Lemmy.ml tankie censorship problem - Lemmy.World
lemmy.world
I feel like we need to talk about Lemmy’s massive tankie censorship problem. A lot of popular lemmy communities are hosted on lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml]. It’s been well known for a while that the admins/mods of that instance have, let’s say, rather extremist and onesided political views. In short, they’re what’s colloquially referred to as tankies. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if they didn’t regularly abuse their admin/mod status to censor and silence people who dissent with their political beliefs and for example, post things critical of China, Russia, the USSR, socialism, … As an example, there was a thread today about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. When I was reading it, there were mostly posts critical of China in the thread and some whataboutist/denialist replies critical of the USA and the west. In terms of votes, the posts critical of China were definitely getting the most support. I posted a comment in this thread linking to “https://archive.ph/2020.07.12-074312/https://imgur.com/a/AIIbbPs [https://archive.ph/2020.07.12-074312/https://imgur.com/a/AIIbbPs]” (WARNING: graphical content), which describes aspects of the atrocities that aren’t widely known even in the West, and supporting evidence. My comment was promptly removed for violating the “Be nice and civil” rule. When I looked back at the thread, I noticed that all posts critical of China had been removed while the whataboutist and denialist comments were left in place. This is what the modlog [https://lemmy.ml/modlog] of the instance looks like: [https://feddit.nl/pictrs/image/6886b092-43d3-408b-ab57-2fa686f8a6c7.png] Definitely a trend there wouldn’t you say? When I called them out on their one sided censorship, with a screenshot of the modlog above, I promptly received a community ban on all communities on lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] that I had ever participated in. Proof: [https://feddit.nl/pictrs/image/9c52e470-645f-46ba-ac1d-0b7d8be17af3.png] So many of you will now probably think something like: “So what, it’s the fediverse, you can use another instance.” The problem with this reasoning is that many of the popular communities are actually on lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml], and they’re not so easy to replace. I mean, in terms of content and engagement lemmy is already a pretty small place as it is. So it’s rather pointless sitting for example in /c/linux@some.random.other.instance.world [/c/linux@some.random.other.instance.world] where there’s nobody to discuss anything with. I’m not sure if there’s a solution here, but I’d like to urge people to avoid lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] hosted communities in favor of communities on more reasonable instances.

https://lemmy.world/post/16211417

Lemmy.ml, like lemmygrad.ml and hexbear.net, has consistently been accused of improper Federation practices and many instances have decided to ban one or both of the latter by default, with many individual users having already gone further to block the former as well. However, many individual users on lemmy.ml seem unaware of the accusations of the practices of their admins, and some people go so far as to see lemmy.ml as a sort of default instance on the Fediverse.

This discussion promotes wider knowledge of the situation and what might be done about it in the future, in order to e.g. not turn away new potential Federation members (Fedizens?:-) that could otherwise associate what happens on that instance as something relating to the Fediverse as a whole.

  • KevinCostner@kbin.run
    1·
    29 days ago

    Checking up on the Mod Log regularly reveals exactly how petty and unhinged many mods on Fedi are. Suppression of political ideas is the main one.

  • shinysquirrel@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    29 days ago
    • well can someone suggest a instance? And is there a way to transfer my communities to another account
    • Blaze@reddthat.comEnglish
      0·
      29 days ago
      • lemm.ee is the second most active instance and avoids joining Lemmy.world which is already too big
      • reddthat.com is cool if you don’t want downvotes
      • sh.itjust.works works, if you don’t mind the name
      • if you are based in Europe, discuss.tchncs.de is very well managed (they have other services at https://tchncs.de/)
      • if you are based in North America, lemmy.ca is nice

      That’s pretty much it.

      For the transfer of communities, there is a tab in the user settings to export your settings (including subscriptions) to a JSON file. You can then import it to your new account.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    29 days ago

    Meanwhile .world heavily censors for israel but that’s fine.

    Dont debunk beheaded babies and rapes on .world that is antisemitic. New York Times never lies guys!

    • OpenStars@discuss.onlineOPEnglish
      0·
      29 days ago

      Whether done by community mods or instance admins, it seems like similar thoughts should apply: starting new communities elsewhere (on different instances) increases freedom of choice, so that abuses in one area don’t leave someone entirely out in the wasteland with no content.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        28 days ago

        This is why defederation with .ml is contradictory. Because it serves to amplify a liberal zionist echo chamber.

        Coincidentally virtually every person you hear whining about getting banned from .ml is someone defending the Genocide of Palestinians. And usually the real reason they got banned from .ml is because they went around screaming at everyone they were a Tankie.

        .ml very often features criticism about Russia and/or China without being removed. Case in point the Tienanmen square posts yesterday and today. But because it also allows viewpoints which .world users have never experienced in their life they can’t help it but start a shit-slinging contest in comment sections.

        Now those newer perspectives aren’t per-se correct. Many times you will find Tankies. Had one guy try to deny the Uyghur concentration camps. But I didn’t get banned for disagreeing with him because my replies didn’t consist of “lmao ur a tankie”.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
          0·
          28 days ago

          .ml very often features criticism about Russia and/or China without being removed. Case in point the Tienanmen square posts yesterday and today.

          Ah yes… So much criticism there… Totally allowing outside viewpoints! No overzealous modding happening here! the entire comments of the linked thread is all pro-china going, with many outright claiming that tiananmen square didn’t happen or were a creation of western media.

          The other thread named the same thing (cross-post) completely deleted. Notice that “delete” or “removed” isn’t in the modlog. Exactly as OP has stated that admins are doing on some instances.

          This is the primary reason I have my own instance. Power tripping mods and admins cannot remove content from my server. I can view all the comments I like WITHOUT the interference of those people. Make my own choices rather than having them made for me.

          Now those newer perspectives aren’t per-se correct. Many times you will find Tankies. Had one guy try to deny the Uyghur concentration camps. But I didn’t get banned for disagreeing with him because my replies didn’t consist of “lmao ur a tankie”.

          And yet, I’ve been banned from lemmy.ml for saying, verbatim

          “Because being critical of a Russian company = racism. At least according to lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml users.” in response to someone else asking why “how is not liking Kaspersky, in and of itself, racist or xenophobic?”. So much “Xenophobia” packed into my answer right? Considering that ban was handed out by dessalines himself. I’m going to have to agree with your “Many times you will find Tankies” statement, and that’s because nearly the whole of lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml are all tankies.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            28 days ago

            So you painted all if lemmy.ml as a tankie fest and got banned. Just like I stated.

            Be glad that it’s not for criticizing israel like /news and /politics on .world does. And if you point it out on those instances your comment also gets removed and you get banned.

            And as I said. You will have tankies with insane takes. Those usually come from Lemmygrad or Hexbear. .ml is mostly lefties and just a few tankies in the mix. But the people I see getting banned from .ml are not banned for content but the presentation of said content.

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    01·
    29 days ago

    You’re not kidding. All social media right now is plagued by extremists who only seem to know how to fight. Even when they lack any real purpose for it they go looking for one.