mekka okereke Dec 4, 2022

@Bam @thetitanborn

Same. To be honest, I'm trying to do more than hope. I'm willing to be here while many parts of it are not yet great for Black users, and work with all the awesome folks that are making it better.♥️👍🏿

I'm following in the footsteps of the Black Mastodon users that have been here for years, who started when it was much less welcoming than what I experienced, so that hopefully the Black folk that join after me, will have an even easier time than me.

Show threadmekka okereke Dec 4, 2022

@Bam @thetitanborn It's fascinating to see that about half of the replies to @thetitanborn 's post, are cringe-worthy forms of "I haven't seen any problems for Black users / your post is unnecessary / we don't see race here."

So yeah... there's work to do.

Show threadTaco DaveDec 4, 2022
@mekkaokereke @Bam @thetitanborn any specific things allies can do to help? My brain jumped to helping finance and support primarily black or BIPOC instances but I’m a bit sheltered/privileged and there’s bound to be a lot I’m missing.
Show threadmekka okereke Dec 4, 2022

@dave @Bam @thetitanborn

1) Don't ask Black users to CW discussions of their own racism.

2) Don't be on a server where mods mistreat Black folk.

3) Support the mods on your own server, financially and otherwise.

4) Don't engage with sea lions that say "Mistreatment? Here? prove it!" There have been enough threads shared on Black folk receiving racism. Individually convincing each one is exhausting, and expecting that is a tactic of bad faith actors.

Show threadLew RileyDec 4, 2022
@mekkaokereke @dave @Bam @thetitanborn I very much appreciate your openness about the challenges here, and I want to do my part to build a community here consistent with my values. This includes not placing the burden of building and protecting the community on members of marginalized groups that are being mistreated. Are there ways as an end user (beyond reading the server rules) for me to evaluate the quality of moderation of an instance? I'm new and building my fediverse toolkit.
Show threadmekka okereke Dec 4, 2022

@lewriley @dave @Bam @thetitanborn

The best way today, is to follow a bunch of Black users and see their experience. As I've pointed out this is very insufficient, as it means that many Black users experience N*zis first, then move to a better server.

I've been online for many years, so I'm used to N*zis and their death threats. But for many Black users, this experience is jarring.

Worse than the N*zis, is the "regular users."

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109388611222845153

mekka okereke :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] No, lets! 🙂 I am "bashing" an instance. (If providing useful feedback to protect other users is considered bashing?) The instance I'm bashing is "Mastodon dot cloud." The reason I'm bashing it is because the moderation is insufficient to protect users from a vile instance clearly run by self proclaimed racists for the purpose of harassing Black people, Jewish people, and members of the LGBTQA community. There are better moderate instances users should go to.

Hachyderm.io
Show threadmekka okereke Dec 4, 2022

@lewriley @dave @Bam @thetitanborn
An instance like mastodon.cloud can say that they don't tolerate N*zis in their "server rules."

But the reality is, a Black user on that server can receive racist death threats complete with snuff images and video of Black folks and women being killed. Flagging for moderation did nothing. The Black person leaving that instance and warning other Black users to choose a better 1st server, gets the Black user blocked.🤡

Show threadBrian Hawthorne
@mekkaokereke @thetitanborn @dave @Bam @lewriley I left Mastodon.cloud when I realized it was being run by a crypto bro who didn’t really care about anything and who had defederated NONE of the Nazi instances.
Dec 4, 2022 at 4:20pmWeb
Show threadJ L GatewoodDec 4, 2022
Oh and here's the notice of the new ownership of Mastodon.cloud if you read Japanese.

https://www.danshihack.com/2020/06/12/junp/mstdnjp-2.html
「mstdn.jp / mastodon.cloud」終了せず、サービス譲渡し継続へ

サービス終了が発表されていたマストドンインスタンスの「mstdn.jp」「mastodon.cloud」が、米国のSujitech LLCに譲渡され、サービスが継続されることが発表されました。「mst…

男子ハック
Show threadJ L GatewoodDec 4, 2022
@Brian Hawthorne; Mastodon.cloud has been run by Sujutech LLC since 2021. It formerly had Japanese maintainers since its inception; I have an account there since the beginning and lived in Tokyo at the time which was the primary reason I began my fediverse journey there.

https://news.mask.io/2021/02/07/the-first-official-application-of-decentralized-social-media-network-mastodon-will-come-online-this-summer-with-sujitech-llc-providing-technical-support

https://news.mask.io/2021/02/07/the-first-official-application-of-decentralized-social-media-network-mastodon-will-come-online-this-summer-with-sujitech-llc-providing-technical-support

https://sujitech.com/

The current maintainers are actually Chinese research students that are located in Illinois and in Japan; they also sponsor open-source initiatives in their native China.

This may be the reason why they haven't defederated from the problem instances... They simply don't know about it/want to maintain an open network with little moderation. Just mute/block on your account and don't worry about the haters (if they're not being malicious towards you.)
Mask — The Portal to the New, Open Internet.

The Natural Law of Privacy, Now Being Enforced.

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Show threadBrian HawthorneDec 4, 2022
@starrwulfe “don't worry about the haters (if they're not being malicious towards you.)” No, that is exactly the wrong approach.
The haters are not malicious to me because my name and bio and photo tag me as a white man. On the other hand, they ARE being malicious to people of color, and I find that unacceptable. If the admins of mastodon.cloud don’t care about people being abused by haters on their instance, I cannot associate with that instance.
Show threadJ L GatewoodDec 4, 2022
@Brian Hawthorne Last time I checked, I'm of color (black dude from St Louis, MO, bouncing between ATL and Tokyo these days) and in the 3+ years I've had it, I've never experienced any of this there-- @J L Gatewood (StarrWulfe) is my handle there and is my main "professional" account actually.

Really can't say much else because
  • I don't know the context surrounding the attack (was it another user of mastodon.cloud or did the attacker(s) come from another instance?
  • Mass blocking instances doesn't work quickly in practice with all the people coming into the fediverse; when this place was just a few refugees/hackers/alt pilgrims from other spaces, we all collectively coalesced around certain servers that fit our interests and it was easy for us to see who was doing what, where-- bad actors all came from certain hive instances that are easy to block. But now that you have literally hundreds of thousands of accounts on the big servers, it's gonna be hard to tame.
  • Just like being out on the street in public, we all have to be more defensive here on the "open internet" and use the tools provided to police our own accounts. Muting/blocking other accounts from talking to your individual account on X server is far easier and quicker than waiting for the mods to do something (if they even can). This is akin to learning self-defense tactics in the streets-- You're not gonna be able to count on the cops to come rescue you all the time.
  • blaming the instance you're actually on for an outside attack is like blaming your landlord for your apartment being broken into, especially when said landlord gave you -- door locks and an alarm and made you get renter's insurance. As someone who hosted servers for other people, there's only a certain number of things that can be done before it's considered over-reach and also impinges on the other people who are sharing the server too. Think about the other users at mastodon.cloud that interact with other users on whatever instance the attacker used? Now all the sudden they can't communicate with each other because of one bad actor.
I'm not mitigating this AT ALL, in fact I'm highly concerned because I'm a heavy user of that instance, but I also want to temper things a bit -- Never use dynamite where a small scalpel is likely the more appropriate tool here.
J L Gatewood (StarrWulfe) (@[email protected])

409 Posts, 114 Following, 126 Followers · Tokyoite, Atlantan, journalist, photographer, cloud engineer, open-source advocate, ramen enthusiast, train nerd, armchair urbanist, Cities: Skylines player/builder/modder.

mastodon.cloud