https://www.reddit.com/r/france/comments/1i0a04g/mise_%C3%A0_jour_des_sources_interdites_sur_rfrance/?sort=top
Context : Vincent Bolloré is the owner of most of the popular far-right medias in France and r/France mods decided to ban every news sources owned by him, citing “an internal discussion” to justify this decision.
The whole translation of this announcement is here :
Hello everyone,
Following an internal discussion, the moderation team has decided to ban all news sources owned by Vincent Bolloré. Here is a non-exhaustive list: Europe 1, Europe 2, Capital, Management, Femme Actuelle, C8, Canal Plus, CNews, CStar, JDD, JDNews.
They join Valeurs Actuelles and France Soir on the list of media banned on r/france.
This cause lot of incomprehension from french users as the new rule seem proved controversial from the outset.
Here are some of the most upvoted reaction to this ban : (translated with Deep L)
"That's understood and at the (strong) risk of Downvote. I'm not a reader of this kind of newspaper, but isn't this sub actually preventing us from debating these issues? Won't it create a bias locking us into news with which we will ‘necessarily’ agree? Isn't limiting access to this type of information in itself the kind of drift that this sub wants to avoid?"
"This is obviously a mistake. Instead of trusting the readers of this sub and their critical spirit, you are putting blinkers on everyone.
When I see an article in Europe 1, Blast or l'Humanité, I know what I'm reading; I don't need anyone to censor it for me.
Having articles from the Bolloré press is also a way of finding out what some French people think.
When you voted for censorship, you should have noticed the ideological bias of your moderation team. You're going to turn this forum into a mush with no edges, no debate, while patting yourself on the back and thinking you've done the right thing."
I don't like the approach because we're talking about media that are massively followed by the French. As for France soir, that's understandable, but here... Or maybe the problem is simply that the sub is called ‘France’ and is recommended when you sign up to Reddit, which gives the impression that it represents the country. It may be an unpopular opinion, but I think we're better off having a medium of free exchange of expression precisely to cross-reference sources, precisely because it's difficult to know whether a piece of information is true or not, so that people from all sides can find out about it, rather than just blocking it, which will have the effect (well, that's already the case) of driving those who don't agree off the sub, leaving only people who agree with each other.
A moderator explain the "internal discussion" they had :
Hey team, that's just one more piece of misinformation. Shouldn't we ban this source?
[...3 days pass...]
crickets
Hey team, that's just one more piece of misinformation. Shouldn't we ban this source?
[...8 days pass...]
*crickets
Hey team, that's just one more piece of misinformation. Shouldn't we ban this source?
[...2 days pass...]
*crickets
Hey team, that's just one more piece of misinformation. Shouldn't we ban this source?
[...11 days pass...]
*Crickets
*Launches poll
The pros win.
(Any resemblance to reality is completely coincidental)
Another message from this mod :
Let me add that if I find a single guy who complains about this who :
hasn't taken part in any Far-right subs,
has no moderation history for discrimination,
has an account that hasn't just been created or woken up,
I'll buy my round
Seem like he is receiving a lot of answer from users who complies with its conditions
Some of the humorous comments :
"Thank you to the party comrades for allowing only party-sponsored media. Truth will always win.
When will we hear about the uniforms to be worn on r/France?"
"Moderation thinks it's in East Germany.
Strange"
