It is not exactly news that Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of Unitedhealthcare’s general manager, Brian Thompson, is a viral sense. He was debated, coveted and idolized. There are even calls for Dave Franco to play him in a movie. However, in the age of populist anger, it seems that online platforms are becoming more and more broken by content associated with him, for fear that widespread idolization can be violated.
Slate Recently noted That some Reddit forums were censored for their discussion of the charged murderer. One long -term subreddit, /r/pop cultureIt was reportedly “closed” from the platform after its modes failed to calm Mangione’s ongoing discussion. The action followed an Unusual warning From the site’s security team, Redditsafety, who stated that Subreddits who violated content policies and revised “violent content”, will receive a warning.
“Today we come up with a new (kind) compulsory action through the site,” the alert read, noting that “starting today, users who in a certain period of time add several content violated due to violating our policies, will begin to receive a warning.” It continued: “While this is currently” warned “, we will consider adding more actions along the way.”
Not much later, /R /Popculture, which apparently presented ongoing discussions from Mangione, posted a note claiming that one of its moderators was suspended. “This subordinate was put into a restrictive mode and the main mod was suspended due to approval of comments that mentioned” Luigi. “Apparently to say ‘Luigi’ is now opposed to the rules, though they have never told us. All comments with the word” Luigi “flicker as possible to incite violence,” the note read.
However, while users reported being blocked or censored only to mention Mangione’s name, Reddit claimed that the user who was rejected, allowed comments that recommended violence:
“After publication, a spokesman for Reddit wrote to Slate, that” one of R/pop culture’s modes was stopped due to a large number (at least 20) comments containing direct calls for violence, including images celebrating Thomas Matthew Crooks and content calling on the president’s murder. “They added that” because R/Popculture only had one remaining mode, we added automatic filters “to help filter reported posts and flash” some keywords. “
It is worth mentioning that /r /pop culture is still available and even includes a profile image of Mangione as Jesus, so it is not quite clear what the user intended when they said it was “closed.” However, other subreddits, which have been dedicated exclusively to Luigi content, have been banned in recent days. Moderator for/r/freeluigi, another popular Mangione website, said to Slate: “I remember R/LuigiMangione banned, then R/Luigimangione2, then R/Luigimangione3, and I think it did this, and I didn’t succeed he didn’t have to do that.”
A cowardly Peruvian of Reddit shows that there are still many numbers of Luigi-associated subreddits. /R/Freeluigi, who describes itself as “a community to discuss health reform and related issues and stay updated about the case involving Luigi Mangione”, still working and has about 37,000 followers. Another subreddit, /r /saintluigagione, has only 2.3 thousand followers, but describes itself as dedicated to “the rise of class consciousness” and “the cause”, whatever that means. Subreddits hating Mangione are also available, although they have many fewer members.
The moderator of/r/freeluigi said to Slate: “No one in R/Freeluigi wants anyone to be murdered, and no one celebrates that a man is dead. There are obviously some crazy people on the Internet. But a whole community of 30,000 people should not be punished for one man’s actions.”
Gizmodo extended to Reddit for more information.
