WNBA Subreddit Bans Fans from Even Mentioning Sophie Cunningham After Her Defense of Women's Sports
The heavy hand of moderation crept into a WNBA subreddit, where a ban on any mention of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham was imposed until it was exposed.
A New York Post report on Sunday said that the WNBA subreddit “won’t allow users to use the words ‘Cunningham,’ ‘Sophie,’ ‘sc,’ ‘scunningham,’ ‘soph,’ or ‘sophiacunningham.’”
As the blame game for what seemed like censorship focused on the league, the WNBA said it was innocent.
The league has been trying to decide how to define “women” in the wake of a controversy that was sparked by Cunningham saying men do not belong in women’s sports.
“The WNBA does not moderate or have any affiliation with the r/WNBA subreddit,” a WNBA representative told USA Today.
The subreddit user who called out the subreddit moderators posted the conversation.
“We filter content based on (Sophie) because it tends to (bring) out trolls and people that (aren’t) fans of the W,” a moderator posted.
The user called the ban “ridiculous.”
The moderators replied, “We have chosen to filter content. If you want to post freely about Sophie, you can go to a different sub.”
The final response left little room for discussion: “You (aren’t) even a contributor to this sub, so I suggest you go back to the other WNBA subs. This is our decision. If you keep messaging about this, you will be banned.”
As publicity about the ban grew, the r/WNBA subreddit posted a clarification about the ban.
“Sophie Cunningham content is not banned from r/wnba,” the statement said. “Posts about Sophie are welcome when they are related to basketball, including games, highlights, interviews, statistics, marketing endorsements, and other WNBA-related news. Off-court Sophie content can be shared as well.”
The statement said what’s known in the Reddit-verse as karma will have a say in the r/WNBA subreddit. Users must have 50 community karma points to post. The more users believe content is positive, the more points a user gets.
“This is in place so the subreddit will not be [overrun] with trolls or brigaded. And this goes for ANY new post; you must have 50 community karma to create ANY post,” the statement said.
“These moderation tools are applied to protect the community and are not being used to ban Sophie Cunningham content. Thank you for helping us keep r/wnba focused, respectful, and enjoyable for basketball fans,” the statement said.
Cunningham’s comments have touched off demonstrations for and against her and put the WNBA at the center of the controversy over men playing women’s sports. As for Cunningham, she says she will keep on doing what she does.
“People are like, ‘You have a platform. Use it,’ and then once you use it, it’s like, ‘Go back to playing basketball.’ I think the reason why I stated that is because you go into media, and it’s not anything even about basketball. I think I could do both,” Cunningham said recently, according to the Indianapolis Star.
“Ask me about what’s going on and what I said. And also ask me how great my teammates are doing, how great our team is doing, how great the league is doing. We can be a great example of how to do both.”
“When you do have so many eyes on you … that people can use your words for the positive. People can weaponize your words. So that’s just how people are. That’s how human nature is. So, that’s not gonna make me dim my light anymore,” Cunningham said.
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