Reddit mods discuss forming a union and suing for back pay
Reddit mods discuss forming a union and suing for back pay
old.reddit.com
Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users
36 comments
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Good luck to them. I dislike Reddit as much as the next guy, but this whole thing doesn't stand a chance. You do volunteer work nobody even asked you to do and then demand money? How does that make any sense at all?
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About as much sense as building a company off free volunteer labor and then acting like you own those volunteers and the money they helped you earn
It doesn't take a ton of effort to make a website and an app, Lemmy is already hockey-sticking off entirely volunteer everything.
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They are probably not gonna get backpay, but what this could achieve is to force reddit's hand in legally recognizing mod's work from that point on and giving the mods more standing than they have now.
At the very worst, it sends a message and helps to continue bringing to light reddit's shitty practices.
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This probably won't get very far but no harm trying and if it actually does work there is a ton to be gained
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Being that the message that Spez was trying to give off at times was that developers weren't paying their fair share, I think this gives the a great example of how Reddit essentially doesn't pay their fair share. They aren't creating the content, and they aren't paying the mods to "manage" the content.
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Its crazy how this was just allowed to continue for almost 20 years with nothing happening reddit trying to ipo and indirectly creating lemmy is really the best outcome possible
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Seems like a rather large shitpost, but I encourage them to cause chaos by any means necessary (feasibility be damned).
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Out of principle I support this, but I very much doubt it will ever succeed.
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I don't think they actually think they'll get backpaid, it's more the principle of the thing. You're saying Reddit isn't earning the money it should, how about all the free work mods have done over the years to make Reddit into anything worth monetising?
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They should sue reddit for violating GDPR too (if anyone that deleted posts/comments on their profile and reddit restored them is European)
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Won't work. It's a volunteer, unpaid position. They have no legs to stand on in this case. The only real course of action they have is just not giving Reddit their service at all. Stop going there, stop giving them clicks and traffic.
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I replied to this type of comment in another thread. Reddit is governed by California law. There may be something here, since reddit was benefiting off of free labor. Volunteering might not actually matter, since moderators were putting in actual hours for the benefit of reddit, while not receiving anything back. Without mods, reddit wouldn’t have the power to moderate all the subs, thus, reddit relied on mods to do unpaid company work which would have cost reddit millions per year if they were to pay moderators. I think there’s a thin case here.
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the moment reddit starting threatening to fire them and take over THEIR communities, ut became a job.
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Eh I see what you mean but technically reddit has always been up front about it being volunteer, and they did give them the choice to step down instead of reopening. So I can't see it being held up in court
But I'm NAL
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If trump can run and win on sowing chaos, why not use that tactic and see how far it can go. I say go for it.
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Tech bros do love to "move fast and break things". Let's see how much they really like it.
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I couldn't even continue reading pasted the first comment. Ridiculous
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I'm not seeing any serious suggestions of that there. Looks more like hypothetical talk.
I actually had a similar thought to that yesterday. Could moderators be classified as employees for the work they do?
I think you would have a massive uphill struggle to argue Reddit's moderators are employees in court. Without that no back pay and no union.
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It would be really cool but these were the guys that backboned after being threatened to checks notes not being able to work for free.
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I would rather have mods in place that were a part of the blackout than have new mods that instated directly by reddit.
It was either they ended the blackout and maliciously complied, or they would be removed and have replacements put in that would do whatever they were told.
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Well that's kinda ridiculous
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Ridiculous enough to warrant engagement though, isn't it?
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r/antiwork would be proud
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Lol. Good luck finding a lawyer to that that case. I'm with the mods but I assume this a joke that got out of hand.
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I assume they're realistic enough to know that this really won't go anywhere and that the whole point of the discussion is simply to make some noise.
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I have mixed feelings about this. I'd fire many of the bullies.
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I don't think these people understand how the law works lol
Also a union for what? Posting on internet forums? Sssuuuurree...
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I'm not sure you understand how the law works. Read "Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc." (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1706417.html), where unpaid interns who worked on the film "Black Swan" sued the production company. The interns argued that they were actually employees and thus entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) and New York labour law. The court agreed with the interns, finding that they were essentially regular employees.
To contrast with an unsuccessful case, I present "Wang v. The Hearst Corporation" (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/1882161.html), where unpaid interns at various magazines published by Hearst sued for wages. The court used a "primary beneficiary test" to determine whether the interns or the company were the primary beneficiaries of the arrangement. The court found that the interns were the primary beneficiaries, so they were not entitled to wages.
I think it would be hard for Reddit to argue that subreddit moderators are the primary beneficiaries of their labour, meaning if the mods unionise and bring a case, they might actually be successful.
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There is a vast, vast difference between interns that are officially working in the company and volunteers that are just using the platform. I think it's impossible to argue that mods are employees and it's stated time and time in Reddit's terms that they can ban people and remove content as they please since it's their platform. This isn't any different than other social media. They're legally allowed to demote mods and control subs.
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When reddit threatened to fire them and take over THEIR communities, it became a job and they became liable and employer
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Fuckin lol
36 comments
Yeah, this seems very unlikely to go anywhere other than in gaining media attention (which is a fair aim to have at this point).
I don't think the point to to actually get paid. I think the idea is, as you said, media attention, as well as investor attention. Who's going to want to invest in a company that's trying to unionize?
maybe they should start a lemmy community to talk about it... like !workreform@lemmy.world