Huffman has said, “We are not in the business of giving that [Reddit’s content] away for free.” That stance makes sense. But it also ignores the reality that all of Reddit’s content has been given to it for free by its millions of users. Further, it leaves aside the fact that the content has been orchestrated by its thousands of volunteer moderators.
touché
I see that their mass defederation is potentially temporary.
But the point that hairtrigger defederation results in fragmentation, up to the point of insularisation remains valid. Islands naturally tend to become obscure.