Illegal content will be deleted immediately The web host said that it terminated Voat's hosting because the website was "publicising incitement of people, as well as abusive, insulting, and youth-endangering content," along with "illegal right-wing extremist content". However, in the same month, its web host terminated Voat's contracts and shut down its servers without a warning. On 25 June, Voat reported that it was receiving over 700,000 unique visitors in a 30-day period. Of course Reddit argues that the Up Vote, Down Vote button helps its community to self-moderate and prevent truly vicious content, but if there are less people on Voat, then there are less people to get offended.
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Reddit's moderators are well known for subtly shaping the tone of subreddits, and so users who are on the far right tend to dislike the fact that their comments are not exactly celebrated, whereas on Voat there is no one complaining about what they say. Internet users who don't like having their comments moderated often argue their case for freedom of speech using the quote, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," which was written by British author Beatrice Evelyn Hall in 1906 under the pseudonym S G Tallentyre (but often misquoted as being by the French philosopher Voltaire). Internet trolls find Voat\'s lack of moderation attractive iStock Internet trolls tend to post bullying, sexist, misogynistic, racist, sexually explicit or politically extreme comments, and from Voat's website, it doesn't seem that there is any moderation, or even any volunteer mods, as the website is run by only two students. "While we don't necessarily approve or agree with all content that users submit to Voat, our policy is to not meddle and not censor content unless said content is illegal in Switzerland," Voat writes on its FAQ page.Īccording to Swiss internet law, users cannot post content that incites racial hatred or discrimination, however there are no specific laws that legislate how social networks run, so users can only be prosecuted for flouting another law, such as invasion of privacy, or for distributing illegal content, such as child pornography. While the website claims that it wants to make sure that censorship never rules discussions and links posted, this statement is essentially an invite to any internet troll who has been banned from a forum for posting content that violates etiquette rules.
![sites like reddit without the conservatives sites like reddit without the conservatives](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/05/19/front-page_wide-489cab3888e71a49261e7387c313cdc47ab956d2-s1100-c50.jpg)
Voat started out as WhoaVerse in 2014, and changed its name in January 2015 to Voat, due to its original name being hard to pronounce and remember. Thousands of Reddit users are now migrating to Voat, a Swiss-hosted clone with a layout that is almost identical to Reddit, which is slowly rising in popularity. Her departure caused a huge online protest to erupt, which saw 300 of Reddit's most read subreddits being made private for over 24 hours and forced Reddit CEO Ellen Pao to resign.īut the writing's been on the wall for quite some time, especially since Reddit began cracking down on subreddits where users posted "revenge porn" – sexually explicit images without the subject's permission – in February. On 2 July, it was announced that director of talent Victoria Taylor, one of the few people to have a paid position with Reddit, had been fired. In case you've been living under a rock over the last two weeks and haven't heard, Reddit, which has gradually become more and more commercialised, has experienced a huge revolt. Just when you were getting used to Reddit being the front page of the internet and offering links to all the worthwhile news in the world, as well as plentiful discussion, now a rival called Voat has come along to take its place.