By “we” I mean me. I know bot556 is a bit harder core on “free speech.” But I don’t think either of us has modded anything yet.

Free speech includes the right to say some pretty f***ed up stuff. But what it also includes is our right to call those a**holes out for their bigotry and hate. We can't stop them from saying what they will(this is the internet after all), but what we can do is tell them why they're wrong, and maybe even change their minds(doubtful but sometimes worth a shot).

I've had a few spats with Timber1972, but when he said "the defense to speech you don't agree with is better speech", he was right. So if extremists ever come knocking, let's try to one-up those d***heads with superior debate skills.

Death threats or threats of violence I will report. If user says "I'm going to go shoot up a gay nightclub", for example then I'll report him, because he really could be planning to pull another Pulse. But if he says he hates gays, for whatever stupid non-excuse he can muster, I'll tell him why he should be more tolerant, and try to sway his opinion with stronger arguments and reasoning. Even if we go around in circles, he'll at least might come away thinking "those [insert overgeneralization of a given group] aren't all SJWs." Perhaps he might even develop some respect for those who hold the belief that's counter to his.

If I were to delete the comments of said user, he could accuse me of censorship and denial of his right to freedom of speech. It would give him all the more reason to believe his hateful beliefs and perhaps strengthen them further. If I let him say his piece, even if it is hateful and wrong, at least I might have a chance at convincing him to change his mind.

Well said.

I do believe at a certain point, however, content control has to kick in. As Mods of this stream, we are at some level responsible (even vaguely) for giving a platform to any viewpoint expressed here.

Example: If a dozen TobyThePugs (a rather extreme homophobic/transphobic ImgFlipper) descended on this stream and each of them started posting 3 homophobic memes per day, eventually the positive thoughtful content everyone else has contributed will be drowned out and those stumbling across this stream would rightly conclude it’s a platform for anti-gay nonsense regardless of what the stream description actually says.

Or, if a dozen anti-maskers teamed up and tried to do the same thing to troll and derail this stream.

Or a dozen anti-Obama birthers (believe it or not, they still exist). And so on and so on.

You can try to reason with such people, but if they’re hardcore and committed and hateful enough, you’re only wasting your own time and shouting into the wind. And any pattern of conduct as I’ve described above would clearly be an abusive and bad faith use of this stream.

Those folks already have platforms on Stormfront and the other dark corners of the internet. Let them return there: Because unless countered, they will attempt to destroy tolerance, beauty, and reason wherever they find it.

I used to hold views on free speech a bit closer to yours, but witnessing and being a part of countless social media interactions in this era of fake news have made me a bit more cynical.

"You can try to reason with such people, but if they’re hardcore and committed and hateful enough, you’re only wasting your own time and shouting into the wind. And any pattern of conduct as I’ve described above would clearly be an abusive and bad faith use of this stream."

Correct. Those patterns of behavior(spamming, types of s***posting) fall under the category of harassment, which mods certainly are responsible for dealing with. If people want to flaunt those rules, they should expect to face consequences for it.

That is what it really comes down to.

Harassment/cyberbullying can be difficult to assess in the context of a single meme or comment thread, but when you get the same bad-faith behavior over and over again from the same account over multiple memes and comment chains, then it becomes a lot clearer.

I agree completely.

By golly bot556: I think we have threaded the needle of this whole “free speech online in an era of fake news nonsense” question.

Let’s cheers to that!

Now, the million-dollar question: what would this site as a whole look like if the ImgFlip Mods adopted and consistently applied the same framework for combating abuse — and not just to open-and-shut cases like purgey’s anti-Semitism, repeated calls for hanging Democrats, etc.?

Starting with this stream perhaps? imgflip.com/m/KylieMinogueSUCKS

Oh yeah this too, a project for countering the other stream I linked with facts, reason, positivity, and (mostly) respect imgflip.com/m/Anti-KylieSUCKS

The stream‘s been live less than a month and hasn’t caught on like wildfire because it’s not fueled by the embers of hate, but if you generally agree with the argument a follow would be appreciated.

I'll be honest with you: I'm reluctant to follow the stream because I don't want to become the target of similar harassment. A 'bot556_SUCKS' stream is not something I want to deal with.

But you know what? At the end of the day, someone has to stand up for what is right. And if that means I make a few enemies then let them bring it. I can take it.

I'll follow your new stream.

Thanks man.

And actually I’m not sure if anyone can see who follows your stream — even stream Mods cannot other than the initial notification that someone followed your stream.

And as nasty as the trolls on this site can get, they generally leave under-18 crowd alone. Part of the reason I don’t really get harassed on certain streams I Mod which have a lot of teens including this one. And why they reserve their most hateful commentary for their own particular streams.

They’re pretty clever about it.

You know what though? Frustrating as it is, at the end of the day, harassment only exposes the harasser as a messenger of hate.

Social change is afoot this year and I don’t think ImgFlip will permit this kind of commentary forever.

I followed but it's not showing up on my profile, only my streams drop-down, that 3rd follower is me.

Cross-post with LGBTQ imgflip.com/i/4b7uva

And for that, we can thank ImgFlip’s neo-Nazis and crypto-fascists for so far not having really targeted this stream in any sort of attempt to start a social experiment about exactly how much hateful, bigoted, fact-free, or anti-science propaganda the mods of this stream are willing to tolerate.

Don’t go getting any ideas!