Is TheTopTens Censorship Really that Bad?

When I made my list “Top Ten Problems with TheTopTens in 2019”, I discussed about the site’s censorship, and how a user didn’t approve one of my comments which contained constructive criticism. That same user, OnlyInDreams, previously discussed about the site’s “ridiculous” censorship, and how criticism, opinions, and swear words have been silenced for many years.

But the more I’ve been on this site, I’ve realized something. Is the censorship here really that bad?

I’ve been a part of Reddit since 2017, which doesn’t seem like a long time, but this is coming from a user who has been banned from quite a few subs, most notably r/cfb, because of my anti-Tennessee sh*tposts. That does seem like a good reason to ban a user, but let’s take a look at some other users who got banned from subreddits.

Almost a month ago, a user got banned from r/drama for being “underage”, all because he posted a picture of his dog. The user was actually 19 years old, and the mods assumed he was too young because “only kids like dogs”. Don’t believe me? Here’s a link to the thread.

Just yesterday, an actual physician got banned from r/insaneparents for telling someone that AIDS wasn’t an autoimmune disease. This was an actual physican, who spoke the truth, and got banned for it. Remember, AIDS stands for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”, not “Auto Immune”. According to the mods, this physician was trolling because he was arguing using fake facts. Once again I have a link for proof.

r/topmindsofreddit has been on a banning spree lately. One user got banned just for pointing out the fact that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, which he was. Seriously? Getting banned for saying that someone was a Republican is just wrong. The same subreddit is also now openly supporting pedophilia.

I could go on about the mods, but I think we should take a look at the censorship from the site’s staff itself.
One particular subreddit, r/The_Donald, a community of over 750,000 Trump supporters, was quarantined earlier this year. This means that you’ll now get a warning that the subreddit can be “highly offensive or upsetting”. According to the media and Reddit itself, the subreddit was censored because some users were posting threats of violence. Even though the mods and admins on the subreddit took action and deleted those threatening posts, Reddit still decided to censor the sub. This is irrefutable proof that Reddit, along with the rest of the mainstream media, will do anything to silence Donald Trump and his supporters. As much as I dislike Trump, he and all of his supporters don’t deserve to be silenced. I’ve seen conspiracy theories that the violent commenters were actually liberals pretending to be Trump supporters so they can post violent threats and get the subreddit banned. If this was true, then I wouldn’t be surprised.

So reddit censors subreddits with alternative information and bans users for terrible reasons. Now what does TheTopTens censor again? Swear words? User criticism?

“Abraham Lincoln is a Republican”

“Donald Trump is a good President”

“Pedophilia is wrong”

Admin, if you are reading this, I dare you to ban me for those three comments I just said. I bet you can’t, because this is irrefutable proof, that TopTenners have a lot of freedom compared to users on Reddit. Now obviously it depends on which subreddits you post and comment on. Some subreddits are good but subs like r/drama and r/topmindsofreddit should be avoided. If the reddit censorship is too much for you, Voat.co is an alternative used mainly by the alt-right and contains lots of alternative information. Sure you’d find the users there to be racist xenophobes, but at least they don’t remove anything.

So next time you think about TheTopTens and it’s “ridiculous” censorship, think. You could always have it worse. The Censorship on TheTopTens, although annoying for some users, is not that bad. If it was, my list "Top Ten Alternative News Sources", probably would've been removed by now, just for promoting alternative information, especially since InfoWars was so high up on the list.

If this post gets removed for any reason, my next post will be titled "Yes, TheTopTens censorship really is that bad".

Update: Reddit is now banning users for supporting Trump. Trump supporters aren't allowed to leave their quarantined sub r/The_Donald or else they get banned for "spreading propaganda". Reddit truly is afraid of opposition.

Comments

This community has generally been one of the more neutral ones in which the only censored posts and banned users only get censored or banned because they directly hurt or offend someone over something that's generally menial. in other words, this site's terms of use aren't as strict as others like Twitter. removing "Donald Trump" from "Best Presidents of the US" list is not going to happen though, mostly because he is a president and despite all the negativity the rest of the media gives him, there is no denying he's a president and he qualifies for that list.

the other sites you describe are completely alt-left, there's too many that get offended over pin pricks, Republican values and politicians, as well as traditional values (this one is the most laughable). they censor and ban because they know they cannot come up with a proper refutable argument. and the bans you describe are also laughable. Banning someone because they said Lincoln was Republican means that the one who banned basically never studied history being the second grade (I am aware this is an insult to whoever banned on that reddit, but they deserve it)

we're living in an age where fear-mongering and censoring based off of feelings is becoming a norm and TheTopTens is honestly one of the few sites I can think of that doesn't practice this kind of thing apart from a select few unimportant users. the other sites tend to those who are easily triggered, but it will get to the point that in the future, these sites will start banning anyone for anything (going from just trolls to even longtime loyal users). the end result is the most leftist users end up being left there until THEY eat themselves apart. TheTopTens will never become this and it never should, it's a strictly neutral site and should stay that way. bans here only happen because of direct bullying, and shouldn't be over conservative opinions. - NuMetalManiak (11/3/2019)

They Can censor Swear Words, But not Other Opinions. - visitor (11/10/2019)

I agree that censorship on TheTopTens is all ridiculous, and this site has some of the lousiest admins that I've seen. You're allowed to bandwagon and spread hate all over TheTopTens, but cursing restricts you.
Many controversial and outdated lists exist on TheTopTens, but the admins don't do anything about it. - visitor (11/26/2019)

R/Metal is miles ahead of r/drama and r/topmindsofreddit in terms of censorship.
I DARE you to post any songs by those "Core" bands on there. Go ahead.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchRedditDie/comments/diyl7q/today_i_was_permanently_banned_from_rmetal_for_a/ - Joeljohns249 (12/1/2019)

Why Do They Censor Opinions! (And Criticism Because IceFoxPlayz got Suspended for Criticizing Ihatetrump. and I Almost Gotten Suspended for Doing the Same Thing to Gameubesarecool193.) Please Don't Tell Me that The Admins Can't Tell the Difference To Trolling and Criticism. Because Criticism is Used to Make a Better Person. Trolling is Just Used to Anger Someone. - visitor (12/12/2019)

I remember r/edgymemes got quarantined after New Zealand shooting despite not having anything to do with it - DarkBoi-X (12/15/2019)