Lemmy.world Admin Response to Defederation from Exploding Heads

https://lemmy.world/post/747912

Lemmy.world Admin Response to Defederation from Exploding Heads - Lemmy.world

Today, we want to inform everyone that we have decided to defederate from https://exploding-heads.com/ [https://exploding-heads.com/]. We understand that defederating should always be a last resort, and individuals can certainly block communities. However, blocking alone does not prevent potential harm to vulnerable communities. After carefully reviewing the instance, reported posts, and multiple comments from the community, we have concluded that exploding-heads is not adhering to the Lemmy or Citizen Code of Conduct. Therefore, we cannot, in good faith, continue to federate with an instance that consistently promotes hate, racism, and bullying. Examples: https://lemmy.world/post/577526 [https://lemmy.world/post/577526] - Community Moderator Harassment https://exploding-heads.com/post/92194 [https://exploding-heads.com/post/92194] - Systemadmin Post https://exploding-heads.com/post/90780 [https://exploding-heads.com/post/90780] - Systemadmin Post https://exploding-heads.com/post/91488 [https://exploding-heads.com/post/91488] - Systemadmin Post https://exploding-heads.com/post/93725 [https://exploding-heads.com/post/93725] - Community Moderator Post Again, deciding to defederate from an instance is not taken lightly. In the future, we will continue to review instances on a case-by-case bases. As for our community, please refrain from posting or commenting with hateful words as well. Arguing back and calling people names is not the solution. The best course of action is to report the posts or comments violating our server rules. Lemmy Code of Conduct https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html [https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html] Citizen Code of Conduct https://github.com/stumpsyn/policies/blob/master/citizen_code_of_conduct.md [https://github.com/stumpsyn/policies/blob/master/citizen_code_of_conduct.md] “We are committed to providing a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic.”

Glad I choose kbin over lemmy at this point. I'm hoping @ernest to be more levelheaded and not wield the defederation hammer as lightly.

I'd prefer being able to see as much of the fediverse from one instance as possible.

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like CharmedThirdTry.

Imgur
Why Julian Assange Must Be Freed - digitslfreedom - kbin.social

I was so brainwashed that I forgot, as many people do, that secrets do not belong to governments. That information belongs to us. Governments rule by our consent. If they want to keep secrets, they must have our permission to do so. And they never have the right to keep crimes secret.

Wow, amazing examples! So much ownage there! You're right, I also want my fake Trumper news all over Lemmy! God knows that's what I miss the most from Reddit; antivaxx bullshit and insurrection supporters!
It wasn't my intention to try to "own" anyone. The content I listed is literally what I've seen from the few communities I subscribe to from exploding-heads. Neither look like they could reasonably qualify as hate speech to me.

So you're arguing that the claims of hate speech on that instance are overblown because you've seen exactly two posts, neither of which you consider hate speech?

Cool story.

That is an oversimplification of the "cool story".

@VoxAdActa called me a "cry baby" out of nowhere, "for having to go somewhere else to see hate speech".

I then showed him what I've seen so far from having been subscribed to two different communities over on exploding-heads, and I went on to state that I hardly see how that content is hate speech.

I was trying to elaborate that I wasn't interested in whatever memes they have in a certain community over there, but rather the other content that can be found on that instance, of which I gave examples of. Examples that I would argue are not hate speech in the slightest.

To answer your question though; I'd argue that the claims of hate speech seem overblown to me, yes. Not because of my limited exposure to the instance, but by the examples brought in the defederation announcement, which seem to consist of a couple of bad, edgy memes.

So comments calling Michelle Obama an ape, or a meme making fun of burning LGBTQ+ people, aren't hate speech, they're just "edgy"? Cool. "Remember when God burned a whole bunch of gays? Good times!" is about as textbook "hate speech" as you can get, but you keep working on how to excuse it as "humor".

Regardless, the fact that you're subbed to exactly 2 of the hundreds of communities on that server does not make your personal experience a valid representation or defense of admin/moderator policies and actions from that server. If the community takes the stance of "fuck them" and advocates that "admin’s keep their edgy content on alt accounts and in communities that pussy instances can just block", then they're absolutely going to be a continuing source of problems. If you really want to see their content so badly, you can create a login on another server that hasn't defederated them (including their own server). That's how this whole things works.

I actually agree a bit that the original "cry baby" response you got seemed a bit excessive, but the more you talk, the more it seems to have perfectly identified you.

You're referring to the reply by @Fisuxcel?

Big fat ape

Surely that comment is directed toward the other user in that thread who commented that the meme itself wasn't funny. It's colorful speech, but if that's hate speech, I'm unsure what definition of hate speech one must have to regard it as such. I'd be genuinely interested to know. Would calling someone a "big fat cat" similarly be classified as hate speech?

As for the LGBTQ+ meme, the key part you're missing is that it identifies it as the first Pride celebration. That makes it explicitly clear that it is making fun of burning LGBTQ+ people. They're literally celebrating the idea. God punishing "sinners" is only a "celebration" if you take joy in seeing that group of people suffer... because, you know... you hate them.

See here I also really appreciate you laying out your thought process. I hadn't yet thought how someone could perceive it precisely like that. As if the celebration is not the pride event, but some abstract on-lookers celebrating the destruction of the first pride celebration. It seems more like a symbolic or abstract interpretation of what the meme literally portrays. To me it seems out of context. I certainly don't see it as that when I see that meme. I see at as someone making a meme where they seem to imply the amount of chaos that reigns down is proportional to the amount of celebrants at the 1st pride celebration. More sin equals more destruction, chuckles had, basically, something like that. Supreme being being supreme. Edgy meme, sure, but not that funny. I've seen far worse about horrific events that are actually funny. For a long time it was virtually impossible to joke about 9/11 as an example, thankfully that phase is well in passing by now. At least that was my impression, but I may be proven too optimistic in regards to that.

These things can only really be seen as just "stupid edgy memes" if you deliberately ignore context, like how the people in the community are reacting to the memes, or even how they're describing them. And ignoring context is one of the go-to strategies for hate-speech apologists. I'm not saying that that's your intent, but you're citing the same arguments and using the same tactics as the "reasonable" hate speech advocates consistently make to try to legitimize the idea that hate speech is a valid form of expression of opinion that should be treated as protected speech.

So in other words you are prejudiced in interpreting my motivations as being that of others which I may look like at surface level to you? My stance is that in my country there are laws for dealing with hate speech and I believe they address them fine, and I'm looking for no more or no less from the platforms on which I communicate. Others might disagree, and that's fine to me, and I'll happily exchange thoughts. I feel we did that more in the days of yore on the internet, but it's less common today. As for purposefully or deliberately ignoring the context of a meme; if our interpretation of the context or meaning of the memes themselves differ so much, how can it even be deliberately ignored if we can't share a common definition of what's even going on? It's not my intention to come across as ignoring context that others may experience. Everyone has a valid interpretation of reality in reference to their own experience, but I'm also not required in any way to submit to others' interpretations either. That's the beauty of free speech in my opinion.

And for the record, when I said that comment seems to have perfectly identified, I was referring to the text, rather than the meme. You seem increasingly invested in the idea that people should have easy access to hate speech. The crybaby part is much less relevant.

Right, I think I understand. So you saw it as me doubling down on the side of hate speech, pretty much. Here's where our opinion differ again. I can't identify the examples as hate speech. Hate speech is far more egregious than the context I'm seeing, unless you are somehow seeing a far bigger context, which I'm failing to see. I'd rather engage with individuals directly than on some higher ideological level.

I might seem increasingly invested, but the fact is I'm already vested since long ago in the idea of open debate, the value of differing and diverse opinions, ability to voice your them freely, and the absolutely paramount need for modern systems in place that facilitate this. This is why I'm giving kbin a shot. Not because I just want another Reddit. The whole federation thing seems like am ample chance to make free speech cost less and mean more than on a shitty, corporately controlled, centralized place like Reddit.