ij_reilly

Why do you think Alex Angel — and, I imagine, others at Reddit — ended up being so defensive about the role /r/FindBostonBombers played in spreading the Sunil Tripathi rumor?

To me, Angel's quote — "I just don’t understand why the blame was put on us and not on the outlets that did shoddy reporting. Reddit is just a bunch of normal people who are basically chattering. Major news sources put out the bad information without any verification, but we got all the blame. No one but Reddit was really held responsible." — is a bizarre sort of revisionism. Many who made mistakes were criticized, including all of the journalists you mention in your piece. It seems like Reddit faced a specific sort of blame because of the way it was touted as a revolutionary sort of citizen-based journalism.

You wrote a great piece, Jay. Thanks.

Do Vladimir Putin and the Russian government have complete, total, absolute control over this AMA?

Astute comment, Cum_Box_Hero.

Thanks. One more question, if you don't mind. Do you think the Tripathi ordeal suggests that Reddit can't be neutral? The upvote/downvote system seems to imply an endorsement, however vague it may be, on an institutional level.

Yes! Ideally something about Ta-Nehisi Coates.