on CNN to get them to take a single step, and they've done nothing since.

[supernate223]

Victim blaming? Pathetic twat? this guys actually speaks intelligently and not ignorantly unlike cooper.

[Tint301]

@supernate223 No, he doesn't, not for a single second.

[Kaireg]

researching effects from incest and was going around incest threads asking legitimate questions regarding the taboo, so why can't they get volunteer mods of people who are willing and/or they know they can trust. And while 4chan does police CP to a great extend, there are always threads popping up every so often that stay alive for a few minutes/few dozen minutes that involve CP. Not so much recently, but it still happens.

[Kaireg]

And to all those arguing that 4chan and other places police all this via volunteer mods...That's my point; Reddit SHOULD be able to police this, with volunteer mods. But they're technically a business (iirc) so they may think it's not allowed/viable to get volunteer mods. That's complete bollocks, but they could think that. And I do agree with you; reddit SHOULD get volunteer mods. They can certify the most random of people like that 'IAmA' thread with the certified study researcher who was

[Kaireg]

Which is a legitimate suggestion...It's like getting enraged when young girls/men sext, and the images get leaked. If they don't want the images to get spread, don't send/post em unless you're absolutely sure. But to be sure/fair, the girls involved in this are STILL victims, even if they did/didn't know the risks!

[Kaireg]

And SA basically sweeps that rage under the rug n goes 'oh well we heard/thought...' 'oh you shouldnt have let that be thought/those rumours spread' n shit like that....still, fucked up...

SO IN SUMMARY; yes these mother fuckers that spread this shit are sick. Yes, those girls are victims. YES, this is ALL fucked up. YES reddit SHOULD start policing better, and I hope they do...but what ALEXIS WAS TRYING TO SAY...was that the girls should be CAREFUL with what they do....

[Kaireg]

Also got to remember, as nice as SA forums are for discussing/spreading things...they tend to NETRAGE HARD on a lot of things without giving due process or looking at things logically/from all angles. Like, I've seen SA blow plenty of shit WAY out of proportion and/or not give a chance for explanation to a LOT of things that ended up not being what they seemed...

[Kaireg]

remove SOME things...but it's like internet piracy; REAAAAAAALLY hard to eradicate completely. I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying it's not possible...I'm just saying a lot of folks are misunderstand the angle at which he explained it. Also add in the fact that every minute they spend on these endless 'link to illegal images' threads/subreddits...is a minute they could've been using to police more active/other subreddits. I do hope reddit takes a more proactive outlook on this soon though.

[Kaireg]

Hate to say this, but as fucked up as these guys who actually spread this shit are...the founder or w/e of reddit has a point; They could spend ALL DAY constantly policing this shit, and removing it, but at the end of the day, they'll find a way around it...and not to mention, reddit doesn't host it. They link to it. Legally, they're protected. It's not reddit's job to tell imgur or whatever image site "hey take this down, it's illegal!", it's that site's job. Reddit I'm sure did/is trying to

[AngoraVideos]

Haha way to dodge every single question and still come off as a pedophile, dude.

[shotgunbadger]

We don't HOST child porn, we just pass it around guys. So you can see, it's coo.

[AirForceGirl05]

what a fucking asshole piece of worthless dickskin.

[Wackytov]

Defending child porn

SO BRAVE

[TeHzoAr]

Holy fuckkkkkkkkkk this person is the worst.

[MohawkPotatoSA]

Reddit represents the worst of the internet. Get fucked you disgusting piece of shit.

[snoringdormouse]

Summary of Ohanian's stance: creepy dudes are going to jack off to pictures of underage girls, so we're just going to allow people to post pictures of them so they can, and certainly not admonish them for it (in fact, we'll make it really easy for them to). And instead, we'll just blame the girls for having taken pictures of themselves. ... Good one, Ohanian. Way to not take responsibility for anything and look like a creeper yourself at the same time.

[JohnnySaperella]

Dear children, if you don't want sweaty neckbeards to masturbate furiously to pictures of your trip to the beach, don't put them on your private facebook page. Redditors can't help it you see, you'd understand it if you read this book called "The Game". Also, if you object we'll hound you and call you a whore.

Signed, Mr. co-founder of Reddit

[RadimirWackytov]

@JohnnySaperella Bloo-bloo-bloo, I can't help it that evolution dictates that I must masturbate to candid pictures of underage girls. You're oppressing meeeeee

[ryanator420]

Maybe if the stupid whores didn't literally make themselves victims, this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe don't show your tits on the internet if you don't want people to look at your tits on the internet.

[JisakuJ]

@ryanator420 I'm going to shit down your gaping maw, you cretin.

[arseropes]

@MuchContractForYou

Victim blaming doesn't exist, it's a made up term by fat hipsters.

[jaysatanfox]

@MuchContractForYou I'm sorry where did he blame the victim?

What he's saying is true, no matter how old you are or your gender. If you take a picture of yourself flashing your junk and send it to someone, you have to be aware it could end up online for all to see.

[fightingpokemon]

@jaysatanfox if adult men are taking images a child has a reasonable expectation of privacy about out of context and distributing it in mass quantities through reddit, it's still on reddit to shut that shit down. please read en wikipedia org/wiki/Child_grooming

[jaysatanfox]

@fightingpokemon That's not the issue here. He's talking about kids taking photos of themselves...

Also it isn't specific to men, there are plenty of female pedos out there.

[9695236]

@jaysatanfox but it's not taking photos of your junk. Even if it was, how is it fair for a child to have the foresight to not send potentially exploitative photos, but the adult be free of responsibility. Why do the rights of the adult trump the rights of the child?

[jaysatanfox]

@9695236 Also I don't know what was exactly in those subreddits, I can only go by what people are saying. Thankfully I've never come across any of that stuff in the time I've browsed reddit.

[snoringdormouse]

@jaysatanfox so you're saying that if your significant other took a photo of herself/himself that was only meant for your eyes and then you send it to all your friends or post it online, it would be HIS/HER fault that you sent it to your friends or posted it online?

[snoringdormouse]

@snoringdormouse i mean, if that's what you think, that's up to you. just wanted to make sure i was clear on your position.

[Kerze]

@jaysatanfox Wow, okay, so you're for older men masturbating to teenagers in the nude and distributing the pictures online? How about if the teen was being blackmailed into it? Or held at gunpoint? Drugged? Etc.

Even if it were a teen going "hehe, ima post my junk on the internet" it's still morally disgusting for anyone to own and/or distribute the pictures anywhere.

[jaysatanfox]

@Kerze Where did I say that?

Seriously, you wont find a single comment of mine that defends predators and pedophiles.

I (and the majority of other redditors) wanted those sick subreddits closed down. I'm glad SA made the final push to get em closed down.

[officernarc]

@jaysatanfox if it was really a majority of reddit users who actually DID want those subreddits closed down, why were they allowed to stay up so long, in that case? why did it take a full blown campaign against reddit to get them to do something? if there was really an issue there, and you saw that there was a problem, why the hell didn't you do anything?

[jaysatanfox]

@officernarc "Why the hell didn't you do anything?" There were frequent posts about closing that shit down, but you don't seem to realize the users of Reddit have no control over what the admins do.

It's like me asking you why you allow a bill that lets the Canadian government monitor your internet. Why do you allow the people in charge to do that? Why don't you stop them.

I can understand why the admins didn't close it down initially (free speech bull,) but I didn't agree with it.

[Apenes]

Jesus, what a pathetic twat that guy is.