The influence of interim Reddit Inc. CEO Ellen Pao became more apparent Thursday with the announcement that the widely popular site was cracking down on alleged cases of harassment.

In an announcement to the Reddit blog that would shock many long-term Reddit users, the “Reddit team” wrote that they were “unhappy with harassing behavior on Reddit.”

“We’ve seen many conversations devolve into attacks against individuals. We share redditors’ frustration with these interactions. We are also seeing more harassment and different types of harassment as people’s use of the Internet and the information available on the Internet evolve over time.”

“Instead of promoting [the] free expression of ideas, we are seeing our open policies stifling free expression; people avoid participating for fear of their personal and family safety.”

The answer to these alleged problems: bringing out the ban hammer, with users now able to report alleged “harassing” behavior via emailing contact@reddit.com or sending the mods a message.

Trigger warning

Up front, it sounds all very nice in theory, but the real agenda can be found in the language used to sell it: the constant use of the word safe/ safety in the blog post.

“To keep everyone safe,” the post says is the goal of the policy, all but saying that under the leadership of Ellen Pao they want Reddit to become a safe space.

What’s a safe space? Well according to one definition “a safe space is a place where anyone can relax and be able to fully express, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe…”

Criticism or thought that isn’t compatible with a far left wing, social justice warrior (SJW) politically correct view of the world isn’t welcome in a safe space.

Indeed, “harassment” according SJW’s could simply be expressing an opinion they don’t agree with, complete with them being triggered; a circlejerk subreddit that jokes about others would clearly trigger these sorts of people, and won’t last long under the new policy.

Discussion about Gamergate? good luck with that, and Re/Code has already nominated that as one area that should be banned on Reddit under the new policy, because pointing out the ethical issues around sleeping your way to stories involves “hostility to women.”

There’s really no end to how far such policies may go, and as we’ve seen in one case in England this week, simply being white and male can be found to be trigger worthy as well; would Reddit go as far as banning white men from the site? as a whole no, but white men who discuss topics deemed beyond their rights by the chattering SJWs could well find themselves banned under the policy for even unintentional harassment.

The announcement is a huge win for social justice warriors, and bad for free speech, and those millions of Reddit users who aren’t triggered every time someone disagrees with them.

Image credit: chrishuggins/Flickr/CC by 2.0