DLNov 20, 2022
Gersande La Flèche

This story with Tracy Chou, an engineer who specifically works on creating tools to stifle organised harassment online, getting posts removed from mastodon.social because of "reverse sexism/racism," is maddeningly infuriating.

We know that Mastodon's flagship instances have been having issues with moderation for a while, but this seems to point that the trend has gone from "ineffective absent moderators" to "moderators protecting the feelings of white men," which I think will backfire. It also validates every criticism the fediverse receives for being a bastion of tepid, neoliberal, unexamined racism-as-reflex whiteness.

Link to Twitter: https://twitter.com/triketora/status/1594348646396559361?s=20&t=CBkHeo8EqdlUfI94EKr-mg

To echo Tracy Chou's bannable offense: I also heavily recommend reading more books by non men, by non white people, and by non cisheterosexual people. What a violent ideology! Tabarnouche. 

Nov 20, 2022 at 6:53pmWeb
Show threadKatNov 20, 2022
@gersande This 👆 (the event, not the post about it) is absolutely infuriating.
Show threadTomSchmidtNov 20, 2022

@gersande

autsch
😲

Show threadRob WilliamsonNov 20, 2022

@gersande

Which instance are they on now?

Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 20, 2022
@eswag Unclear if Tracy has picked a new instance or if she will.
Show threadTomSchmidtNov 20, 2022

@gersande

this is fucked up beyond ... whatever

Show threadbogenschlagNov 20, 2022
@gersande Care to comment, @Gargron? What is going on there?
Show threadRenéeNov 21, 2022
@bogenschlag he did, here: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109377928459163402 @gersande @Gargron
Show threadDavid CrawfordNov 20, 2022
@gersande what was said that she was banned for? With the decentralized structure, did the server get banned or was it from content moderation
Show threadTomSchmidtNov 20, 2022

@gersande

I get that the admins of this site are currently under stress, but this needs to be adressed ASAP!

a) we need transparency!
b) immediately fire the moderation team!

@Gargron

#mastodon

Show threadschneider_EFNov 20, 2022
@TomSchmidt @gersande @Gargron Volunteers (?) don't grow on trees. Training&learning seems to be more promising. Tough job with mostly criticism to expect, like referees.
Show threadTomSchmidtNov 20, 2022

@schneider_EF @gersande @Gargron

True

Show threadJen ChanNov 20, 2022
@gersande goddamn, I assume they'll take time to figure this out
Show threadJen ChanNov 20, 2022
@gersande I do feel like I see more white folks on here than bipoc though
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 20, 2022

@jenc You're not alone with that feeling. I have also noticed this, despite doing my best to make sure my timeline is not all white people, since I cannot just blame an algorithm here for showing me hegemonic perspectives.

Until the fediverse deals with its moderation and libersl racism problem, I fear that this situation will not improve.

Show threadThe DoctorNov 20, 2022

@gersande Amazing, how saying you're studying your de facto enemies is a bannable offense.

<sigh>

Show threadThe DoctorNov 20, 2022
@gersande I mean.. shit. I expect this of birbsite. But fedi??
Show threadJiří Fiala Total LandscapingNov 21, 2022
@drwho @gersande it only makes sense when you realize who's the most likely to run the instances... Probably a white guy with spare IT resources, probably lefty but still. Fediverse doesn't have the professional teams of diverse content curators and moderators Twitter had, no matter how flawed it was.
Show threadPokemod97Nov 20, 2022
@gersande here is gargon response https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109377928459163402
Show threadTomSchmidtNov 20, 2022

@gersande

@moderation ???
whats going on here?
can you elaborate?

Show threadvampirdaddyNov 20, 2022
@gersande
If I interpret this correctly, she was not banned, but one of her postings was de-moderated in error by a newbie moderator on the team?
https://eldritch.cafe/@nileane/109377831274099950
Niléane (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @ombremad Could you tell us how that happened for instance? Moderation mistakes like these seem to happen way too often. https://twitter.com/triketora/status/1594348646396559361 Edit: @[email protected] clarified that this was a mistake and that he does not believe that the post violated the rules cited in the screenshot : https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109377928459163402 He also apologized directly on Twitter : https://twitter.com/joinmastodon/status/1594436908154748929

Eldritch Café
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 20, 2022
@vampirdaddy Sigh. I am so tired of hearing this same excuse over and over again. Thank you for the link.
Show threadRich Burroughs Nov 20, 2022
@gersande She wasn’t kicked off the server was she? Her tweets indicate they deleted some of her posts. I agree completely with the gist of what you are saying but banning someone is a much bigger escalation than what seems to have happened.
Show threadJon Bassinger-Flores aka JBFNov 20, 2022
@gersande this is why I'm very selective about what wyt folks I follow.
Show threadMihailik 🌼🌼🌼🏃🏿‍♀️🌼🌼🌼Nov 20, 2022

@gersande

Maybe time to question that weird mantra that lack of QT and nonexistent search shield us from bigotry.

Show threadRyan SmithNov 20, 2022

@gersande Whether the problem was the stress on moderators or not, the solution still seems to be that we need people to join smaller instances.

If it came to a point where mastodon.social needed to be defederated (I personally think Eugene is responsive to moderation issues), having his instance being too big to fail isn’t desirable.

Show threadstop genocide punch nazisNov 20, 2022

@gersande It's aaargh, less terribad but still not good: https://twitter.com/joinmastodon/status/1594436908154748929?s=20&t=9ekjWwfXY1j6zZ6GZHdVog

...I mean, you still got mods who made that call.

Mastodon on Twitter

“@triketora This post was removed by mistake and we apologize. We’ve recently hired more moderators and the post in question was falsely interpreted to be implying something it was not. (1/2)”

Twitter
Show threadDaniel BrotherstonNov 21, 2022
@nikodemus @gersande I dunno. That seems fine. Mistakes are a fact of life. But because it is not so huge then it doesn’t matter and we can correct it. And if it was a common problem this is why it is the fediverse not Mastodon inc.
Show threadNoah Mittman Nov 20, 2022
@gersande yeah, the decision was reversed and cleared up internally but it highlights how moderation rules are going to get extremely stress-tested now that the audience is expanding and diversifying -- i.e., when all these servers that say they are against "racism" have to answer if their definition includes "reverse racism", it may turn out users (and moderators!) of those servers will realize they've actually been hanging out in the wrong place :(
Show threadDoug BostromNov 20, 2022

@gersande

As a crusty old white boomer steeped, nay -saturated- in manifold privileges, I just don't get how people can take such offense to "look at life from another perpective," which at root is all that's being asked, and for undeniable reasons as a quantifiable matter.

But maybe it's my steeping that makes me oblvious?

Genuinely puzzled. Surely there are more pressing concerns to get in a lather over.

I put it in the "too much time on their hands" bucket.

Show thread089chrisNov 20, 2022
@gersande
@ritamitsuko
@mimrma
One mod from one server did this (by mistake?), but the post accuses the whole Federation ("Mastodon").
Right-wing racists now share this post as "proof that we are all like that and whole Mastodon supposedly suppress freedom of speech. Posts like this do little for our fight against racism, instead it's a justification for Twitter's weird acceptance of hate speech and
supports the right-wingers' arguments!
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 20, 2022
@089chris @ritamitsuko @mimrma Like it or not Eugen has made his flagship instances in many ways the biggest and most prominent members of the fediverse. Their culture and their mistakes set the tone for the fediverse at large. People of colour, women, queers, trans people, disabled people, and Indigenous people have been having conversations about the Fediverse's more casual -isms, intolerances and diversity problems since 2017, but our conversations are told to stop because we could make Mastodon and the Fediverse look bad. And, at the end of the day, I don't care if sharing .social's mistakes makes Mastodon or the Fediverse looks bad. My priorities are elsewhere.
Show thread089chrisNov 20, 2022

@gersande @ritamitsuko @mimrma

No one asked people to stop, and to look bad isn't the problem. Just name the right person/server next time.

Show threadRobin ShiptonNov 21, 2022
@gersande @ritamitsuko @mimrma @089chris I think you might have read the post too fast? They do name the specific server.
Show threadNick IstreNov 20, 2022

@gersande I'm curious if we should have some kind of semi public way to view what kind of posts are being moderated on a server? Like remove the actual account and any mentions, and have content warnings, but it would be another useful tool to see how a server is applying their code of conduct when choosing or recommending a server to join.

Maybe we just need more minorities as moderators and administrators.

Show threadBenAvelingNov 20, 2022
@gersande
Mastodon (@joinmastodon) have apologised.
Show threadUbergeekNov 20, 2022

@gersande I've found some of the most tech savvy people tend to be the worst at moderation duties.

Especially men. Myself included. I hate doing moderator duties, just let me keep pipes clear, and tubes open.

Show threadJennifer BulmanNov 20, 2022
@gersande one of the reasons like the server I am on. Owner is Indigenous and states commitment to the TRC goals.
Show threadEugen RochkoNov 21, 2022
@gersande Others have already linked our response to Tracy Chou, but I would like to add that at no point was "reverse sexism/racism" ever mentioned. The post was reported by a user as an "antisemitic dogwhistle" and that is how it was regrettably misinterpreted by the moderator.
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 21, 2022

@Gargron It was not mentioned anywhere except in the report Tracy Chou shared, screenshot attached.

That screenshot coupled with Tracy's other comments **strongly implied** the moderator's decision was reverse sexism and racism.

Show thread(((Pro-choice Morgana)))Nov 21, 2022
@Gargron @gersande Semite here, and I’m struggling to see anything in her post that had anything to do with Jews under any context. What was the “dog whistle?” And please don’t blame moderation mistakes on the Jews. Thanks.
Show threadlaceknittedNov 21, 2022
@gersande yikes ... I definitely need to think about moving servers more
Show threadJeffNov 21, 2022
@gersande that’s why they were banned? Jesus christ what fragile moderators
Show threadAnilNov 21, 2022
@gersande do we know yet that this was an intentional choice and not a moderating mistake made by a service that has grown tenfold in the last few weeks?
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 21, 2022

@anildash It was a mistake, the official Masto dot social Twitter explained in the answers to Chou's Tweet. https://twitter.com/triketora/status/1594348646396559361

Eugen also messaged me to tell me that her post was flagged as antisemitic and a moderator mistakenly agreed with the report. Eugen had to actually go into the dot social database to restore the post manually after he was aprised of the situation, which I think caught his attention because it got a lot of eyeballs on it.

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109378860019425722

Tracy Chou 🌻 on Twitter

“in 13 years on twitter i’ve never had a post removed, and in 3 weeks on mastodon i’ve already had something taken down for racism and sexism, ok”

Twitter
Show threadGersande La FlècheNov 21, 2022
@anildash Well Twitter is borked up on my phone tonight but here is a screenshot of the Masto dot social apology to Tracy Chou:
Show threadAnilNov 21, 2022
@gersande yeah I just caught that. Makes me very frustrated that now it will feed another bullshit right-wing media cycle in all the predictable ways. My first guess was it was a moderation mistake by a new, overburdened team.
Show threadCassandrichNov 21, 2022
@gersande They reversed this, apologized, and claimed it was a mistake, but it's not clear if that only happened because of backlash or if the mods were previously instructed to moderate that way.
Show threadMark W. AlexanderNov 21, 2022

@gersande
Just a reminder that #Mastodon's #Flagship instances are still privately owned, volunteer managed suddenly confronted with a 512% (at my last reading) membership growth *this month*.

Maybe #ContentModeration wasn't quote prepared to scale for the #Twittergedon onslaught.

#FTR, I've seen several admins debating #WTF to do with the big ones getting slammed w/hate.

Do you ban the instance because it's mods are overwhelmed? Or do you give them time to fix it?

Show threadMark W. AlexanderNov 21, 2022

@gersande
That's not a rhetorical question. It's a very real, and likely unreasonable, question.

Welcome to the new wild, wild, west; where the sheriff's are all trying to figure out making a safe space without getting shot.

Show threadGreyJackNov 21, 2022
@gersande unfortunately, some people will always find a way to work within the letter of the law while completely ignoring the spirit of it. And to be clear, I'm not referring to Tracy Chou, I'm pointing at the person/people who are blocking her posts.
Show threadAdam RiceNov 21, 2022
@gersande It's poetic that her post is all but guaranteed to go un-moderated on Twitter.
Show threadprokoNov 21, 2022
@gersande https://twitter.com/joinmastodon/status/1594436908154748929?s=20&t=xITYF7fUuRKvVL4IHM8WbQ
Mastodon on Twitter

“@triketora This post was removed by mistake and we apologize. We’ve recently hired more moderators and the post in question was falsely interpreted to be implying something it was not. (1/2)”

Twitter