In advance, this is NOT a complain, but just myself looking for some opinions, views and experiences around this topic. Also, the screenshot is marked as NSFW because it contains language that might be sensible for some people (and that's also present one time in the post itself).
I'll start it short: I've just been banned for 14 days from the memes community on the official Lemmy instance (!memes@lemmy.ml).
Why?
Apparently, just critizicing chinese state and authoritarism in front of some China's authoritarism deniers (and, maybe, some CCP infiltrators [I have to I must clarify that the latter is just my speculation, but the possibility is not zero and does not seem low, and as a hypothesis I think it is sufficiently solid]), it seems like pointing up chinese's government authoritarian character is sinophobia and "not being sufficiently polite" (as it shows in their modlog).
Censorship and FLOSS
This raises me a concern. I can't say that happens in all of Lemmy.ml communities or that's anything that they are condoning that; I understand that they give autonomy to the moderators of each community and everything else, and I also do not want to attack the moderators of that community with this, or anything similar. But, seeing that I have already seen several similar cases being reported throughout the Threadiverse, and that the majority of the Fediverse tends to the left (which is not necessarily bad either, I myself am center-left), I have noticed a growing radicalization and a growing polarization within the Fediverse, and that worries me because that was exactly one of the things that attracted me to it, outside of the obvious fact that it is Free, not proprietary like shit in Silicon Valley.
And with that, I increasingly notice a greater spiral of silence here. I've been lurking on Lemmy for quite some time, but I only recently created my account on Disroot when I felt ready to start socializing and I felt like I understood the fediquette well enough, but being banned for not thinking the same as the rest of the pro-Chinese people there doesn't give me a good taste in my mouth; It doesn't bother me so much that they insult me (in fact, they can do it all they want, I'll just laugh in their faces and move on xD) and that they don't let me express myself freely, especially when I live in a country where freedom of expression is a luxury and there is a humanitarian crisis of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of political prisoners and tens of thousands of deaths for precisely that reason.
I really can't say that they want to censor me since it is one of my first interventions there and it is the first time they have banned me, it would be drawing conclusions too hastily, but I am still worried about this ideological homogenization. Mainly due to the asymmetrical application of that rule, since I never insulted or denigrated anyone and they constantly did. Probably the only failure that would justify a ban is the fact that I wished the death of all the politicians and governments in the world, but it is difficult not to do so when my country is hell on Earth and I can barely trust in any of them. What raises my concern more than anything is the fact that they do it without even having notified me beforehand (really, I never received a notification where they warned me, or any warning, or anything like that, and I have moderator notifications activated by all means in my client, not a message, nothing like that), which makes me feel very arbitrary, especially when they only vaguely mention "Rule 1" in the moderation logs.
I would like to know what you think; Is it just my paranoia and trauma, or is there really a culture of conformism that tends to silence ideas that are foreign to their ideological views, creating a spiral of silence?
Not everybody has the resources—mental and material—to self host—and that's my case too. And the entire point of my post is to remark the fact that's really hard to find truly free speech-oriented Fediverse instances; it was truly a miracle to find these three in Pleroma, and though many other exists for other software (let's say, Mastodon or Lemmy), they're way more hidden and most of them use a language I don't speak.
You should think twice about that sort of things before telling "just self-host bro", take this as an advice.
A) The entire purpose of FOSS software and hardware is that you can fully control it, should you choose to. If you don't like something, you do it differently. Lemmy especially can be hosted on an old laptop if you've got any kind of solid home internet connection.
B) The reason 'free speech' instances don't exist long in any fediverse space is because of CSEM and hate speech. From there, since you legally have to censor that speech depending on where you are in the world, and morally should, then it's easy to go ahead and ban the things leading to those extremes. Since as neoliberalism.
Responding to B: The problem is that what I'm saying is not hate speech or CSEM, and you are making a false equivalence between allowing or defending free speech and defending hate speech and harmful content. Apart from that, you do not take into account that all the time, and increasingly intensely, the concept is inflated to encompass anything that the person evaluating it does not like, even though logically derived there is no support or any valid argument to show that this is hate speech.
I don't have a good internet connection, my old laptop has a bad battery and runs slow as a snail, not to mention that it overheats and shuts down for whatever reason. To that we add that my main PC is a desktop, and in my country the electricity service is rubbish (we can go up to 8 hours without electricity), AI has left me without a good income from work (I am a freelance musician and I have been able to see how demand has decreased dramatically), so the money with luck and effort is enough for me to survive month after month, with a currency that is constantly devalued and arbitrary price increases (even in foreign currencies, like dollars), and I do not have the time or energy to keep everything in order. order. Also, the router in my house isn't mine, it's a guy's, so I can't open ports, and buying or renting a VPS isn't an option either because, first, there aren't any that support registrations from my country and, second, we're back to square one: my income is meager and uncertain.
Please, think a bit before speaking, not everyone has a decent socioeconomic situation.
I provided 2 solutions, if you can't do one, do the other. At risk of repeating myself: you can't self-host, that's fine, find someone willing to host the things you want to say and thank them for the privilege. That requires no resources mental or otherwise. You might notice I provided that solution first, in its own paragraph no less, here it is:
You may also notice it's preceded by the word "solutions", plural, because I provided more than one solution.
Thank you for the advice, mine to you is: read the entirety of what you're replying to. You aren't entitled to other's attention, effort, or resources. Here's the point in comic form hope that helps.
They do exist, they turn in to Nazi bars fairly fast because that's what happens to freezepeach places, no-one else is willing to host them. Then they're defederated: because who the fuck wants to hang around a nazi bar. Then they disband: because freezepeach people always wanna yap, and refuse to listen, it's no fun yapping if no-one is listening. It's not called "free-listen" is it?
Perhaps you could launch a "free-listen" platform? Where you're free to listen to any, and all perspectives. Implying you don't ignore, or talk over their perspective. Just listen, analyse, internalise, and move on.
Those really are your choices: find like minded individuals willing to pay money, time and effort to host you (it really does require money, time and effort, lots of money time and effort). Or, host it yourself.
Exploding-heads was the last nazi bar I heard about, I think they disbanded when everyone defederated them, but look them up? Maybe hilarious-chaos? I think they did the same thing
Yeah, and I can't do neither of the two, it's that so hard to understand? I don't have good hardware, I don't have a good socioeconomic situation, I don't have good internet and it's hard to find these, miraculously I found those three.
That's a slippery slope fallacy. The problem is that you are again confusing freedom of speech with freedom to say or do harmful things. They are not the same. An environment that respects freedom of expression (which is not a fundamental right for nothing, without it you, or I, or both, would probably be going to jail for saying things that someone doesn't like) does not imply an environment free of rules and moderation. Of course I'm not going to make it so easy for literally Nazis, or literally Zionists, or literally Jihadists, or literally authoritarian communists, or anything like that, but that doesn't mean that if I criticize a government with good arguments then I should be banned just because some moderator thinks differently. People also leave those places and in fact those are better known for becoming radicalized and becoming worse echo chambers.
Just gonna say, if you really hate or you really feel hurt by whatever someone says on the internet, just block them and/or use a blacklist of words.
I've told you why that is: freedumb of speech instance opens up, it fills up with freedumb of speech people, others defederate because they don't want to listen to the freedumb of speech, the freedumb of speech people disband because they're not a freedom of listen platform.
No, you're confused what freedom of speech is, and what Lemmy is. See the comic. They, Lemmygrad, just don't like what you're saying, and they're showing you the door.
You see how you, a freedumb of speech person, is just yapping and not listening? Both of these points are wholly dealt with in the comment you replied to? You could have listened, and I wouldn't be repeating myself. Twice, you made me repeat myself due to an inability to listen? What will you make me reiterate this time?
That's a fine line to draw, you're free to draw it where you like when it's your hardware. Lemmygrad drew it elsewhere, and they have the freedom to decide what's hosted on their hardware? You see how that works? They don't want to host you, they don't have to host you, they showed you the door [see the comic, please for the love of god read the comic]
There are two options, find like minded freedumb people willing to pay the money time and effort to host you, or host it yourself. You can't find one, I've told you why, they're short lived. I showed you why, using you as an example why they're short lived. My second piece of advice is to listen, analyse, internalise and move on.
There is no freedom of speech of Lemmy There should be no freedom of speech on Lemmy. Admins have the freedom to not host what they want. Mods have the freedom to ban you as they please. Lemmings have the freedom to block you as they please. You're not entitled to anyone's attention, time, effort, or resources.
You have the solutions, do what you want with them. There are all sorts of instances, and they've all drawn the line for acceptable content in different places, perhaps your inability to find one that lines up with where you would draw the line is a hint to introspect. It's not often I agree with lemmygrad, but they might have got it right with you.
I have read the comic, and I disagreed, I'm on my right of doing so. And again, I have found instances that draw the line where I do: real damage. But again, the problem that I'm pointing is that it is worrying that people so unjustifiably and illogically expand the line of what constitutes hate speech in their spaces (and I speak for both extremes, not just those on the left, as incels are also unbearable), because in part thanks to that is where all the current polarization arises (and pay attention, in part, it is multifactorial of course). At least we agree that others have the right to block others if they don't want to read them, but I think banning is much trickier territory. Exactly in part the DECLARED purpose of these networks―that is, the Fediverse― is that there is more freedom of expression and thought than in, say, Blueshit, Shitter or Reshit, where moderators can ban you for absurd things. Do you think that only state censorship represents a problem? No. Any type of censorship, even personal, is a serious problem. Think about it, it is a problem that LGBTQ or racialized people cannot express themselves freely on traditional networks because that affects their scope of action and perpetuates their marginalization. The same thing happens with those of us who criticize totalitarian regimes.
Oof that's a wall of text. Formatting please. I'll do my best to parse it.
Ok you disagree with the comic, they (lemmygrad) disagree with you. What's the issue?
That's a long sentence, I kept looking for the full stop for the quote, mostly it's what we call "blah blah blah". But, it isn't unjustisfied. It's their hardware and they have the freedom to host what they want, that's the justification. Simples, you fundamentally do not understand the situation.
I'll make it really simple for you: you cannot force people to host things, on their hardware, that they do not want to host. You understand how entitled/authoritarian you are right? It's their stuff, their money, their time, you have no entitlement or authority to tell them what to do with it. I keep telling you this, it's just not going in. It's a simple concept, do you not understand, disagree, haven't heard it?
Lemmy isn't what you think it is. Lemmy is a bunch of little fiefdoms run by little dictators that can do whatever they want, whenever they want.
Find a fiefdom you agree with, don't go to the fiefdoms you don't. Or do, and they'll show you the door, see comic. That isn't a freedom of speech issue, you go where you aren't welcome and you will be shown the door.
Again, you don't understand what Lemmy is. It isn't "I can go to .ml and say Marx was an anti-semite and they have to host that". It's: I can go somewhere and say Marx was an anti-semite, or make somewhere and say Marx was an anti-semite.
You again don't understand what freedom of speech is, they (.ml) haven't violated your freedom of speech, they've shown you the door.
Is that you asking me a question and answering it for me? You know when I said you're all yap and zero listen? Please introspect. As it happens I've made my view on moderated content on Lemmy very clear, thanks for listening.
You don't believe that. You have already told me how you believe the environment should have rules and moderation. You already said there is a line, you disagree with people where the line is. Get off your high horse, it's embarrassing.
Again you don't understand Lemmy, the exact opposite happens here, Blahaj.zone (spelling?) flourished. Exploding-heads did not. LGBT+ people made their own little fiefdom: people like being there, because they're nice people and it's a nice place to be. Exploding-heads made their own little fiefdom, and the nazi bar cycle happened. You see how my hypothetical played out in reality, and the opposite of yours happened? Would you like to consider why that might be? You called it a slippery slope fallacy, round here it's observable reality.