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The ban comes after the Current reported on r\/SanAntonio\u2019s removal of posts documenting local-area raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/p>\nThe ban comes after the Current reported on r\/SanAntonio\u2019s removal of posts documenting local-area raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/p>\n
Alamo City Reddit users are asking why the San Antonio Current is the only publication banned from the r\/SanAntonio subreddit. <\/p>\n
The ban, which according to moderators took effect in July, prohibits any user of the forum from sharing a link to content published by the Current. A Current staffer\u2019s personal account was also banned entirely from the forum. <\/p>\n
Trinity University communication professor Althea Delwiche, who specializes in participatory knowledge cultures, said the r\/SanAntonio subreddit\u2019s ban stifles free speech at the local level and mirrors censorship occurring at the national level for media under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this highlights a real problem that we\u2019re all facing, as there is an authoritarian attempt to restrict our communication in all sorts of forms,\u201d Delwiche said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really unfolding on corporate media as well. We\u2019ve seen what\u2019s going on with, you know, the Jimmy Kimmel thing or what happened with Stephen Colbert. And the same thing can happen even on a site like Reddit, [which] has that sort of anarchistic spirit of the early Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Users of the subreddit have also pushed back at the moderator\u2019s ban of Current content. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are links to SA Current banned?\u201d reddit user Cigarettesandwhiskey asked in a Wednesday thread<\/a>, which a reddit user emailed to the Current to alert the paper to the ban. \u201cThis seems like blatant censorship of a local news outlet. Who made this decision? There is no rule against it in the sidebar and I\u2019ve never seen any discussion of this, but I just tried to post a link to an article there and got the message \u2018Links to sacurrent dot com are not allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n Moderator HikeTheSky responded, \u201cThe SACurrent is banned from this sub because of their past brigading efforts.\u201d The moderator further asserted that the publication\u2019s \u201cbrigading effort led to direct harassment and attacks on mods.\u201d<\/p>\n In reddit parlance, the term \u201cbrigading\u201d \u2014 in simplified terms \u2014 means interfering with a reddit community.<\/p>\n The moderator also clarified that the Current is the only publication banned from the forum. <\/p>\n \u201cAll other news sources are allowed, unless, of course, Reddit bans them, as we don\u2019t have an influence on that,\u201d HikeTheSky added.<\/p>\n \u201cWell[,] now they are giving The Current a golden opportunity for a neat story about selective press suppression!\u201d user Vital_capacity responded to the moderator\u2019s explanation.<\/p>\n The Current reached out to Reddit Inc.\u2019s press office as well as r\/SanAntonio moderator HikeTheSky for comment on the ban received no response from either by press time.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the thread discussing the ban, HikeTheSky stated the ban has been in place since July. On June 30, the Current published an article about the forum moderators\u2019 censorship of posts<\/a> reporting on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in San Antonio.<\/p>\n At that time, local redditors fed up with what they described as strict censorship within the r\/SanAntonio forum were bailing for other subreddits focused on the Alamo City Community. Some said their political posts, particularly about ICE, led to them being banned from the forum entirely.<\/p>\n The banned users went on to start their own local subreddits, including r\/SanAntonioTX<\/a> and r\/SanAntonioUSA, as reported by the Current.<\/p>\n The Current frequently reports on free speech issues and censorship, especially in the face of increasing government attacks on First Amendment rights<\/a>, making the recent departures from r\/SanAntonio a newsworthy development.<\/p>\n However, in comments explaining the ban, r\/SanAntonio moderators accused the Current of \u201cinterfering\u201d with their community through its reporting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t allow brigading, and neither does Reddit,\u201d HikeTheSky stated. \u201cThe SACurrent did that and needs to live with the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cProve they brigaded you. I don\u2019t believe you,\u201d user Cigarettesandwhiskey replied.<\/p>\n HikeTheSky provided no proof in response to the request. Nor did the moderator offer any evidence that anything the Current published led to moderator harassment \u2014\u00a0something the publication doesn\u2019t condone and, for that matter, cannot control.<\/p>\n Further, in an official Reddit forum for moderators<\/a> called r\/ModSupport, a top comment defines \u201cbrigading\u201d as what happens when users of one Reddit forum flood another to steer conversation in a certain direction.<\/p>\n \u201cBrigading must be a group of users going from one subreddit to another in order to change the way the discussion is going and\/or manipulate voting patterns,\u201d user Texmarshfellow explained. <\/p>\n Trinity professor Delwiche agreed that the Current\u2019s article doesn\u2019t meet the definition of the term \u201cbrigading,\u201d which r\/SanAntonio\u2019s moderator used to justify the ban. However, Delwiche also said that each forum operates as a kingdom unto itself.<\/p>\n \u201c[A]ll these subreddits have different moderators and different policies about what\u2019s allowed, and they vary from group to group,\u201d she said. \u201cThe moderators are essentially almost by design, little [\u2026] dictators or totalitarians. They run the subreddit and they get to do whatever they want, even this, which is blatant censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n Delwiche added that there\u2019s very little recourse to counter a Reddit moderator potentially wielding power to stifle free speech. This isn\u2019t a First Amendment case meriting a free speech lawyer, she explained, since Reddit is a private enterprise and not, for example, a school or government entity.<\/p>\n However, complaints can be filed<\/a> with Reddit support if users feel a moderator is abusing their position. <\/p>\n Censorship appears to be an ongoing issue in r\/San Antonio, even when discussing censorship.<\/p>\n Within the forum\u2019s thread discussing the Current\u2019s ban, the moderator removed multiple users\u2019 comments and questions. One of the provided reasons for removing a post was \u201cmoderator\u2019s discretion,\u201d to which another user responded \u201clol.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like this sub is moderated by the SA Chamber of Commerce,\u201d user cool_guey replied. <\/p>\n \u201cI think its unamerican to abuse moderator authority to censor a news press because you don\u2019t like their reporting,\u201d thread author Cigarettesandwhiskey added. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t ban links to Newsmax even though I think they\u2019re a treasonous fifth column, much less the fucking Current. What\u2019s next, Home and Garden? Food Network? Lawn & Landscape? It seems so petty.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tCongressman Marc Veasey arrived at an ICE facility Monday in his latest attempt to follow up on the Observer\u2019s reporting.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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