"We uphold the ideal of free speech on reddit as much as possible not because we are legally bound to, but because..."

"... we believe that you - the user - has the right to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and that it is your responsibility to do so. When you know something is right, you should choose to do it. But as much as possible, we will not force you to do it. You choose what to post. You choose what to read. You choose what kind of subreddit to create and what kind of rules you will enforce. We will try not to interfere - not because we don’t care, but because we care that you make your choices between right and wrong. Virtuous behavior is only virtuous if it is not arrived at by compulsion. This is a central idea of the community we are trying to create."

So writes Reddit CEO Yishan Wong in a blog post titled "Every Man Is Responsible For His Own Soul," a propos of the naked-celebrity-photos-leak incident. Via the NYT, "Reddit and 4chan Begin to Button Up."

The application of free-speech principles outside of the context of government restrictions has been a long-term interest of mine on this blog. Here's that long email debate I had with Bob Wright on the subject, which followed on a voluble Bloggingheads debate we had, which I highlight in a post called "When did the left turn against free speech?" Watch Bob start yelling at me — "Ann, come on, you're a constitutional law authority..." — 20 seconds into this clip: