Reddit breaks the law to quell protests - spez has gone too far

The CEO of Reddit is Destroying the Website

In this section, the speaker discusses how the CEO of Reddit is making sweeping changes to the website that are angering the community and causing users to protest.

Changes to Reddit

• The CEO of Reddit is making sweeping changes to the website.

• These changes are angering the community and causing users to protest.

• The value in Reddit comes from its users who post content and information, upvote and downvote content, and provide valuable data.

• There is an incentive structure for Reddit to make it difficult for users to remove their data.

Thomas Hunter II's Experience

• Thomas Hunter II deleted all his posts on June 13th as a form of protest against the changes made by Reddit's CEO.

• A few days later, he noticed that all his posts had been restored by Reddit.

• He submitted a legal request under CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), but received a response saying that they will not delete his content.

• He wrote back stating that this violates CCPA and demanded that all content associated with his account be deleted.

Manual Deletion of Posts

• After receiving no response from Reddit, Thomas decided to manually delete every single one of his posts one by one.

• After deleting everything, he noticed that all his posts were restored again by Reddit.

Conclusion

In this section, the speaker concludes that Reddit's value comes from its users and their content. The CEO's changes are causing users to protest and leave the website. Thomas Hunter II's experience highlights the difficulty in removing data from Reddit.

Key Takeaways

• Reddit's value comes from its users who provide useful content.

• There is a difficulty in removing data from Reddit.

• The CEO of Reddit is making changes that are causing users to protest and leave the website.

Reddit Violating CCPA

In this section, the speaker talks about how Reddit is violating the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by not deleting users' posts and comments upon request.

Reddit's Violation of CCPA

• Reddit manually tries to delete all of his posts and they reappear anyway.

• There are many posts that have personally identifiable information, and they all showed back up again.

• It appears impossible to manually delete posts and comments on Reddit and expect them to stay deleted.

• There is no way to guarantee that no personally identifiable information has been left behind otherwise known as a Pentium too.

• They must delete comments and posts from an account after receiving a CCPA request which they refuse to do.

Silicon Valley Social Media CEOs

In this section, the speaker talks about how Silicon Valley social media CEOs think like rapists.

Silicon Valley Social Media CEOs

• Silicon Valley social media CEOs think like rapists.

• They run psychological experiments on their users without informing them because they believe they have the right to do so.

• Many of these companies believe that it's not your data, it's theirs; it's not your value, it's theirs; it's not your content, it's theirs.

• They get to set the terms of their own website but also disobey the law, disobey the users, and violate the very concept of consent.

Value in Reddit User Base

In this section, the speaker talks about where the value in Reddit lies.

Value in Reddit User Base

• The value in Reddit is in its user base.

• The value in Reddit is when somebody answers a question to the best of their ability and just so happens to be a scholar in their field.

• The value in Reddit is when somebody asks some random personal finance question, and the only website where somebody has had the exact same issue as you is Reddit.

• If what you are trying to do is trick people into believing that this platform is still valuable in spite of the fact that many of these valuable users have left, what you need is for that content to be searchable.

Violating Law for Business

In this section, the speaker talks about how violating laws for business purposes can lead to negative consequences.

Violating Law for Business

• Once you're at the point where you have to make certain decisions in order to be valuable, it's time to pack it in.

• Retaining posts on Reddit in violation of CCPA destroys the value of his website.

• If they want investors to believe that this website still has value despite much of its user base disappearing, they need potential investors to see that content is searchable.