please delete /v/youngladies /v/toddlers /v/preteens

I've peeked over https://voat.co/v/bannedsubs for ban reasons. The "conflicts with swiss law" parts are ridiculously vague. You can ban anything at any point for whatever reasons this way.

Everything NSFW conflicts with:

"Any person who offers, shows, passes on or makes accessible to a person under the age of 16 pornographic documents, sound or visual recordings, depictions or other items of a similar nature or pornographic performances, or broadcasts any of the same on radio or television is liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or to a monetary penalty. "

as you cannot assure the age of voat users.

Either way, there was nothing bad or illegal on /v/jailbait . It was well moderated. Which part of it was even conflicting with "Art. 12 Breaches of privacy" ?

Seeing this for the first time, I might take my leave. I mean, Ellen Pao banned one subreddit, in the process Victoria was fired, and many subreddits when private to protest. Here, you've banned 4 subverses and threaten people who have been on these free-to-use subverses with information that can put them in jail upon request. I get its hard to make this, all for free, with a boatload of Redditors that appeared out of the blue, and now DDoS and the like...but I don't see where censoring comes into play even after. Either way, Ellen Pao isn't even a CEO anymore. I'll keep my account but probably won't ever use it unless Reddit shall fall again.

Isnt there any way for the Owners of the site to lay out exactly what is expected on Voat. That way, people with know. As I read this discussion, it makes me stand back a little because it sounds to me like you are heavily moderating, and not really giving reasons why. What also worries me is if there is illegal activity on a website, it has to be dealt with, and reported. If its not. it gives the impression that the site feels that its acceptable behaviour. I think personally, it could have been posted in a different way, as it sounds very confrontational. As somebody who never used the other site, I am really enjoying using this one, and if it means following guidelines, then so be it. It makes for a secure environment, and that surely should be the most important thing. Hope that makes sense.

So what the fuck is the difference between you and reddit?

I just created an account here because I thought Voat would be different, then I found this :/ Bye Voat.

Banning illegal content is perfectly reasonable. Your servers have to be in a physical location in some country, and that country's laws must be obeyed. As long as this doesn't escalate to politically motivated bans, like on that other site, I don't see why it should be an issue.

Sorry if this has been covered already, but this thread has gotten kinda waaay tl;dr in the comment section.

I am extremely curious what type of ddos this was. I know giving too much information is probably not good since it might give other potential attackers information they could use to attack more effectively. But a little more detail might be useful to make it more obvious that it isn't just a case of simply a lot more regular traffic than the system was prepared for. I hadn't heard of this site seventeen days ago when the ddos's were in the last few days, so I don't know what it looked like then; was the IP nullrouted? For most types of ddos that would probably be the host's first move to protect their network. Or, if it was at the application level, were there lots of requests following some pattern, which is obviously out of place?

I am not a lawyer, and know even less about Europe where I have not yet been, but it seems to me there would be a large difference between there existing links to media somewhere else, and actually having that media on your system. I think That Other Website might make use of thumbnails, which has caused part of their problem (more specifically, their more precarious legal position since the thumbnails would be on their servers); I am still extremely new here and have not yet seen if thumbnails are used here. If there are no thumbnails in use here, then I think that would likely put this site on more solid footing with regards to complaints from the host regarding the content. But it would depend heavily on the exact laws whereever the host is located, as well as the exact rules in their terms of service and/or acceptable use policy.

I imagine this is probably quite a larger project than you imagined when you started. And it sounds like you do not yet have a lawyer on your team. With things like this happening, it may be useful to find one to assist you in the near future. Have you considered contacting the EFF? They are admittedly based in the USA (from what I'm reading here there seems to be a bit of distrust associated with that) however, they are one of the main fighters against the types of problems I'm seeing complaints about. I don't know as much about them as I probably should, but from what little I do know, it sounds like they might be able to help with some of this, in part because it is part of what they specialize in.

I know I'm really late to the party, but which country's laws is Voat following? The country where the administrators live? The country where Voat's servers are hosted? Obviously we can't follow all countries laws and we can't disregard all laws either, but since Voat is an international website, which countries laws are you guys applying?

I understand and also know that sensorship takes these sites out. In addition if you want to keep this site small then sell memberships and keep it private.

This is very good! Yay!

As much as I love the freedom to voice whatever opinions I have, I have to agree with banning CP and subverses that have content that might be interpreted as CP. There has to be a line in the sand, and this is it in my opinion.

/u/Atko there needs to be proof for takedowns. Otherwise you are doing the same thing as Reddit here, banning with no proof.

It's not permanent. Not yet, at least.

You will always have my support, as long as you let people say what they want to say. If I want to make racist/sexist/bigoted/whatever comments, I should feel free to do so, as long it is not actually illegal.

Many of us are here because of reddit's new stance on hurting the feelings of faggots and trannies. Don't follow them.

That's the idea tho.

They can't get at the 3rd parties who are all over the globe, so they get at the hosts who are easily found and targeted.

Until a truly disseminated host-less internet arises, that's the easiest way for governments to police the web.

Could you reverse my paypal donation to you?

I was under the impression that bans would not be made for petty reasons of political correctness. Cheers.

yo bro, that's nonsense. peace out

Free markets have done a good job of creating jobs globally, thereby creating wealth ("sharing" is an unnecessary analogous requirement). It's not magic, it's economics and human self-interest.

What do you believe the cause was? Freedom to link illegal content? Has fatpeoplehate been banned? no. Why? because they do not link illegal content and this is a free speech site. You still have free speech here, at reddit you would not be able to have this conversation if a power-mad mod decides to ban you because.

Don't worry, I will donate more to compensate. If you believe atko should be allowing the linking of any content, you should be donating much more, because lawyers are very expensive.

I do not feel bad those questionable subs are banned. I fully understand you do not want to be jailed because others post links they know is (near) illegal.

To those that think it's an attack on free speech, need to re-evaluate what freedom of speech is. Go to the streets and protest the law if you think that is ridiculas. Do not expect others to break laws so you can watch 14 year olds in their panties. ( I personally think there is a big difference between child pornography and some teen uploading selfies because they crave attention, but that is an intirely different conversation.)

People are getting all worked up because they say; "at Reddit it started like this too.." but as far as I can see, we are still free to ridicule any minority group and point out other peoples flaws as much as we like. Our conversations are not censcored and I certainly do not have the feeling I have to watch what I say.

It is NOT the same as removing fph, and to be honest the fact people are so fiesty in defending stuff that is harmfull to the protection of our children is a little scary to me.

Holy shit, history is repeating itself. Most of these people are here because Reddit began to censure us. Don't forget what your community is made of.

As a temporary measure

Now, does that mean those subs could return at a later date, to be judged on a case by case basis, (I.E., Is it actually illegal or just fucked up) or are they just gone forever?

As @lydia said (Because I can't really form an opinion on subs I had never heard of before this) - Truejailbait was outright asking for CP, while jailbait was actively against it.

Welcome to the Muppet Show lonely Voatherd.

This comment pending approval of the Ministry of Media Muppets.

I want to donate but I don't use bitcoin! Can you find a safe alternative to paypal?

I bailed from reddit for the sole reason that VOAT will not be censored. We HAVE fight this fight!

Wait wait wait...Voat was created to put an end to the censoring of Reddit via the FatPeopleHate scandal, and now you've literally done exactly the same thing Reddit did to you?

lolwut?

I wanted Voat to be a bastion of free speech where anyone could say anything and open discussion could prevail. This is still something I believe Voat can be, but we need your help. To make things worse, we may be personally liable for the content you guys submit to Voat. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like going to jail just because someone chose to anonymously post a link to an illegal image hosted somewhere on a third party server. Because Voat is being used by so many people, the two of us simply cannot review everything that is being posted. For this reason, as a temporary measure, we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage. In addition, to further dissuade individuals from posting questionable content, we will store all records about users who submit such content and we will forward these records to authorities upon request.

I loved whoaverse, this has been great from the start. Go get em man, we've got your back.

I have no reason to use voat any more. It's just like reddit only worse because it doesn't have the same momentum.

While I am never a fan of banning things outright; it is understandable on the actions taken here, I know I do not want you two arrested because someone (most likely intentionally) posts something illegal to get you caught up in trouble.

I just sent some bitcoin in support to aid in this time of crisis and pressure from whoever is trying to destroy this place before it gets any bigger.

I hope you have some sort of warrant canary in place that can tip us off if things ever get taken away from you and /U/Puttitout

If ya ever take a trip the US and are out by me I would gladly by ya a drink.

Keep up the good fight /u/Atko

Posting naked pictures of people that don't have the chance to give consent is becoming punishable in many states. This is not about you losing your freedom of speech...go watch porn or swap pictures with people that actually want to. I find this completely ridiculous.

If you want jailbait, just look on Instagram or something.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

I hope I've never been doxxed without knowing 😨😱😬

We're actually working to get certain users banned from this site. Reddit has been so toxic that we've gotten them shadow banned permanently and now we are going to get them banned here. You know who you are.

For the rest of you, you think you've found a reprieve or a safe-haven. Think again. Consider this a warning. Stop being racist, sexist, homophobic and trans-phobic. Again, this is a warning.

Well said 😄😌😏😉

Ever considered hosting a version of this site on Tor so that censorship isn't a concern? Problem is they'd still know it's you who set it up. Unless you make the code open source... But then there'll be a million Voats online within a day. Also the Tor version would probably just be for CP. I do believe in free speech and free sharing and if people want to take a risk on illegal content that's their business, but maybe Voat should steer clear of it.

On this occasion I can see that anything which puts the future of the site or the safety of the creators into danger can't be acceptable... But then if Voat became "for profit", would a subverse exclusively about Voat related complaints be banned because it was considered dangerous to the future of the site? I guess as long as the site remains neutral and doesn't interfere beyond cases which could get it into serious trouble, like CP, then i'm still on board.

Am in no way affiliated with voat, but I think it should be made abundantly clear: The voat project's existence supersedes these subverses existence. If you want to complain that these subs are gone for now, go for it, but don't expect voat to survive. Optionally, you could wait until voat finally has the strength to actually be able to exist legally with these subs.

Ultimately it's your choice – impatiently demand grey zone subs that threaten to kill voat in its infancy, or wait until voat has the funding and staff that it so desperately needs to be able to deal with these properly.

Holy fucking shit people, chill the fuck out. I left reddit because of censorship, and to me this isn't "censorship because some skinny white male patriachists hurt my fee fees", this is censorship because THEY'RE COVERING THEIR ASSES. You don't like it? DONATE to Voat, don't leave. Get them rolling. Let them get powerful enough to afford a diligent lawyer team.

We all know why TheFappening was banned on Reddit, and it boiled down to celebrities having more money and power to shut down reddit than reddit had. As for truejailbait, it was fucking borderline CP the entire time. Mods at jailbait seemed to work pretty hard, but again, this is just voat covering their tails. I sure as hell wouldn't want to get charged with possession or distribution of CP.

Let Voat get rolling before you judge. This is just them taking precautions before it gets shut down completely. Again, the best thing you can do right now is donate your time and money to them.

Good luck Atko; you still have my full support.

This is expected, but disappointing. Look at that slippery slope!

Yeah, well it's been posted in like twice in the past month, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that free speech.

user privacy

Did you miss this part of the OP?

In addition, to further dissuade individuals from posting questionable content, we will store all records about users who submit such content and we will forward these records to authorities upon request.

You can't store records about these 'individuals' without doing it for everyone else as well.

Get some investors and lawyer up. You're gonna need it. Also you should seriously consider dropping the shady corporation that is PayPal.

You banned /v/jailbait? What the FUCK is wrong with you? If I want to jack off to little kids, I can jack off to little kids. I thought this place was the opposite of reddit with its lack of censorship, but by god, you faggots are turning right into reddit. You are free to go fuck yourselves.

John Locke was a philosopher. Perhaps you should try reading works of different philosophers. Locke's 2nd Treatise, Of Government, about the relations among people, society, & government, would be a good place for you to start.

he's a faggot coward like the rest of the MRAs. he already backed down from a debate challenge because he's a scared little bitch.

just saying i could do my best to try and help. the site will be under attack for a bit but like with anything the media will forget since they have the attention span of a gnat just wait this out and it should be ok some day.

Well, shit. Where to now guys?

Voat hasn't been attacked because of it 'hosting illegal content'. This is just the same silencing tactic SJWs use against everyone that doesn't bow to political correctness. 8chan went through the same shit.

It doesn't matter what what Voat does. If they don't police language and enforce censorship they'll be attacked continuously. because the people who wormed their way into power in reddit don't want anyone to have a platform for open discussion.

And now Voat has done exactly what they wanted, turned on it's own community and betrayed the very foundation it was set upon. I was expecting this site to hold out longer, but I was clearly wrong.

PS: Expect FPH to get removed soon as well. They'll just claim it was "fostering harassment." Just like reddit.

youtube is the antithesis of free speech. the only speech that's allowed on youtube is FEMINIST SPEECH.

youtube considers any other type of speech to be "hate speech"

Voat's being targeted. Whoever is coordinating it is threatened. They're scared of you guys, /u/Atko and /u/PuttItOut.

And guess what? I know it sucks. It's going to be a terrible uphill climb. And it's going to be extremely difficult to get through it unscathed.

Here's the deal though. You know why's it's hard? It's hard because they're making it hard for you. And they're doing that on purpose. They're doing that, because....

They're scared of your progress.

They're scared because you're succeeding where they've failed.

They're threatened by you because you're more awesomer than they are and they know it.

So don't cave in. Don't bow to threats. And if the site goes down permanently, don't let it go down by caving to their pressure. Let it go down after a fight. And don't worry about the press. Because we'll all know what really happened.

Keep up the good work. And thank you.

EDIT: I just read the rest of ITT post and...it looks like...you guys already did cave? I understand it's just the two of you and you're exceedingly busy, but I know for a fact that there are people who will voluntarily (like, for free) monitor subverses for illegal content. An outright ban isn't required. Every other forum in the word has implemented voluntary janitors to find illegal content and enforce site policies when appropriate. But simply deleting whole content areas due to the actions of a small number of users....just...wow man. It took reddit 10 years to get to that point. It took you guys a few weeks. Is this the world we're living in? Did they threaten to plant cp on your computers or something?

Yeah, she seems like one of the many undercover SJWs that have already infiltrated Voat.

So you want it to be a free-speech platform for speech you find acceptable. So not a free-speech platform.

The car has already been vandalized. Now it's just a reddit clone with fewer users.

So anyone can get any subverse banned with minimal effort. So the platform is useless.

Next?

Let me know when you have worked out your definitive position on censorship. Get a lawyer, ask how it works when Voat is not the actual host. Until then i may as well stay on the other site that bans everything that is not cat pictures and puns. I mean if they can get you to ban the fappening with some bs emails over copyright you may as well stop. Every picture taken by anyone is copyrighted and can be posted to any sub.

Fucking godamnit. Wtf is an illegal link on an internet owned by all. Thats like saying theres illegal ideas. Jesus fucking christ. Fuck the internet .

The problem with the /v/jailbait, beyond it's questionable legality was that the sub was randomized when it was first created. This froze the front page of the sub and made it harder to remove posts. The best option if you would want to bring the sub back would be to hand the sub over to a team of trusted moderators and activate the function that only allowed the moderators of the sub to submit content. That way no one could flood the sub with cp and any cp on there could easily be removed. You could also get any images from known porn sites as they typically have license that make sure their actors are over 18.

So you'd prefer to liken jailbait, something that doesn't harm children, to child porn? All that does is encourage pedophiles to consume actual child porn. When there is the same stigma attached to both, we all know which one they'll choose.

How is /v/jailbait and /v/thefappening illegal?

So... the fappening violates some sort of personal copyright I gather that means every sub with copyrighted material is now going to be removed once it has been reported?
Yea, I doubt it.

we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage.

I'm worried about the "we can't judge if the content is illegal or not".

I am fully in support of banning subverses that actually are illegal, not questionable content. And as many others have pointed out, it has a risk of going down a slippery slope that many redditors (including me) jumped off of to here in varying times.

I love this place.

The line of the protection of freedom of speech and expression is a fine one. A line, to be sure, that I do not envy any one who has to be the guardian, keeper, judge, and enforcer of said line. As such, there is surely good reason behind banning the content you have chosen to ban. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and any freedom that exists is guaranteed only insofar as it does not hinder another's freedoms and existence. Specifically, the very nature of these subverses, although allowed by right to express, exist, and speak, are only allowed to do so as long as their exercising those rights do not threaten the freedoms of Voat, its developers, and its members to do the same. These subverses very actions were putting at risk the community we have built here and our freedoms.

Therefore, at least in my humble opinion, you all have done a good thing. You have started to clear the edges of this very thin line and begun drawing it not in sand, but in stone to protect the future of Voat and its community. I, for one, give you my thanks.

Whether it seems absurd or not, it is the case... and since it's the case, Atko has to protect himself. All of these people telling him he's "doing the wrong thing" are being selfish assholes and need to realize that this isn't just their free speech at hand here. They are arguing about non-protected behavior and at the risk of a person's freedom (prison).

You know you're doing something right when you piss the establishment off. Keep up the good work!

So because you consider something to be vile it needs to be banned? Isn't that the same argument reddit mods use to justify deleting content that isn't in line with their groupthink?

I believe you are confusing /v/jailbait and /v/truejailbait.

And here we actually have people defending child porn. Hmm, it's almost as if moderation on online forums I'd needed. You've all lost.

However its audience is solely pedophiles, who's existance is solely exploitive.

Pedophiles can't choose their sexual preferences any more than homosexuals can choose to be straight. Why would you deny them an outlet that harms no one? By denying this to them, all we do is encourage them to seek out an alternative outlet which I think we can all agree is far worse.

Welp this place has already destroyed itself. I read this today and now I am going to go else where. This BS political censorship is why I left reddit, now here it is on the top of voat's front page. FUCK YOU!

No, fuck that. When you ban a sub or a user you also provide proof. That's how it should be!

When something illegal happens on the street, is that street being closed because of it?

Or are the guilty persons taken to face the justice system, by the police force?

What voat did is destroy the street because someone said that there might have been persons doing something that might have been illegal.

VOAT YOU SUCK ASS. YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN REDDIT. FUCK YOU.

Probably the majority of the content of those four subverses can exist here, if only you're willing to make some minimal effort.

Dox signifies stolen or hacked information. What about calling this info Social Profile. Or Internet Phonebook. Have a means for people to opt out of being included in this reference database. Give some assurances of how the info was obtained legitimately. Put in safeguards to protect individuals from harm, and make sure their strictly observed.

If you want to view pictures of younger women, set some reasonable standards that have some chance of being accepted. A girl is a female who has not yet had a period. A woman is a female who has had her first period. These two classes should be treated separately. Sexualizing someone who hasn't even entered puberty just isn't going to fly at this point.

You're probably only going to be able to use pictures where full parental consent has been given. And the children being photographed must also be aware of it, and agree to it in a verifiable way.

Why couldn't an emancipated minor be photographed for compensation. What if the kid already works in a factory at a young age, and simply wants to earn some income. Some kind of understanding can probably be reached here.

Maybe call the youngest ones you label as "cute kids." You're only going to be allowed to do this in a tasteful and artistic way, I would venture. Is that really so bad? This can be a healthy and life-affirming thing. There's no support for a militarized and legalistic internet from the users in general. Let's take advantage of this while we still can. Once TTIP and TPP pass, we're all going to be screwed.

The young women who are capable of being young mothers you might call "pretty princesses" or something like that. Jailbait is a non-starter for obvious reasons. It's like you want to alert the authorities for some unknown reason. Don't popularize any of their newspeak propaganda words, keep it simple and natural.

I would imagine anyone who's a child actor would be fair game. It's already allowed to photograph you children if its for necessary artistic reasons. Why not use the same rationale for your subverse?

Lastly, it's already fairly risky to post pictures that you publicly label as taken without permission. But to associate fapping with them. That's ridiculous.

What about "Candid Celebs." as a subverse. And this time, set some reasonable rules as to what is allowable content. And what are allowable ways to obtain such content. It's really not that hard. Just think like a responsible adult. What would you do, if you were the one who would be paying fines and facing jail time if you were found violation of legal statues of one sort or another?

Some actresses might be considered in the public domain. Especially if they've already done nude work professionally.

It's better in the long run to take a stance that will last the test of time. It's not much fun to put all kinds of work into posting content, only to have it taken down in short order.

I think Voat can be on the bleeding edge of allowable content, but we're going to have act smarter and be more reasonable about such things, if I want to succeed where the other large websites have failed.

If someone doesn't stand up for this in an organized and intelligent manner, we'll soon be left with nothing but a sad empty cyber-ghetto where nothing useful is allowed, and we might as well be watching cable TV or Satellite TV, since it's no more risque on the internet, than it is on plain old broadcast programming.

I say good riddance. It baffles me that these creepy defenders of jailbait can say "but its not illegal!!" or "its free speech!!" as an argument to post pictures of young girls without their consent so they have something to jack off to. Such noble defenders of freedom! Like a lot of people I wandered in there one time to see what it was all about, and I was shocked that this was NOT illegal. There was clear nudity, and the whole thing was blatantly exploitative, so I got the hell out. It's ironic to me, if these jailbaiters value privacy and freedom then how can they circulate photos of minors that have NO IDEA they are being spread around and viewed. Thats just as invasive and damaging to freedom as monitoring web activity or phone calls that NSA engages in. I got into voat because it appeared to be a much more mature place than reddit, without obnoxious MRW memes and upvote gifs and pun chains...why sully it with this crap. Its really not hard I'm sure to find CP or celebrity porn or whatever on the internet, so why insist on it being here? Use a different place to share your weird porn. The importance of sites like voat is the uncensored sharing of IDEAS and knowledge and opinions...

Not on voat at the moment, no.

Where are you getting this assumption? Atko doesn't want to run ads but already has said he will if it's necessary.

I saw the announcement and thought we were going to have a subverse dedicated to the "Questionable Content" webcomic...

I am not a smart man...

Semi unrelated questions: Why would SRS be taking all of the credit for all of the shit that has been going down lately? If they were in fact behind all of this, did the Reddit Admins (namely Chairwoman Pao) endorse it?

Honestly, considering the kind of people who are against these measures, I'm not sure I want to stay here. :/ I do wish you good luck with Voat, though.

And the end of voat is here.

Some of you are fucking ridiculous. You heard it here first folks, anti-child porn laws are the work of the SJW mob! When will people ever learn?

HERE COMES THE CENSORSHIP AGAIN!

In theory, yes. With a limited number of administrators, no.

Unfortunately, two people are not sufficient to monitor the entire site. Thus, from a practical point I view, I can understand banning subverses directly dedicated to illegal material (e.g /v/truejailbait) and those where the legality of the material is still in question (e.g. /v/thefappening). We can't, unfortunately, expect the administrators of Voat to determine the legality of those images and thus need to decide, on a case-by-case basis, their liability in linking to nude pictures of any given celebrity. Lawyers haven't even decided the legal status of that yet.

Remember when /r\a_cups was similarly banned under the assumption that anyone with a flat chest was underdeveloped and thus might be underage?

Sigh unzips

Exactly, I'd have at least tried to believe if they banned just the "illegal" ones, but banning the fappening to clearly shows the start of bowing to the media.

I wish that was true, but sadly once the banhammer starts, it hardly ever stops being used again.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

I am not an angry type of person, but maybe we need to get organized like the other side. I forgot, we can't make anglo male nerds out to be a bunch of crazy people attacking people on tubes through the internets, unlike those innocent attractive women of breeding age on the other side.

Some good dialogue here. I recommend (or at least, consider) adopting some of the defined terms of 'questionable' content here. If Voat cannot put a line in the sand asap on this, then users will just move along to another site.

what is 'questionable'. That's the same issue we had with Reddit. No one could define it.

it's understandable you have to move upon 'questionable' content in that manner while you're early, but... you can always find people who can at least moderate the 'questionable' verses instead of just banning them, i, myself am happy to be one of the moderators if you ever need.

Here we go, another Reddit. Free speech isn't free speech when you start banning subverses. Stop caving to outside pressure and create a legal clause in the account creation stage that leaves the end user on hook for the content. Contact a lawyer and stop being a helpless victim.

as it stands right now it wouldnt be hard at all for SRS to brigade and get each others accounts confirmed

Can we still hate on niggers?

Ayyy

I'm confused by one of these. I understand doxxing, truejailbait I'm reading was encouraging CP, and thefappening pictures were illegally obtained, so I can see all 3 of those.

As far as /v/jailbait, I've never been there, but from what I've heard, wasn't it just cute girls under 18? Girls in bikinis or doing gymnastics? This was my understanding. And I can definitely see the name being off-putting (I have a young daughter and I sure as hell wouldn't want to see her in her swimsuit on this subverse), but is it really putting Voat in danger? There is nothing even close to illegal about girls in bikinis, Ever been to a water park? It's shocking what some parents dress their daughters in.

Is it just the fact that the name implies it's for pedophiles? In those terms I would actually be even more against the banning of it - free speech and expression are the most important things in the US and on the Internet. Is CoonTown allowed on here? We already know FPH is, and these were/are considered hate subverses, jailbait is (to my understanding) a subverse of clothed girls for people who find it attractive. A lot of people find that sickening and I don't blame them, but no one is getting hurt, no one is spewing hate, it's just perfectly legal pictures of girls.

Now obviously there are the moral quandaries of whether they post pictures of girls without their knowledge and post them, but FPH does that all the time, so once again, we'd be hitting a double standard.

Atko, I hope you reverse this decision, b/c it's a slippery slope. If people want illegal pictures to fap off to, they'll go to TOR, not Voat.

With that said I wish Voat all the best, we are still waiting to see how crazy Reddit gets with its censorship.

So we are exactly like reddit now? We'll, back to reddit where there is more content then. You are fucking up.

hating fat people is illegal in some sense and discriminatory. So if you're just looking for a law to be passed that says slut/fat/gay shaming is illegal, then just wait 5 minutes and a law will get passed somewhere in the world.

At issue is whether government should decide morality for a society. Is there really any difference between a 17 year old girl taking naked pictures versus an 18 year old old doing the exact same thing? What about a 17 year old boy without his top on?

Fuck this, might as well go ahead and ban everything Reddit bans, so you can kill this website at a record speed! Practically the only reason I came here was for those subs, and to see if v/politics was any less shitty than the Reddit version. Piss on this site, deleting my account

The people to blame for banning illegal subverses are those who made it illegal.

we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared.

We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not

cancer

Welcome to life out of the matrix Atko.

I can imagine the SJWs and SRSers will have a busy old time reporting whatever the hell they like on Voat to the media (which they probably posted as agents provacateurs).

The fact is currently voat is not in a stable condition to fight with big corporation, like reddit and others as they've money as well as political powers... just see only 2 person behind voat working. Let it grow and in future when it'd have a good position, it can be unban subverse later.

Please understand Atko. I support him.. he did a lot of things for us.

Anything involving cp deserves the ban. That's fair.

I wonder how subverses listing illegal download sites and similar technically illegal content will be effected in the long run. Censorship is a slippery slope. :/

I bet hes doing this just to try recover the Paypal funds ASAP and then he'll reinstate some of these sub verses. tbh v/truejailbait is an example of something that is absolutely illegal, even in Switzerland, so it's not covered by Atko's original promise to not censor anything illegal.

Grow up.

FWIW you have my full support.

Fucking crazy shit!

TL;DR - I LOVE that web comic! Jeph Jacques is an awesome writer!

Note: Reddit still has all the bad content they used to have, but the bad subs became private, invite only subs with no web crawlers reporting on the content.

Something else to take note of is the /modlog/deleted will still show deleted content for subverses. If a moderator were to delete inappropriate/illegal content it's still on the site, just moved.

What a damn shame.

Strangely enough I was slightly hopeful with this site. But, your decision there is unambiguously damning.

Funny thing is that I don't care about jailbait, fatpeoplestuff or even fucking blurry nudes of "stars" I could not care less about. However, let us not kid ourselves, if you have crammed to pressure already this sites trajectory to censorship is unchangeable and even faster than reddit.

What a damn shame...

Once again were back to reddit for fluff front page use and TOR boards for the occasional freak rambling truths. Bye voat, won't be seeing ya :-(

We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage

So basically, subverses are assumed guilty until proven innocent?

Well, thank you. I think most people wanted this anyway. if at some point down the road, you want to begin hosting questionable content again and making it illegal to access it from a country with laws against it, I think that's fine. Right now you cannot hope to defend this legally, which is I'm sure the reason for the move.

Look at all you angry people. You never supported voat, you just wanted a place of complete freedom all to yourself. voat just happened to be close enough for you to jump ship.

I can understand Jailbait's but I'm not convinced by the fappening. I'd happy to fund atko hiring good lawyers for advice

The internet clearly needs a distributed network host version of reddit/voat/4chan to escape censorship laws.

Child pornography has never been a MUHFEELS issue. 4chan banned it in its heyday, Reddit banned it before this mess broke out. It's illegal and irredeemable. And all of these borderline subs may be legal, but they're magnets for illegal content, and not just the type that rustles the MPAAs jimmies, either. Child pornography is taken incredibly seriously by law enforcement, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And with Voat made of literally two people, they can't deal with that right now.

Regarding doxbin, Voat has never allowed doxing. It's one of the few things they established early on that wouldn't be allowed.

Hahahaha

Fucking hell. We all said that Voat would go the same way eventually. It was never intended to be a bastion of free speech. I just didn't expect it to go down the shitter quite so quickly.

Less users, less content, less stable, more vote restrictions, same old push to censor. Turns out voat is nothing but a lame reddit clone after all.

Well this is incredibly disappointing. Voat is Reddit in all but name then? Please unban the subverses after the heat has died down.

Thank you for being open about what you are doing, and why. I sincerely appreciate the time you are putting into creating and running Voat.

Your actions make sense in the real world - ie, the one in which you can get into real legal trouble. While it's great to be able to stand on a soapbox and shout about freedom of speech, unless it's your own arse on the line...

The fact that the two jailbait subverses existed was a moral issue for me. I like Voat, I am for freedom of speech and I hate political correctness, but I do not necessarily want to be associated with such a morally gray area such as the posting of jailbait. It was distasteful. I would never have called for the banning of those subs, but I understand why you did it, and your reasons make a hell of a lot of sense to me.

I also do not believe we are on a slippery slope now, as some others want to shout about.

Well this makes absolute sense at this point. Reddit bans subreddits because they're offensive. Voat bans subverses, because they might kill the whole project. Let's get of the ground first. But if voat starts banning because "somebodies feeeeeeelz are hurt" I'm outta here.

Also: Maybe we need something different. AFAIK those two guys running Voat are from SWITZERLAND. That is not ideal. Maybe we need something meta-national. Don't know how that would work though.

My 2 cents;

A) Setup a group of members or a subverse that directly deals with DMCA, Reports. These reports are then posted for everyone to see and then discussed and taken action on.

B) Setup contacts to channel DMCA requests, take downs and complaints. So, you could potentially prevent this.

C) Have a iron clad Terms of Service and other nifty bits.

D) Regarding dealing with host take downs etc, be aggressive and it's best to take them into confidence.

E) The community itself should be aggressive and report subverse that can potentially be problematic. At best, use hidden subverse or make it invite only if you want to keep it low key.

F) We need to launch at PR campaign to attract the right kind of media attention.

Any verse that is being reported? This will just lead to report wars worse than the things we see on YT. In essence you are asking to be bled dry of content, which Voat really could use more of anyway.

Stop being a gigantic pussy, Atko. You knew there was a war for the internet starting when you created this website. If you are doing this so you can eventually sell this website to fucking conde nast then turn over the reins to someone with some actual courage and conviction.

@Atko Keep up the good fight. Voat is being attacked by strong forces from the outside and slightly ignorant forces on the site, in my opinion. When people try and stop you for their own hate or fear, then you know you are on the right track. You should ban CP encouraging subs. That's a mute point, I would think. Whether that was users here or haters from elsewhere... Just keep up the fight.

You're letting the bullies bully you into censorship, don't let the assholes get their way. The only subverse that deserved the ban was /vtruejailbait, no others.

Oh no, no insult intended, glad we sorted it out :)

It seems like there are a ton of message boards online that have The Fappening and jailbait, and also fat people hate. The point of places like voat is to provide a popular alternative to Reddit. It's not good for people to congregate all in one place for every topic in the world. I'm a big fan of specialization.

A site that makes money could be politically motivated (so they dont get a loss in profits), but a site like this that doesnt have any money to lose could only be legally motivated. Its clear they dont want the site to be shut down.

edit: double words deleted and more specific

Even though jailbait is legal, I understand wanting to dodge that bullet. Banning the fappening seems pretty ridiculous, unless you're just worried about celebrity lawsuits, which I understand.

For one, I have no problem with this. What Atko is doing is basically repeating the "first wave of bans" on Reddit. Remember there was no backlash from the community then. Most Redditors were OK with the jailbait ban and even thefappening ban. One invades particular people's privacy, the other is clearly about the sexualization of children. It's a bit different from FPH which is about shaming an unhealthy lifestyle. Voat just repeated that "first wave of bans" we all agreed upon. It's the second wave of bans that was problematic (FPH, punchableface,...)

The internet is fucking dead.

Wrong choice

1. I don't understand why the v/thefappening was banned. It's because they're filthy rich, and they matter more than some anonymous slut?

2. I don't like the phrase "store all records about users" either.

3. Do you realize that you just opened the door to censorship? Who reassure us that when the time will come, you'll start banning subverses due to non profitable content?

I understand your motivation, but I don't like it one bit.

Greetings from Europe, land of human rights!

Some people are saying that /u/atko is doing this for ourselves and that he's doing us a favour and bla bla.

I am sorry but that's just complete bullshit. Let's not pretend that he's some sort of altruistic god. He has his own reasons for doing this, he's doing this for himself.

People left reddit because of the censortship and in less than 2 weeks, voat does the same. Everyone in this thread agrees with the ban of truejailbait. Jailbait and thefappening is a completely different matter. /u/lydia stated, there was no under-age girls on jailbait and the same goes for thefappening.

The following quote is absolutely stunning to me:

"we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice"

You'll be presumed guilty if anyone reports you! People will be reporting every single subverse because there are things that "trigger" people in every subverse.

In order to run a site like reddit, the so called "front-page of the internet", one needs to have a strong personality and a thick skin. Sadly, atko has neither, apparently.

FPH is going to get banned soon.

Never liked readit. I like this site and only found out about you, when a friend told me about the attacks on you. Good luck.

I think it's tinfoil, I'm sure once jailbait fans heard about Voat being like reddit but with no content restriction they flocked here themselves. I'm not putting doing shit like that past SJWs, I'm just convinced that it's a lot more likely that they didn't even have to do it.

It is unfortunate that /v/doxbin and /v/thefapping where banned. Even though I do not agree with what is posted there it's not illegal to have. Information from these subs could always be removed on request and that is how it should be.

Jailbait and relative subs are CP and should not be a part of the site. I am sorry to see people who think that posting CP is a from of free speech or a right. Posting pics of underaged childern is not a right. People have and still suffer because of those pics. With their abuse reproduced over and over on various sites.

If CP is your thing. Plz download TOR of a simulair browser and go to the deepweb. There is an stagering amount of sickning stuff just 5 min away from you. Plz leave and go there.

And to Akto: I'll stay around because I can understand this reaction to tens of thousends of new users logging in and posting all kinds of stuff. But don't be affraid to stand up for free speech and plz keep us informed if you can about policy and the site behind the scene.

All this has to be expected when you get into spotlight. You guys have to be ready for a really dirty war and lots of punches under the belt. Just show patience and nerves of steel and you will get voat where you want. I have read somewhere that site owners are liable for the content their users submit as long as they are notified and do nothing. I am not sure how good the above stands but you may want to check it with someone with legal background.

Another thing I want to point out is that voat has grown enough to need a larger team to handle it. You need to find people you really trust to act as admins on day to day tasks or you will be overwhelmed with moderation issues, reports, disputes, take down requests etc and you will not have time to develop the site.

Just remember that as difficult as it seems, you have a lot of people here that believe and will support your project, you guys are not alone.

It's amazing how hardline some activists can be... as long as they aren't the ones having to pay for the server hosting.

If you want to be pissed, be pissed at the shitlords over on /r/SRS who likely intentionally posted questionable stuff to complain about. Remember, that's exactly what they did to the original /r/Jailbait.

I know you probably won't see this, but I'm with you 100%

I would take most of these comments with a grain of salt, looks like the corporate shills are trying to stir shit up!!!

I hope yall succeed in what ever yall try and do in life!

we need to raise money for voat. so they can put a lawyer on retainer and dedicate more time to the site.

if they want their jb it's on them to make sure the job gets done or they lose their sub.

I'm probably gonna get shot down right now, but Temporarily ban Direct image and video links? keep it text only until you got everything sorted?

You can argue for or against this move, but to me it seems like choosing the lesser of two evils. Voat is as Atko said in a very fragile state all the while being targeted and attacked by large corporations and media outlets. The site desperately needs some positive coverage and allies if its going to make it in the long run. 4chan has some great boards, but to the general public its never been more than /b/tards posting cp, gore and doing raids. They were able to get away with it, because of the dissapearing nature of the content, full anonymity and it was so long a go, but now it would never be allowed to happen. This is not a move to direct the site or choose what goes and what doesnt, its simply the only means to survive in the real world. Jailbait, be it legal or not will always be just enough for the people who want to hurt us to go "look they are posting pictures of children" and then procede to do whatever they want. A damn shame in the eyes of freedom, but a necessary move.

I feel like reddit and voat are two different lines on a graph - with this measure, the slope has been altered for voat, and the lines will now intersect at some point in the future.

Ok, if Voat can be held liable, why can't reddit?

I still think, I've said many times, you should consider just banning porn outright. There are plenty of porn aggregators on the internet, nothing of great value would be lost.

This site is invaluable as a true free-speech platform. It's not worth risking that by welcoming all the potential pitfalls that come with hosting porn links.

But then we need to define illegal. Illegal as in Switzerland, or illegal as in the US, or illegal as in Vatican City. Maybe some shit went down that I wasn't aware of but /v/truejailbait wasn't illegal in terms of Swiss law as far as I know because digital representations of nudity of minors is legal their. Even sex acts if over the age of 16 and consented.

Copy-Paste from an other thread:

Switzerland changed their laws on sex workers - prositution and porn actors - in 2013 to meet the regulations of the 2010 signed Lanzarote Convestion. The age of consent for sex workers is now 18. Before 2013 it was 16.

See also: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/switzerland-raises-legal-prostitution-age-to-18-1.1701251

i dont mind a temporary censorship,, indeed its a tough time for you...

Fellow users: we have been given the gift of free speech, something which is all too rare on the open internet. There are a lot of people out there who are not too happy about that. Not only is it our responsibility to use that privilege wisely to protect us from outside attacks, it contributes more to this community if our comments and submissions are as thoughtful and as high-quality as we can make them. Free speech is a beautiful thing, and we owe it to ourselves to use it to its maximum to make something beautiful. The better we make this site, the more useful it will be to ourselves and others, and the cost of taking it away will become clear to the world. This is more than just a site. We are fighting for the right for free expression, and what's more important than that?

tl;dr: Don't fill this site with shit.

Just remember not to fall into the traps of hatespeech, discrimination, anti semitism etc. See your site as something like if the US was still great, the westboro baptist church is protected, hate speech doesnt exist. ALL speech is protected, yes even holocaust denial, because its fucking free speech, its not pictures of Young clad women.

Every single word that person types out (not robots, spam or shillbots) that does not link to nudy pics of young children should be considered free speech. The doxbin and thefappening can also be considered free speechish, though since its more in a grey area you need lawyers to keep those things free.

But please keep in mind, as you gain power so too you may gain arrogance and self righteousness. Be prepared to encounter convincing arguments from leftists and all kinds of other groups why their opponents should be banned.

As a national socialist I can just say the same that I said to the leftists on 4chan. We dont ban them when they post there, but when we get to their site, they do ban us.

For what it's worth, I completely support this decision and I think you guys are doing the right thing. Free speech and abuse are not at all the same thing, and anyone who claims they are is probably looking for a justification for their own shitty behavior.

Remember kids, not everything you read posted on the internet is true. There may have been real legal reasons those subs were banned on Reddit as well more then just because the Evil Poe Poe and her Merry Band of SJWs decided they had to go.

Arko and Put have made the right decision here. If you disagree well feel free to download the source and start your own Free Speech^TM platform up. Be prepared to deal with the same problems and trolls if your site even gets remotely popular and best of luck.

And an upvote for you just for shits and giggles.

Lol, that made me chuckle.

It's really not hard to find naked pictures of underage girls. Not saying straight up CP, but imagaes like the ones posted on /v/truejailbait are very easy to obtain. Not saying I subscribe to the "SJWs posting cp" tinfoil theory, but it wouldn't be too hard for them if they really tried.

And that is why we need to decentralize the platform. As long as there's a small group of people that run things for everyone, they will apply pressure - either legal or otherwise.

Voat being a target is a real testament to its success. I too, deluded myself for some days that here it could be different. But either its greed that corrupts the center, or it's inward pressure warping the mission.

We need to rethink things. The old server-client model of the internet will always leave you open to this problem. Decentralize.

I don't know about that. Some of the jailbaiters are posting in this thread. They seem genuine.

Creepy, but genuine.

Compromise on principles often leads to a slippery-slope situation. But one must not let "perfect" become the enemy of "good".

I was agreeing with you, but pointing at the fact that when it comes to content that isn't in text that you need to be careful. Whether on the posting side or the banning side.

I can understand your disappointment with this decision, but that's not how donations work. Look at the Republican US POTUS candidates that gave white supremacist donated money to support the victims of the recent South Carolina church shooting. I'm sure he isn't happy his white money is helping minority Americans, but he is in no way entitled to a return on his donation, and neither are you.

So it seems they're claiming that these photos are real CP (Which implicates these actresses and their boyfriends, if true) and thus claiming they own the copyright to this CP. I would love to see how an actual legal challenge to this would play out in court.

Your honor, this is clearly an attempt by the Plaintiff to silence people who publish artistic material she does not like.

"I disagree, Your Honor. My Client clearly holds the copyright to this picture, and to top it off, this picture the Defendant is hosting on their website, my Client claims was taken when she was a minor! This company is hosting child pornography, Your Honor! Free Speech does not cover Obscene materials!"

So counsel, let me get this straight...your claim is that you client owns the copyright to this piece of photographic artwork, is that right?

"Yes! That's what I've been saying!"

And you also claim that this photograph was taken, when the Plaintiff was a Minor, is that correct?

"Yes! Have you not listened to a word I've said?!?"

Counsel, are you aware that in order to hold copyright on an artistic work in the United States, you must either be the producer of said artwork or the one who insisted the artwork be produced for you? You are essentially admitting before the court that your client is guilty of commissioning the production of child pornography, as the PROTECT Act of 2003 defines Child Pornography as "an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct", as you are claiming that, as the producer of this photograph of the Plaintiff engaged in a clearly sexualized pose, whilst she was a minor, that your client is a sexual offender. So which is it, Counsel? Is this a case where you're just seeking to have some photoshopped picture taken down, or should we have the Bailiff take your client into custody for her blatant admission of producing Kiddie Porn?

"................"

I have to give props to @Atko. He has created a wonderful website where intelligent discussion is available. Yes this pulls a bit of the total free speech aspect, but we, as users, have the benefit of not being responsible for what is posted. I commend @Atko for putting extensive thought into this and making the most mature decision he felt he could.

First day here. Saw this post. What a useless reddit clone...

It begins...

It's better to cover your ass in order to survive, than to recklessly defend your principles, go all out and open your wrists to a bunch of corporate elitists who will willingly slice them just to control how information is filtered to the public. We cannot be too absolutist in defending the freedom of speech. You must also play the game of life to survive.

Paypal closed Voat's account because of sexual content issues in the midst of the CP storm, then look what happens to /v/jailbait and the other subverses like it. This is not a disappointing move. Keeping such subverses open with so many crossthreads pointed at Voat at the moment wanting to shut this place down would be idiotic.

What is disappointing is seeing how many people unable to connect the dots and seeing the bigger picture for what it is.

It makes sense to me to ban these subs. While there is some vagueness as to what would justify a ban, this can be fixed. Similar posts released by Reddit were hard to read as they felt condescending and were full of PR buzzwords, but this, at least to me, feels sincere. There is a large grey area in regards to free speech and what it encompasses, and these subverses definitely test the limits of acceptable behavior. IMO users of these subverses, and every Voat user, should have the "right" to discuss whatever they want. However, expecting /u/Atko and /u/PuttItOut to risk legal prosecution for you is unreasonable. I view jailbait subs as being "immoral" but at the same time if people are going to do what it takes to view such content, I would suggest bringing it to a place where the owners are protected or are willing to risk their freedom in order to protect something they view as morally right. As long as Voat does not censor discussion about subjects I will continue as a user. I understand the desire to isolate people with different beliefs, but preventing discussion will not convince someone of another opinion, which brings me to my question for Voat. Do you think demonizing this behavior helps society as a whole?

It is a worrisome trend and the first step down a slippery slope. I pray it stops here.

total bullshit

Hey Atko. If you keep what you're doing and why transparent, I think things will be fine.

I understand why you've taken this step and I don't blame you, but how can sub mods take measures to prevent their subs from being affected? If someone spams CP links to /v/science will it get nuked?

I know you are busy but if you manage to read this, can you please post the Swiss laws that were violated so that people can understand better? I understand the jailbait ones but not doxbin and the fappening.

@Atko did you contact a lawyer first? With all due respect, I'm not sure you appreciate why things are happening. Voat is not being attacked because of what's hosted on it. Voat's being attacked because it's seen something that could be potentially fiscally damaging to the future of a multi billion dollar mass media company. The attacks are not going to stop until the site is dead or relegated to irrelevance. If your idea about creating something unique does succeed, you can expect the attacks to grow exponentially.

What's going to happen is that first the relatively easy targets will be the focus. Once you concede the battle, they will try to apply the precedent of these to other subs (expect to see the rise of questionable pictures or implied dox being posted site wide) while at the same time moving onto slightly less easy targets. Next, for instance, any sub that speaks negatively of a public figure may end up being targeted for defamation, libel, and the so on. Are you liable for this? I don't know and I expect you may not either. Again I really think you may want to considering using some of the donation funds to seek legal support for the site. Or at least inquire about possible pro bono support at whatever free speech organizations are within your country. In the USA this would be organizations like the ACLU.

You're not going to satisfy the antagonists since their goal is your site's destruction. At some point in time you're going to need to draw a line in the sand. And no matter how legally sound or morally soft that line may be, if your site is still growing expect to see a major push to coerce you into pushing it further back.

Atko is full of shit.

Like calling the site "Voat" and then making you upvote more than you downvote.

If your ratio of up/down votes gets negative, you're not allowed to downvote anymore. And there is no pop-up telling you this, your votes just silently get erased.

To be honest, I understand why you guys would ban the subs that would cause you admins grief. We can still have free expression, but I, for one do not need this site for illegal things. I'd rather use it for true discussions and discourse. BUT that being said I wish we had some form of proof that these subs had illegal content hosted. Be open and honest with the users and you'll have a much easier time than Kung Pao over at Reddit :)

I understand your response and appreciate your candor. However, I just want to point out that it doesn't matter whether or not nudes are intended for viewing by others or not, if they are nudes of an underage minor, especially nudes with sexualized poses, then that satisfies all that is necessary to qualify as CP Production.

Obviously, there could be any of a number of reasons why they were not charged, but the fact that they were not charged, leans towards discrediting the folks who claim these are leaks of them as minors.

Please see my very first post. It already happened. "You cant be a bastion of free speech" and then down the line claim," to make things worse, we may be personally liable for the content you guys submit to Voat."

When shove come to push, you already folded. I understand that there are many people who sabotaging your server with the purpose of point out your hypocrisy. Sadly, from your comment, it is obviously you do not realize you were manipulated into a "self made decision" carefully orchestrated by so many who wants this to fail.

Your writing indicates you lack experience and udnerstanding of what just happened; your actions clearly indicates you are not worthy of leading a revolution of people freely exchanging ideas. You are all talk, and no different than Pao and Reddit 10 years ago.

In 10 years you MIGHT understand what occured, but it will be too little to late. I am not wasting my time on a medium where you unilaterally make decission on what is appropriate or not....cause that what Nazi Pao did.

Rejoice all who wanted Voat to fail! He is so easily fooled! Good job to you all!

p.s. I tried to add something, even when it was apparent from the start that Voat would fail. Couldnt imagine Atko and Friends (tm) engaged in the very conduct we all condemned. How quickly ATKO and friends(tm) became the very corporate decision making mind hive. I Am not even angry. I just realize how young and inexperienced they are-- and just got bitched slapped into little pussies they actually are.

Its easy to make grandiose speeches Atko, your action says you are a fucking tool.

p.p.s Oh yeah- bye. You are not worth anyone time after all. General Pao wins, she made you her little bitch that you are now. I want nothing to do with you and your bullshit.

Before anyone goes off and claims Voat is just as bad as Reddit just stop and think for a minute.

Voat is still a baby, it's being run by just two guys. Even if content isn't necessarily illegal if it's questionable or boderline it can still hurt a website, especially one in such a vulnerable spot as Voat. If Voat was to continue to exist and grow this needed to happen.

These subverses weren't banned simply because they were offensive, they were banned because they could have majorly hurt Voats future. As much as people hate to realize, there is no such thing as a free speech platform without some form of moderation, some lines have to be draw in order to maintain the existence of the platform.

I absolutely think this was the right decision. Jailbait is such a sensitive grey area it's really just not the worth the hassle to keep around right now, the only thing it does is hurt Voat. Maybe once Voat has more moderators to make sure no actual CP is posted and is in a better place financially /v/jailbait could go back up, but right now this was a must.

I thought Voat's servers were in a country where this shit doesn't matter?

I am cautiously Okay with this. Jailbait and true jailbait were certainly leading to the posting of child porn which is illegal in Switzerland and per your earliest statements that is your standard for what is and is not banned. Doxbin is also deplorable as the purpose is to stalk people down and cause them real harm for their opinion which is also often frequently illegal. The fappening was also extremely illegal. Those pictures weren't obtained in a legal way, they were stolen by various methods from the celebrities in question. Fun to look at but still illegal, even if not likely to be prosecuted. As long as you stick to your standard of only banning things that are illegal I think voat will be okay and I can support the platform. my only request is that the illegal or not standard be strict and consistent and that transparency such as this be maintained. Everyone freaking out needs to realize that we were given a free alternative and atko and puttitout are still doing this as a passion project which severely limits their freedom to act as they wish.

I understand why he did it and I think it was a reasonable move for his own safety and that of this site. But it does unfortunately make voat non-free speech and unless this really is a temporary thing than voat is no better than reddit.

I practically just got here and already subverses are being banned? I think it's very telling that we literally need a darknet just to have a fucking opinion these days.

Oh and @Atko, several dozen people were telling you days ago to get the hell away from PayPal. Why didn't you listen?

Fuck this, i'm out.

You're doing your best and we are all benefitting from your hard work. Anyone who had invested in a project like you have and face the financial and legal ramifications of inaction would make the same decisions you are making.

Thank you.

Umm, that would be you're. As in: "You're a paedophile" Or: "you're clearly here to troll" See how you misused YOUR words? And indeed, my life is good, now that a paedophile subverse has been banned and the tears of the pedosmiles flow like the sweet nectar of the gods. Cheers and may the gods bless you.

They own you now. They know exactly how to threaten you to get you to blink and crack. They don't need things to be actually illegal, they don't need things to be something you are actually liable for - they just need to threaten you with bad media attention and the potential for a problem.

So now how exactly is Voat different from Reddit again? Yes, for now you have a different and more open editorial policy with less of a pro-SJW mindset - but that won't last. Now that they have the right levers to hurt you it will only be a short time until you are towing their line lest they threaten you. You will make more and more decisions so as not to arouse their anger, more and more choices out of fear.

Don't misunderstand - your site, your servers, your work. You are free to make any decision you wish and I wish you all the success in the world... but you are not what you claimed to be, and you are not a real alternative.

And using the same "logic" you just applied, you are a child-molester. See how that happened?

I support this decision. If you enjoy illegal content let the liability rest on no one but yourself. The owners of this website should not be obligated to it. Have a little nuance and realize the difference between what is happening here verses what occurred on "that other site".

It has already begun. I logged in /v/voatalternatives.

Atko, its your playground so its you rules. I get that.

Nobody is asking you to break any laws; we just ask you go up to the limit as required by law. If the law is the problem, there's no need to blame you. If you don't have time to police content right now and have to protect yourselves, I support you. I ask, in return, as soon as you guys are able, please hire someone whose job it is to investigate claims of illegal content so that controversial subs can remain open.

So since illegal content isn't allowed, when will you announce the ban for /v/trees?

Pretty disappointing regarding /v/thefappening. The only arguably unethical content were the pictures of Maroney. Even on 8ch though, mods quickly delete her images.

If you're so willing to pander to the rich and famous then perhaps we can't trust you, Atko.

Good on you. It's important to set up these rules early (or early enough after the recent influx) and be completely transparent about it. If there are people who don't like this action, they're welcome to set up their own community and take on the risk of hosting illegal content themselves.

Unfortunately, there are people and institutions that “just want to see the world burn” and they will do anything they can to make our journey harder.

The more difficult it is to grind you under their bootheels, the harder they'll try to stop you from existing. Keep fighting the good fight.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.

• Watership Down

So, Voat just became reddit, huh?

I came here like everyone else to find a haven of free speech away form the toxic atmosphere of reddit.

I am really disappointed in you @Atko, and in this site in general if this this how you are going about handling things when external pressure is applied.

Voat is not going to become "something unique" if this is how you treat it, it will just become reddit 2.0.

I personally am not a fan of either of the jailbait subverses. However, I would've preferred they be banned after being reviewed for illegal activity. I think a better step would've been employing volunteers to help with the review process (similar to Wikipedia).

Well this is an unforeseen turn of events.

If you think that fph was the start of the problem and not the straw that broke the camels back you really aren't paying attention.

So the celebrities were guilty of producing CP, then? Why are they not being charged with CP Production, if that is truly the case? If the law is good enough to charge Sally American and Joe American with when they sext each other, it's good enough to charge Hollywood-celebrity spoiled-princesses and princes. Unless the pictures aren't real and are just photoshops of faces onto petite bodies...

Thanks for the heads up.

lol, took you less than 2 weeks

Hey Atko, I just wanted to thank you for the transparency over your decision. When I came over to voat a while back (different username) I did so because of the censorship at reddit, both explicit (banning of r/jailbait) and hidden (shadow banning, mod censorhip in subs like r/politics to advance a progressive narrative). I was concerned that your site voat was simply all show and no substance, merely pretending to be a bastion of free speech in order to get some more views. this suspicion was increased when I heard you had been banning people for disagreeing with you although when I asked around here, people denied these allegations. Now that you made this post, I know you're full of shit and don't actually care for free speech. You just effectively signed this site's death certificate. Instead of being a free speech alternative to reddit, you're reddit "freer speech", or reddit "not as safe a space." With this move, you will never see a large migration from reddit because, what's the point? Alot of people that left reddit didn't care for fph but stood by the principle of free speech. Now, your site is simply a censored site with less censorship. Now there is no incentive for people to come over to voat unless their particular subreddit is banned. And then of course, they need to make sure that the copy cat voat sub is also not banned. Now I'm off to find an actual free speech alternative as I know this is not that place that so many of us are looking for.

Thanks you piece of shit. If you had any integrity you would reimburse all of the people that donated to your site when you were claiming you were standing up for free speech.

Mmm. Those would certainly be some nice features to have, I gotta admit.

So because outside entities and big media is pressuring Voat it's okay to succumb to it? When, in the future, having subverses that keeps Voat from receiving sponsorships/investments from companies will you argue for the banning of FPH too? Server/donation problems does not mean removing /v/jailbait was the right move. It just means it was the last measure after Atko had to take because he couldn't handle all the opposition.

Agreed. Keep this place alive. How can people defend /v/jailbait? You might as well call it /v/illegal_teens

the other subs are pretty much self-explanatory. but what was doxbin about?

The money has spoken.

It's cool @Atko, you tried. You did more than most would.

Pretty sure that voat doesn't have the ability to set such limits. For minimum CCP within a subverse for downvoting, yes, but nothing else I've seen in the mod settings for any of the subs i moderate offer the ability to require minimum SCP/CCP to post nor to limit the number of posts by a particular user per day.

This is incredibly disappointing. The only reason I'm here is because I thought you wouldn't be banning content you didn't have to ban. But you've just done exactly that.

we will store all records about users who submit such content and we will forward these records to authorities upon request.

Please clarify this statement as it is an important one. If you receive a court order to hand over information then so be it, comply with the order but don't volunteer anything extra and don't let authorities take short cuts and skip talking to a judge.

please dont crack under presser

In addition, to further dissuade individuals from posting questionable content, we will store all records about users who submit such content and we will forward these records to authorities upon request.

@Atko: Can you please clarify exactly what you mean by this? Do you log IP addresses, browser footprints, or other traceable data for every website hit?

why not just unban them when voat gets stronger?

free speech is out the window. hello reddit #2

Yep: public figures who's jobs/roles effect public life should be exempt from this within reason. I think a good litmus test is if contact info for that person has been made publically available with their knowledge for the express purpose of contacting them. Most politicians and company representatives would fall under this.

kinda surprised about the fappening one, would have figured that was no different than linking to a torrent file.

TL;DR we are adhering to rules of other sites and breaking our own rules

What I think would behoove /u/Atko would be to investigate the freedom of the internet on a country by country basis, with the operation being hosted by servers in whichever country is the least authoritarian in that respect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_and_surveillance_by_country#Little_or_no_censorship_or_surveillance

I don't see what the big deal is, we want a platform for free speech that isn't pressured by politics. The subs you banned have nothing to do with politics or being politically incorrect, they are bad subs that I honestly couldn't care less about, specially when they are literally called "jailbait". I would honestly straight up ban those subs.

This is entirely different than banning something like FatPeopleHate or a racist sub. THAT would be trying to be politically correct, and that I wouldn't support despite not liking the subs.

I understand why /v/jailbait, /v/doxbin and /v/truejailbait were banned, but why /v/thefappening? Reddit banned that because of pressure, and now you are doing it yourself. Don't go down the road moot and Reddit have gone down.

Does that mean that unbannings of questionable but legal subreddits happens silently later on after more users who are lawyers show up?

Three of those subverses were areas where it was very likely that illegal content would be posted and the fourth was one that voat was very likely to be sued over. They're reasonable bans, even if you (or I) don't like it.

I don't use reddit like sites, I don't like their interface and way of posting. I made an account just to say something.

For about one year, I've been part of https://masterchan.org This is a website that also claims to have freedom of speech and only bans illegal content, but that was actually designed to support that claim. I'll try to give a brief overview of its main points:

Users can create boards like here, and every board by default comes with an off topic and on topic area. Mods cannot delete your post, ever. All they can do is move it between on topic/off topic. This is to ensure real freedom of speech, where a mod of a popular board cannot ever silence one's opinion. You can even choose to post something as off topic or on topic ourself.

Your IP is only partially stored on the database, and hashed. We live in NSA age, privacy is important. And you can even post through TOR. Even if a TOR partial IP is banned, you can create an "anonymous account" (you don't need any sort of registration to post) which grants you benefits the more you post, so you have full access to post images and create new threads eventually, using TOR or any other proxy.

Only illegal content is deleted. It has been so for a year. You'll even find /naturism boards there with naked children. The site follows general government guidelines that define what is illegal and what isn't, and no more than that. It is what voat claimed to do, but apparently failed as someone made me aware of on masterchan just now.

A lot of work was put on masterchan to come up with new ideas to support freedom of speech while getting rid of illegal content at the same time, without unfairness, and they really pulled off with their posting system.

If voat already disappointed you, my recommendation is to check masterchan.

Bravo! I applaud the decision, not because it's something to be joyful about, but because it shows that Voat is just like reddit. Once the submerse ban hammer swings once it will be invoked again, and again, and again. All one needs to do is get some media coverage and then the subverse bans come in. I thought Voat was different. But I guess it's just reddit lite.

Peace out and happy trails... I'm back to lurking reddit.

Damn, I came here to avoid sub bannings. I understand if it's something illegal like child porn or drug sales or whatever, but the fappening? That's not illegal, it's just in poor taste. I'll stay, for now, I just really don't want to see this place turn into another reddit. I trust you guys and I thank you for your service, just please remember to make sure the content is illegal and not just offensive.

Maybe now is a good time to start experimenting with a decentralized system outside the ability to be shut down or censored? Piggyback on openbazaar or bittorrent or something..

While I am saddened, personally, that these subverses have been banned, even though I have never visited them, I am appreciative of Atko's continued work on VOAT. This will all brush over as soon as the media spotlight moves off of VOAT, similarly to 8chan. At the moment, for the safety of the site, it may be necessary to detour, but over time I believe that true (legal) freedom on VOAT will be possible once Atko stops receiving the "hotwheels treatment" from outspoken individuals, hosting companies, etc.

Basically, give it time. VOAT is still in its infancy. We will be there, soon.

You are going down the slippery slope that reddit is going down. I would reverse these bans. What makes this site different than reddit?

I'm sorry about the attacks that have been happening to your website, and it does piss me off that the jealous motherfuckers would actually want to shut down their competitor all because it's becoming the better alternative.

The more I hear about Voat getting attacked, the more likely I am to be Reddit-free. Can't wait 'til Reddit becomes a Myspace.

Number 1 feature needed is the ability for readers to report illegal content to moderators & admins. The mods & users can help protect you. But we need features to catch illegal material as soon as possible.

For what its worth, I think the measure is appropriate. These two need to take some time, sort out any issues they are facing. Figure out how to monetize the site the right way, hire some lawyers and developers and then revisit this issue. They are in No position to tackle international law at the moment.

In my viewpoint the existence of this place is more important than couple of subverses that exist on the gray area of the law. I agree with protecting the site (in this case). As long as you don't bring the reddit's hug box mentality here, I will be reading and posting at voat. Tread carefully though. It's a thin line between banning couple of subverses and becoming the "no one should be offended" central. No one want's to see this going like events in reddit.

To further elucidate here, sir, I said you were the paedophile. This was based on your idiot reply. So in essence, I was hoisting you on the petard of your own stupidity. Had you an ounce of that thing we call intelligence, you would have been able to make the distinction. They do, indeed, hide things like that from you in books. Bye now.

I'm not saying what they did was right, but someone could have I don't know, noticed he was dead?

I will add that while I appreciate that you do this for free, this defeats the point of this site. SJWs and trolls are always going to want you to ban things. And they will always argue that something is "harassment" and therefore illegal. They won't let up just because you make some small concessions.

I will leave for now. I hope you change your mind as I would love for this to be the next big site, but I don't see how its going to be any different from Reddit.

How mature. Indeed, I did enjoy some tasty comestibles this evening. Home-made turkey salad with walnuts and cranberries on a 9-grain, artisanal bread. Tabouli salad with hummus and pita chips. As a treat, some salt-and-pepper cashews and a peanut butter and jalapeno strawberry jelly and thai coffee, with a splash of horchata. As far as animu, I'm not completely sure what that is, since I don't own a television and eschew it vociferously in favor of reading. I'll let you get back to your nambla meeting.

Those Social Justice Warrior from ShitRedditSays are probably the biggest perverts around. They just go around shutting other sites down to pretend that they are holier-than-thou.

How is it that the good folks at Reddit.com are not liable for their content?

They have money to fend people off. This is what it comes down to. If you're a huge company, hell, you can bend the law to your will. But if you're a small guy you're open up to all sorts of attacks from malicious cunts.

. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage.

If I understand this correctly, you won't decide if content is before banning it.

Then what is your criteria for banning? Is it if enough people complain, you ban it?

To all people who think it's possible to find a place in the internet completely safe from authorities and whatnot... wake up ;P Seriously, we all miss that time when the web was truly a free, anonymous place, but it is long gone. You shouldn't be disappointed at Voat because you shouldn't have nourished such irreal expectations in the first place.

Before you get mad at me, I am absolutely in favor of free speech, but we need to recognize that it's not that simple...

Understandable decision.

My ire is directed at the responsible parties whoever they are.The MSM has it arse about face reddit is the site with all the toxicity.

That sounds entirely reasonable, and very much like the early days of reddit. So long as Voat doesn't go beyond removing illegal content we won't see the same problems that arose on reddit.

I don't mean to speak for all people who spend time on /r/conspiracy or /v/conspiracy (the overlap is substantial, but I like to think /v/conspiracy is slightly less reactionary and considerably less full of trolls), these are my own views - but I also want to be clear that based on my observations most people from both the subverse and subreddit are really just more concerned with censorship of political speech and dissent (as well as backroom deals and collusion and evil scary stuff), rather than people being able to share and view sexualized images of children.

I do think that some folks from the conspiracy community are panicked a bit, and some may believe in the slippery slope argument. So again, I don't speak for all of them, but spazzing out about jailbait is not really very high up on the communities' priority list on the whole afaik.

Wow, Voat became Reddit quicker than Reddit became Reddit. RIP.

maybe when the site is more stable, established, and supported this could be ignored

I have never seen a site relax rules after it got bigger. They always get more rules and tighter enforcement. If he is bowing to media pressure now, how could he hold strong once the site gets big enough to attract real attention like Reddit?

I'm no pederast, and I really never cared too much about the fappening, but I am very disappointed. This seems to be just a reboot of reddit, and given the internet situation, it will probably deteriorate quicker. I guess I'll look for another reddit alternative for once this comes crashing down in the near future.

I understand your decision and am behind you 100%. You're aren't trying to censor anyone. Unlike Chairman Pao, your intent is not malicious. It kind of has to be done. But I also feel like they got exactly what they wanted. Those fucking dirty assholes.

Well... I'm out. See you guys.

They should. They won. Another site has denied free speech.

Do the right thing like Spike Lee, Atko.

I guess it would be more akin here to saying "This is a place where you can talk about anything you want, including shit, provided you don't actually shit", and then they go ahead and whinge and moan that they came in here to both talk about shitting (totally OK), and to be able to shit. So everyone is talking about peeing and respectfully doing it outside, while these folks continue to kick and scream that they should be able to shit on the rug while screaming about how its ok to do.

Today is the day voat died.

Very good idea. It's impossible to know everything that's going on with a site like this. As a community it's best to report any abuse. It also sucks for any of those subs that weren't doing anything wrong. Illegal content obviously can't be allowed.

To help our founders out with their efforts instead of complaining about the potential Ellen Pao style over censorship of Voat, perhaps we can have some of our fellow Voaters volunteer to mod some of these subs to keep the illegal content off the site. The point has been made in the posts already, a cop can't just just fire a shotgun into a crowd after a runnaway con, you gotta be the cop that sits and waits till this con comes by and you nail him. We must come together as a community to keep the bad apples from spoiling the bunch. I volunteer myself as tribute!

I think that many here are ignorant of what free speech and lack of censorship really are. free speech isn't just posting whatever you want. it also involves consequences. you can shout "FIRE" in a crowded theatre if you want. but you should be aware of what happens if you do.

but isn't shouting "FIRE" in the theater not protected speech anyway? according to the united states supreme court it is. but you know what is protected? referring to a doctor from witchita, kansas as doctor george tiller, the baby killer. say that enough times and people may want to do something about it, and several someones did something about it to varying levels of severity until someone shot him in the head at his church. clearly those who did violence against dr. tiller are responsible. but the ones who labeled him "baby killer" and threw that tag around quite liberally, are they responsible? sure. but not criminally or civilly. and the providers who gave them that kind of platform have armies of laywers to protect the providers and the idiots who said such hateful speech.

just because you can say something doesn't mean you should, especially if you aren't on the hook if you say something legally in the gray area. everyone who is bitching about these bans has no skin in the game. and really they all had to go. doxbin was an outlet to harass people in the real world. jailbait and truejailbait is closer to the black side of legally gray. thefappening is revenge porn, nude pics posted without the consent of the subject with some underage subjects thrown in as well. this is nothing like banning fph which did nothing illegal and subverses like kia aren't even under consideration. talking about people is fine. these are a subverse that was illegal (thefappening), a subverse that clearly violated the site's rules (doxbin), and two that may be okay but with the lack of a legal team to protect the website were shut down because that line is so fine.

considering the language these corporations have used in ending their associations with this site, what is most important to you: that the site still exists or that atko get so frustrated with legal and other hosting issues that he just throws his hands in the air and says fuck it? atko's first responsibility is to the site, not its users. he had a site before this massive userbase showed up and he can have a site after they leave because four subforums were banned. look around and you can see several websites out there inactive, unpopular, or both but they have an online presence. but if he has no site he has no users.

Comes down to this: Ellen wants Reddit to be a safe place. Voat doesn't want to get sued to death.

Despite all the disagreement, I totally agree with atko. Lawsuits by any government agency (and that's what would happen) are regarded by other government agencies as definitions of "righteousness." I personally experienced this, in the financial world, where unproven and false assertions were made against the company I worked for by a government agency, and the ensuing firestorm destroyed the company, even though we proved the assertions false. The judge even said, (paraphrasing) "because it's a gov't agency bringing the suit, they have 'broad latitude,' so I'm going to give them everything they ask." Ugh.

I honestly think this was the right decision. We can all sit here and be armchair lawyers as to the banned subverses' legality, but they haven't been banned out of censorship. They've been banned because the two guys running this site want to cover their arses. Not because they disagree with them. No spin has been put on this, /u/Atko and /u/PuttItOut have been straight with us the whole time.

If people don't like this decision, there are other places they can go. They are free to leave. It's what many of us, myself included, did with reddit. Personally I think Voat has found a good medium between freedom and security, so I'll stay until the site fails to align with my values. But so far, they've been doing a stellar job.

"Child pornography is inherently harmful to the children involved"

I have seen no evidence pointing that it is inherently harmful. Does a picture of a kid in a sexual pose (naked or not) harm her/him?

Can the sub-verse ban make a post to a purpose-specific sub, which just contains posts of subs, with the name of the sub, the moderators thereof, and some sort of cause or reasoning?

Should the complaint which caused the ban be made public? Mabey, if it's clear when you write the complaint.

Do we have a valid list of reasons for banning subs or users?

• Child Pornography
• Directed Personal Threats or Information (don't say you're going to hurt your sworn enemy, or post their address or phone number here)
• A Court Order (attach a copy of the order)
• A Lost or Settled Lawsuit from (name here)
• Other (please specify)

I support this. I think it is better to make reasonable accommodations rather than have an absolutist stance that kills the site.

THANK YOU for doing your best. This is my first day participating here and I would upvoat this but I have already hit my upvoat ceiling and the limit on number of subverses I can create!

Just a general question for anyone: Is there a place like /v/help where I can ask basic questions about voat? I am having trouble getting the adult setting to stick on my subverses and so people are seeing adult content even when they do not want to. Yikes. I would like to figure out what I am doing wrong. Thanks.

holy fuck you caved fast. You guys are fucking idiots. Literally worse than reddit. They at last years with questionable subs. PATHETIC.

The problem then will be if they start to resort to using proxies, TOR, or other means of hiding the poster's IP address.

Not saying that he shouldn't pursue it, but Atko should at least put up a filter to not allow posting from IPs such as TOR ports before considering this type of engagement against shitposters.

One can also argue the lack of enforcement renders the Federal law moot, especially since the state and Federal government worked closely together to determine what the Federal government would and would not enforce.

Holy shit. Am I the only one excited about jailbait subs being banned? This is insane. It's not a slippery slope. It's fucking pseudo child porn. Jesus fucking christ.

I fully support and understand why you had to do this. Sacrifice now means life. The little things can destroy something young and vulnerable right now. These sacrifices can be adjusted in the future when/if the time comes.

Voat can be a champion of Freedom without allowing content that violates laws or encourages harm to others. Keep up the good work gents, fight the good fight!

I completely agree with everything you said. Sacrifice now means life. These sacrifices can be adjusted in the future.

it's just a case you're allowed to say whatever you believe as long as I consider it moral.

Legal.

Moral issues aren't going to shutter Voat. Legal issues will. Realistically it's only a matter of time before a sub like that becomes a criminal liability. We aren't going to scuttle the entire ship for a couple of guys to get their jollies.

Who in their right mind wants to see Hulk Hogan naked?

Don't ask me. Maybe the woman he was with was super freakin' hot or maybe they just have some kind of weird "buff grandpa" fetish.

Ever heard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_words?

Pictures CAN BE expression too. Banning images (in this case every type of CP) effectively restricts freedom of expression.

Your rights regarding personal freedoms END when they do harm to others or infringe the rights of others. Murder is not freedom of expression. Being punished for willfully taking another person's life is not censorship. Exploiting those who cannot protect themselves is not freedom of expression. Forcing ANYONE to do to ANYTHING sexual against their will is not freedom of expression. You can call being a pedophile expressing yourself all you want, but your "right" to express yourself ENDS when it harms another.

It isn't about morals either, it's about natural rights all humans have.

Are you fucking retarded? Life handed you a massive audience from a mass exodus caused by censorship and you fucked it up in less than two weeks. Congrats.

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/not_even_mad.gif

I understand the need to protect yourselves. The site would probably die overnight if either of you were imprisoned for something user submitted. None of us would enjoy that.

However, many users, such as myself, came to voat to escape the tyranny of politically correct censorship. While I understand the banning of blatantly illegal subverses, it seems to me that some subs were not home to illegal activities and their mods worked diligently to police their own subs.

Would it not be better to investigate the activity in the subverses reported to you instead of banning first and asking questions later? It'll take more time, yes. But it would also better preserve your vision, and our vision, of making voat a bastion of free speech.

I hope this is more a temporary measure than the way things are going to be from now on.

Catch your breath, guys; there's been a ton of shit thrown at you recently. Hopefully some attorneys are already reaching out to you to give a helping hand. Those of us who appreciate what you've done, what you're doing, and what you need to do to cover your asses... we'll be here.

Anyone who posts questionable or illegal content on your site doesn't care about you or your vision for Voat. So fuck em', get rid of them.

I am all for freedom of speech, but I am also for privacy. Posting naked or lurid pictures of children on the internet falls on the privacy side of things. Kids have a right to privacy and protection, same as anyone else. Plus, it's a fucked up thing to do.

Ugh. Not this bullshit again…

This website (and every other website where the users submit things) is protected under 47 U.S.C. § 230 (aka. the "Communications Decency Act"), which states:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider"

That means each post made is owned by, and is the responsibility of the poster. NOT the platform that he's posting it on. If that weren't the case, Twitter, Facebook, et al. would be in SERIOUS trouble, but they're not. ∞chan had to deal with this same exact kind of flak, and they're still hosting all of the stuff these guys deleted just fine. Now if they're presented with a valid and applicable court order or DMCA request to take something down, then sure, they'd obviously have to comply. Also, in the U.S., the only "cyberharassment" laws and their associated legal definitions are state laws. Hell, some states don't even have cyberharassment laws. Child pornography is forbidden federally.

All that aside, as far as I'm aware, harassment involves singling people out and persistently disturbing them to wit's end. As far as I know, the people on /v/fatpeoplehate don't do that. Sorry if they hurt your feelings, but that isn't harassment

We both work for free

http://2014.vidyagaemawards.com/public/for-free.jpg

In addition, to further dissuade individuals from posting questionable content, we will store all records about users who submit such content and we will forward these records to authorities upon request.

I wonder what that part means.

To me this sounds a lot like what reddit did with FPH and Voat still isnt fully launched yet. Things are not looking good.

Banning subverses based on an assumption with no solid proof of illegality isnt the right way to do things, it would have been a better approach to ask the community to donate for legal advice in your particular country. I know that in the US you would not be held accountable but I have no idea what the European law is like.

Jail isn't worth this sort of political nonsense that everyone is trying to push on you two. Ban whatever you feel is needed to make Voat good.

I didn't leave reddit because of reddit's actions. I left reddit because of the community's actions after the banning of /r/fatpeoplehate. It's so political on reddit now, it's annoying. I don't live in a reddit world, I live in the real world with real problems that actually have significance in my life. I don't want to see some kind of reddit political nonsense at every turn, and I'm slowly starting to see the same exact thing here. /u/Atko and /u/PutItOut are just trying to make sure they don't go to jail. They want the media to paint them in a good light. They don't want to be targets anymore. I don't know all the reasons why they made Voat, but I don't feel like they intended to burden themselves with all these politics that the some of the voat users are pushing on them. It's getting really annoying, to be honest. Just let these guys run their site in a way that makes them feel safe. They can do whatever they want, just like reddit can do whatever it wants.

Only one of those is actually illegal. I understand why the others were deleted, but I'm still disappointed that our 'safe haven' is already doing exactly what reddit did. As necessary as this was, I think that the influx from reddit is effectively over, since the main draw is now gone.

We're talking about cops with guns and lawyers with political aspirations, not SJWs.

Yeah, the "elsewhere" it's posted will be populated by people who will report it, not jerk to it.

Washington State resident here. What is this illegal marijuana you are talking about?

You won't be missed. Fuck off.

...but that's the law. 17 year old girls naked are illegal. 18 year old girls DPed and A2M is fine. Those are the rules we've been given.

And since we're being clear, the girls posted in /v/jailbait were not 17. I'm sure some were, just as some were 14, 13 ... maybe even 12.

I am of the mindset that only subverses that contain illegal content or content which violates the terms of service should be removed. I understand that it is not easy for the two of you to keep up on this, but maybe you should put some trust in the mods on that side?

There's a difference between banning subverses because of illegal content being posted, and banning subverses that, by the nature of their existence, promote legal content.

Any site that doesn't ban underage pictures like that is just begging to be found liable for it.

And those "Safe harbor" provisions that all those other idiots pipe up about? The ones that say "how are you liable for what users post"... those provisions rely on stopping shit like that from being posted - notice and takedown isn't enough - if they think you're not being proactive enough, ESPECIALLY with CP, they'll come after your ass.

Nawww, someone can't come up with a decent argument.

Thanks for being transparent and actually explaining your decision, unlike Pao and her butt-buddies!

.....aaaaaaaand it's gone.....

free speech means to be able to say (express) ANYTHING and remain FREE. that's FREE from imprisonment by the ruling class. if you believe that you can be held liable and be imprisoned for anything expressed by anyone including you, then you have no free speech. hence it's pretty pointless to pretend that voat will be any different then reddit or any other site for that matter. it's a joke. goodbye reddit and goodbye voat. this was a pretty fast this cave-in. i guess voat really wants to get to that blocked paypal money so they have to clean up their act since money talks and they have been "coding for FREE" all this time and now it's cashout time.

I say we err on the side of caution for now, build the user base, aim for traction and when financially viable enough to get a legal team, then up voat to questionable content as intended.

Man you guys can't catch a break.

The personal liability is understandable for why you would ban the questionable content. I don't understand why people are getting all worked up when they are not picking and choosing different subverses. They are putting it on the line that they will unilaterally ban subverses in order for the long run. They can be petitioned back or cleaned up. For the time being you have to look at the overall website. Is there ways for atko to incorporate so that he is not personally liable. We'd like to think there are more ways to work with this and a subverse ban would be last resort.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Are the FPH people going to peoples facebook and leaving nasty messages or are they sitting in their subverse talking shit about fat people?

/v/fappening is obviously just being disagreed with and not illegal content.

Good call. Thanks for everything you guys do.

Did I just read this correctly?

"We can't tell if it is illegal or not, so we will censor it pre-emptively, -and/or if anyone complains."

ALSO - "questionable content (illegal or not) posters will have user their identity information collected and forwarded to any authority that requests it.. "

Fuck that. I don't support jailbait fetish weirdo's. But I support the law. Free speech protects assholes like Larry Flynt. Voat just became a fucking social justice warrior site (SJW site, really?! We just left that shit) .

TL:DR: Voat has decided to fight something they plainly admit they can't even distinguish. -So they will censor pre-emptively in the name of preserving a site which was supposed to enable free speech by eliminating censorship.

btw: Your donation well just dried up. Who the fuck is going to donate now?

For this reason, as a temporary measure, we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage.

I hope this really is a temporary measure. Banning stuff without further review is extremely troubling and it definitely will be abused by the same people who attacked voat in other ways before.

I hear you guys. it sounds pretty scary to me, honestly. You two have been blind sided by a behemoth. in less than a month your community has grown in the thousands. each new user brings a new bag of tricks. There's no way you'd be able to keep up with the users. it's like people have adopted your baby, and you're the parents but you have to watch the foster parents ..... [6] tldr; I support you guys and hope you do everything possible to stay safe and out of harms way.

Well I thought I was leaving this censorship shit behind, I don't even care about those subverses, but this sets a precedent. Voats operators, just like Reddit, are only out for profit and profitability. This isn't about being criminally liable.

As a mod of /v/conspiracy, just want to state that I support the bans. It is reasonable and responsible. I support free speech, and sharing sexualized images of children is not speech. Providing a hub for such people to connect is irresponsible, and I'm glad that they are gone so that Voat is unburdened from the moral/ethical responsibilities, and from legal or financial liabilities relating to those things.

Some people will say that this is a slippery slope to rampant censorship. I don't agree with that assessment. If there is evidence of a clear line of progression where removing subforums like this inevitably leads to unbridled censorship of political speech or dissent, then let us see it.

@RoyceMelborn. I dislike feminazis, but I have a special loathing for paedophiles and people who abuse and sexualize children. If that makes me an SJW, then the same logic makes you a paedophile/enabler of paedophiles. Suck it.

Shutting down entire subverses instead of removing the content. That's the reason why people in here are having trouble understanding the other side of the argument. Removing the content and saying, "Uh uh uh" would have been different than just bombing subverses. Also, the statement that participants that posted in those subverses may have been documented for authorities is another issue. Just because you posted in a subverse, doesn't mean you overstepped the law.

I just want to know if I can get my ten dollars back I donated last week. :^)

What reddit failed to do was come up with a clear set of rules, enforce them vigorously and fairly, and let the chips fall where they fall. Voat should do this asap. Selective enforcement and retroactive rules that promote a political bias is fucking bullshit.

Well that didnt take long. Welcome back to Reddit.

Make a decent point before you decide to type something out mate, instead of just claiming my 'fee fees' were hurt.

Please see: https://8ch.net/ggrevolt/res/18749

There are parallels between that other site and this type of censorship, yes.

HOWEVER, voat has had enough respect to notify everyone of the actions, explained them ahead of time, and the rationale behind them.

The least that we owe them is an opportunity to act in good faith. While insisting that those running the site face potential criminal charges so that we can share whatever content we like, anonymously, may play well to the internet crusader in all of us, it is not practical. Nor is it fair of us to ask this of them.

The least they should be able to expect is for us to give them that chance. Free speech does have limits in the real world. Let's not burn the house down just yet.

I'm 100% behind banning any subverse that targets illegal minors. I didn't have an issue when reddit did it and I won't here. People that find this content acceptable should not be catered to anywhere online. That is not in the least considered "free-speech".

Are you serious? People who support free speech like me are fine that people have opposing opinions, I personally don't agree with anti-gun or pro-life people but I respect their right to disagree and voice their opinions. What we aren't ok with is people posting and spreading child porn. Soft or hardcore, it doesn't matter. People shouldn't be jacking it to pictures of fucking 10 year olds. Everyone has their kinks and thats fine, but CP is illegal and this site is better off without it. You're free to disagree with me but take your CP somewhere else. Oh, and stop using the "free speech" argument to justify posting it. Theres a difference between allowing all types of opinions and allowing a community that spreads and posts one of the most illegal things out there.

Shill alert. I see a lot of accounts complaining that child porn is not available here. If y'all feel that strongly in support of child porn, I encourage you to go somewhere else and enjoy it, and what time you have left before you get prosecuted. Byee.

I have no problem at all with banning those subverses and in fact I would encourage it. I like visiting sites that aren't cesspools like /b/, and i left reddit because I don't like political censorship AND I don't like Ellen Pao.

Well you served in the military, so what? How does that change anything? The fact that my dad was tortured for 20 years in some shitty prison fighting for that very freedom, actually risking his life multiple times, doesn't change the fact that it isn't really speech.

WTF @atko? None of the actual images for the banned subs were hosted on the Voat servers. This is a link site. You never had any questionable content (other than doxbin). You are not personally liable for the content we post. That's well established law - ask Zuckerberg. You had a bad write-up in the press? So fucking what?

I'm starting to regret the financial support I gave you.

Came to Voat for the free speech. Now that I see it's not here, I'm out. Anyone have a good alternative?

Well back to Reddit, since you guys are doing the same exact shit they started about a year ago. fuck off.

so, what does voat offer that reddit doesn't? way to really take a stand mr pao.

Who also just happened to have committed suicide what, 13 days before?

Outsiders cannot kill voat. But your actions @Atko could kill it.

Perfectly understandable.

There are only two people running this site now, and they simply don't have the time or energy to pick through all the subs hunting for possibly-illegal content. Perhaps this is only temporary ban, and will be rescinded once the site's situation is far more stable and they have more staff, with the subs being carefully moderated to remove all illegal content, but right now, Voat's in a very vulnerable position. Atko and his friend are doing a lot with very little, and don't need any more trouble than they already have.

As a side note, regarding your concerns over European hate-speech laws, I imagine that if they start encountering problems, they'll find a non-European host.

Where I can ask for a refund??? u/Atko I feel cheated, you promise a free speech speech platform to just grab our money and became a cheap version of reddit.

I understand why you did this Atko, and I am worried by the potential for this to become a slippery slope, but part of me thinks that if you're being slammed this badly, then someone with power really really wants you dead. Me personally? I think this thought is quite invigorating, because if someone is trying this hard to get rid of you, they're either afraid, worried about the threat you present to their plans, and I kinda get a kick out of the idea that some powerful people are trying to get rid of us. If the strength of your enemies can be used to gauge your own, then you are a dangerous man indeed, and I like that. What can I say, other than the fact that following you was a good idea purely on the basis of who I made enemies of. This is gonna be fuuuuun~

This makes no sense. If users started posted illegal content in the comment section of threads in /v/announcements, you couldn't ban the subverse. You would be forced to take the actual appropriate action of moderating / banning users.

Also, by your criteria for preemptively banning subverses, you are on course to ban more than even reddit does. Even very benign subverses could have users that post illegal content. There are many types of posts where the content could potentially be illegal. You could easily follow your logic and justify banning all NSFW subverses and even fatpeoplehate.

You should have just forwarded takedown requests to mods and request that they remove the content. Any mods that are uncooperative in reacting to legitimate takedown requests can have their subverses deleted.

I definitely support your decision, anything illegal absolutely must go.

Yeah, have a fat-meme on your hard drive and it's off to jail for life, right guys?

So to where is going to be the next exodus? Hopefully next place will last at least a full month without becoming reddit.

this is pretty fucked up. you've become the heavy and now perverts jacking off to underage girls look like the victims?

you were better off letting them post and just reporting them

Sorry it came to this. You made the right call. Im a cash-strappes atudent, but I will donate in whatever method youll accept.

Ypu shoukd look into forming a ahell corppration to ooerate voat. This will reduce pwrsonal liability and allow you tax you tax breaks.

If there is a vhapter of EFF in europe, contact them.

Thanks for the update Atko. I do have a question that maybe someone can answer. Who is legally responsible for content? By that, I'm wondering how the authorities hold people accountable for online content. Can the company who hosts the site be prosecuted? Can the person who coded it?
Facebook is a good example-can Mark Zuckerberg be prosecuted if hate speech appears on his site? Can google be prosecuted if someone emails CP via gmail? You get my drift.

I know he's probably not popular here, but I came across a Ronald Reagan quote today, which bears repeating.

"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."

Here's where I stand: Whoever chooses to upload the illegal content should be punished.

I don't get the logic behind banning the /v/thefappening. the rest don't rally matter...

The reason that it is permanent is that the previous content needed to stay anonymous. so if it comes out of the mode what would be done with those posts?

But you can't ignore the fact that these subs were engaged in blatantly illegal activities that could have resulted in serious legal consequences for the site had it gone on, especially while the site is still very vulnerable.

Welp, you just fucked everything up @atko.

Peace bro.

http://getaether.net/

As someone who has been on the site for a while, I have always said that CP is the line, with doxxing in second place.

Also, those folk out there who are unhappy and think someone should have reviewed and researched each pic instead of banning the full subs, my questions to you:

How many of you will help in such a task?

Unpaid, spending hours of your personal time hunting down and reporting them for removal?

How many will step up and do a thankless, disgusting, and illegal job to keep the rest going?

I came here to support freedom of speech, /v/jailbait might be in the gray zone but this is how it all starts, even though it might be in the gray zone it should stay, as long as it is not breaking the law then let is stay, Voat should be a place of freedom, banning subs in not freedom, I'm not angry I am just disappointed in our site and our admin and I regret donating to them.

I'm very disappointed that you've taken this action. Especially "The Fappening", since there is literally no reason to ban it other than a fear of some corporate lawyer coming after Voat.

You just turned your back on your values because of pressure. This is the exact opposite of what Voat was supposed to stand for. This place is now, at least on some level, equal with Reddit. And that disgusts me.

I won't be donating, @Atko. I thought you were different.

I support your decision and have sent a small donation in bitcoin.

People who defend this sort of thing are insane. Did you really expect subs like jailbait or truejailbait, posting things that were illegal, to stick around? I mean, they could, but Voat could soon go as a result. If you want CP, I don't care, but do it on a site that can't be easily taken down.

Ask yourself, which is more important: A safe haven where free speech can be practiced, away from Chairman Pao and the increasingly shady reddit administration, or a place to find kiddie porn?

For the sake of transparency, I don't want to use the 'abuse' option. I want there to be a discussion.

With /v/thefappening being banned, where does that end? There's /v/celebrityleaks, which arguably is full of material from The Fappening mixed into other older leaked content.

Which brings us to the other general conversation about leaked photos. Before The Fappening, the media was just as bad at spreading the photos and getting page views from leaked photos. Now, with the shitstorm behind it all, the media wants to slam down the shame hammer on everyone. So where's that line now? Are leaked pictures now inherently bad? Does /v/celebrityleaks need to be shut down?

I personally don't think so. I think that Atko (etc), should respond to takedown requests, but ultimately leave these sort of subs alone. This is that slippery slope that people are afraid of.

Well if we are going to abide by the whole world's law, we better take away women's ability to post comments or content. And make sure every picture of a woman is completely covered up.

Why is Atko's ass on the line? Good question. Why did he advertise this as a uncensored site? Why did he accept donations from people coming to Reddit fleeing censorship? Also good questions. But the facts are he did advertise this as a free site, he did accept the donations, and his ass is absolutely responsible.

Saying that all niggers should die is not expression.

Saying that the right is shit is not expression.

Well done m8

Alright. I'm glad I left reddit to join reddit. I'm out. An actual successor will eventually show, but Voat isn't it. You're just repeating the same processes reddit did.

Let me get this straight: You're saying that making fun of fat people is as illegal as child pornography?

May I ask what reasons you would give in defending doxxing?

You have misconstrued the US laws on the matter. That is not how it is in practice, in reality or in law.

@Atko I fully support this. Somebody's fetish is never a reason for you to risk facing a judge answering for somebody else's actions.

We are not talking about some airy fairy SJW bullshit here. We are talking about jail time and being on a list for the rest of your life. Nobody is justified to put you in this position and put the future of Voat in jeopardy. Not to mention that this gives leverage to anybody who wants to shittalk about Voat.

Carry on laddy, you are doing great.

Just imaging that you are Atko. You sit in your apartment and you are in some way responsible for the shit people post on Voat. You are not a lawyer and you don't have much money so when the police break down your door and confiscate your computer because of some charge of hosting cp, you are fucked. And Voat is also fucked.

So I think Atko for the moment has no other choice.

I believe in his commitment to free speech and so hope that when Voat is stable and able to hire lawyers to defend against such charges, he will return Voat to posting everything, as long as it is legal.

Meanwhile everybody get yourself a Bitcoin account and send him some money (and 8Chan as well). I will do so tomorrow, as it is well past bedtime in Germany.

I dont understand. How is FPH just as illegal as child pornography?

Atko, be aware that the people who are trying to destroy this site are agents of the United States government. They want complete control over the "front page of the internet" and they are doing everything they can to stop Voat from replacing Reddit. They have their talons buried deeply into Reddit, and virtually every administrator and "power mod" is a paid shill working for the US in order to curate content which is most beneficial to US interests and keeping the public unaware of what is really going on the world. You may not believe me now, but I assure you, this is the truth.

Let's be frank here, they will not stop. They will do everything they can to run Voat's reputation through the ground, harass and mock it's users, and I'm sure they will even come directly to you at some point and attempt to buy you off. Do not let them, but understand, they are determined to keep everyone focused on Reddit, and keep everyone believing that nothing is wrong, and no one is curating or censoring content.

Your opponent is massive and deeply evil. I can only hope you are prepared to deal with the continued attacks and character assassinations that will come Voat's way.

Please ban my sub verse then.

This is the same thing that happen over at reddit which is why i came here. I guess all that is true is not always so good, if you wish to find me i'll be at various chans

Following the same road as reddit at a userbase this size which was preached on the words that would be the opposite of what reddit is doing is a good way to kill the site

I wonder how many of the people crying about the child porn being banned are sockpuppets? I am just gobsmacked that someone would want to sexualize minor children. I am glad the pedosmiles are going to leave. Good riddance to bad rubbish, says I.

If we are going by 'questionable' as being our decider on banning subverses then anything can become bannable if you try and find it offensive. This is exactly what many people came to Voat to get away from. If I'm going to be censored, I'll be censored in a community of millions rather than thousands, thanks.

Cheers Atko

The reasons I left Reddit was due to poor managment, rules that led to reaction voting madness, and karma whoring.

I'm sorry but illegal content should not be on Voat. And that's where the majority of regulating should stop.

Everyone lambasting the decision to remove illegal content should pursue their sick and twisted fantasies elsewhere.

Short term: Good idea to take steps slowly. Stay safe. Research and make the best informed decision.

Long term: Ban illegal content and ignore political motivated complaints. Encouraging self governess might be easier than you think.

personally liable? Might be time to setup a corporation or LLC.

Because Voat is being used by so many people, the two of us simply cannot review everything that is being posted. For this reason, as a temporary measure, we have decided to ban any subverses which we discover or which are reported to us, where links to illegal content is being shared. We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future at this very fragile stage.

So if someone say reports /v/fatpeoplehate for having illegal content you will ban even without evidence ? I don't know how I feel about this.

Good. Those subs were too much of a hassle and this site is better off without them.

We can’t judge if the content is illegal or not, but we have no choice but to take precautions in order to protect Voat’s future

How long do you think before SRS comes over and starts reporting every subverse they don't like?

How long before /v/fatpeoplehate gets reported? I'd be surprised if it wasn't already.

That does not absolve them from responsibility in any way. Saying it doesn't make it true.

Why would a subverse of legal, clothed teens put them at risk? There are countless legal 'jailbait' websites, not to mention huge sites like 8chan.

The reason it's getting banned is because Atko and his team simply does not have the resources to deal with all the backlash at this current moment.

Not like they haven't done that before

From the little research I did you seem to be completely wrong on Swiss law. I'd love to read more but couldn't find much in English. Also, everyone kept yelling about 16 year olds there but what I found showed that 16 was legal to consent but still considered a child so you could still have child porn of a 16 year old there. They had heat from the UN or whatever on their laws and upped the age of prostitution from 16 to 18 as well. Again, if you know better please show me. I'm just curious as hell because I do not believe what you say at all.

None of that even touches the fact that leaving it up would make it near impossible to do business online. Hosts, credit card providers, upstream providers, etc. will all block you from doing business with them whether it's legal where you live or not.

We should probably get Google shut down because they link to illegal content too then, right?

Or do I need to explain to you how the internet works?

So... pictures of those celebs should be illegal.

The idea is that if you're able to turn anonymous mode off all the people who participated under the promise of anonymity would be at risk. Although I'm sure there's ways around this and Atko just doesn't have the time for it quite yet.

Isn't this exactly what reddit did? Are you now realising why regulations exist and why certain rules have been put in place?

This website is literally a reddit repost.

It doesn't just get removed, all known info is supposed to be forwarded to authorities, users banned and you should be able to prove you tried to actually keep them away, etc. That's US, I'd wager Swiss law is even tougher on the matter.

This is a repost from reddit.com/r/blog a few weeks ago.

/v/jailbait is not childporn. It explicitly states that on the sidebar and had extremely diligent mods watching it. If it were still up I would have challenged you to find an example. Clothed teens while distasteful is not illegal.

Doxxing on the other hand is against voat's use agreement and the entire sub was created for this specific purpose. The two are not the same at all.

Watching someone shoot heroin and watching someone sexually abuse a kid are different things, totally false equivalence.

You really can't believe that people would taking advantage of voats no censorship policy by posting nude pictures of underage girls? It looks completely naive to suggest that redditors, who supposedly wanted the voat users gone from their site forever, would chase and antagonize with their stash of CP they have been hoarding.

"Looks young to me" is a valid legal argument in an uncomfortably larger than 0 number of places. A porn star once went to court (in Mexico I think?) to say she was over 18 because someone was being charged for viewing her content.

That is an incredibly simple fix that I can get behind.

Another PR play? Start censoring on reddit's 10th anniversary literally hours after their blog post? Anyone remember Flappy Bird and their announcement to close down? It got him 5x more users/downloads.

Voat has NO other play but to continue not censoring, otherwise another clone will pop up in days. There's already snapzu.com and hubski.com. Watch in a day or two when the media is all over it (again), there will be an announcement that those subverses are unbanned and happy days will be here again with 5x more users.

Sorry, but banning subs on which illegal activities were being done, thus making them a serious threat to the future of this site, is nothing like politically-motivated censorship. This site already had its PayPal account suspended and was dumped by its host, all this while the two people who run this site are struggling to contain the massive influx from reddit.

There is a lot that could've been done with more restraints on who could post how they post and ext. But it just isn't possible right now. The amount of back end to support that type of customization isn't reasonable to expect right now from them when they are dealing with. I do think having this amount of customization avalible for any sub would be fantastic at some point but that its just not doable at this point :/

Side note, you should post that idea on that /v/ideasforvoat :P