Too much free speech on Reddit?

WILLIAM Shatner may be new to Reddit - he joined the site last month - but he's already making waves.  The Star Trek star called out the community on the social news network for its racism and bigotry.

"I am apalled [sic] by some of the immature, horrifically racist, sexist, homophobic, ethnic... etc.. posts that are just ignored," he wrote in a comment on the site.

“Why are these accounts still active? While Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream I just wonder if by allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they feel will cause the most collateral damage if Reddit is biting off it's own nose in taking that step to become a mainstream community."

But user "Karmaisforsuckers" replied "Why don't we just call Obama and have him moderate then, Huh? HUH? MY FREE SPEECH!"

Shatner replied, saying that Reddit was the first "mainstream site" that allows "racists and other hate mongers to group, congregate, incite and spread their hatred".

"The fact that someone could come here, debase and degrade people based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference because they ‘have a right’ to do so without worry of any kind of moderation is sending the wrong message, in my humble opinion."

Source

Shatner is entitled to his opinion and Reddit is entitled to run any speech policy it wants but if there were any official pressure on Reddit over its policies, that pressure would almost certainly be ruled as a breach of the 1st Amendment.  Hate speech is protected speech  -- as any Leftist will tell you if he is accused of hate speech against Jews, Christians, conservatives etc.

Shatner is probably touchy because he is both Jewish and Canadian. As far as I can work out, "Schattner" (the original spelling of his name) means "The shadower" in German/Yiddish.