I've already seen this issue arise and I'm worried that different users on Voat have a different opinion on what being "anti-censorship" means.
First of all I'd like to point out that I'm in favor of free speech. Not only on Voat as a neutral platform but also politically regarding country laws. In this sense, I think it's great that the Voat admins do not delete submissions or subverses they don't like. However the same musn't necessarily be true for subverse owner.
The idea behind subverses, as I understand it, is that the person who creates a new subverse is able to decide its rules, meaning that he or she can also decide what can and what cannot be posted, additionally giving him the right to delete any submission or comment that he deems is breaking the rules. We could say that subverses are privately managed spaces within a larger ideologically neutral platform.
I believe it is important that we give users the freedom to manage and shape their subverses into the way they deem most appropiate. After all, if they fuck up then users can always move to a different subverse. I'm worried that some people will eventually claim that a mod deleting a post or a comment is against Voat's free speech principle and that a discussion will arise.
I believe that it's private subverse management which provides an incentive to take care of a community, curate content, set reasonable rules and spend time and effort into that subverse. I fear that, if that's not the case, Voat might fall prey to a typical "tragedy of the commons".
What is your opinion on this topic? If Voat's in favor of free spech, does that mean that the platform itself is neutral or should subverse mods be limited in their actions of deleting a post or comment as well?
https://xkcd.com/1357/
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[–] Asimov2 ago
I think on the topic of subverses it boils down to the mods that decide what the rules and limits for that sub are. Now this is why it's probably better to have a deadicated group or at least a few people instead of one guy just controlling a subverse. In a sense if I were to use an analogy it would be you have the right to free speech but you don't ( in my opinion ) have the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowed theater. If subverses are like theaters then don't go into the ones you know are full of people yelling fire. They think they know what they are doing and probably aren't going to stop but you ( and maybe the rest of people ) just go to other theaters because you want to watch a movie not yell "Fire!"