Gadgetory

reddit is having an identity crisis I'm Bridget Carey this is your cnet update reddit one of the most visited sites on the internet is undergoing changes this 10 year old site is one giant discussion board to share links and talk about anything but that anything goes philosophy contributed to the creation of a very dark side of Reddit a cesspool of hate and violence in the beginning it was designed as a place to say anything you want but that tone is changing as the company is growing last year reddit received a 50 million dollar investment now it's making small steps to address that dark side the co-founder and new CEO Steve Huffman laid out new rules in a post saying that it's going to ban spam harassment publishing people's private information and anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people but you'll still be able to find hateful speech the way reddit works is that there are subcategories for an endless list of topics and reddit is continuing to allow topics for groups that promote bigotry among other filth instead of banning it read it's just going to put a curtain over it and hide it in the corner flagging it as indecent and requiring you to opt-in to seeing it read it says it also isn't going to make it searchable and it's not going to sell ads on it so why not just clean up everything crude perhaps read it doesn't want a complete revolt from its massive user base of a hundred and sixty four million monthly visitors even if they don't sell ads on the pages that are vile I'm sure they're still counting those users and activity in their overall numbers to attract advertisers and show growth you see this is red it's big identity problem does a care more about growing as a business or doesn't want to be a home for trolls former CEO Ellen Pao wrote in an editorial quote the trolls are winning but perhaps those trolls are finding a new place to stay the site vote Co is marketing itself as the place to go if you don't like red is restrictions vote promises completely unfettered free speech and it's ranked by users just like red it is with no legal subject out of bounds there's a different sort of drama brewing over at uber the ride-hailing app ever since it rolled into our lives uber husband fighting a constant battle against government regulators over its operations which threaten the status quo of taxi Commission groups ubers latest battle with New York City has changed the app if you use the app in New York there's a new option called de Blasio named after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and when you click on it it shows no cars available and a wait time of 25 minutes asking users to tell the mayor against the city putting limits on the service you see the City Council is scheduled to vote soon our proposal to cap ubers growth to fight traffic congestion but Hoover says it shouldn't be capped and there's demand for these jobs it's a battle free market versus government that's it for this tech news update there's always more to dive into its cnet com from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey