astral_avocadoJul 10, 2023

TIL lemmy.ml is a pro-authoritarian CCP shill instance

https://lemmynsfw.com/post/262488

TIL lemmy.ml is a pro-authoritarian CCP shill instance - Lemmy NSFW

For all the newcomers that aren’t aware, I just stumbled upon this insane drama. Apparently lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] is the result of a reddit sub ban of a bunch of pro-china bots who vigorously defend the Chinese government, and the two top admins are also the top devs of the Lemmy source software. Pretty terrible stuff! The linked thread is full of their insane ramblings and denialism.

Show threadpreasketJul 10, 2023

Good thing that what they are building is super transparent, open source and distributed. That critical post wasn’t even deleted.

As long as that remains the case, I’m happy that Lemmy is a place where you can find all kinds of views represented.

Show threadastral_avocadoJul 10, 2023

What I’d like to know is why they’re developing Lemmy if they’re like, actively Chinese agents. No Chinese citizen could even use Lemmy so it’s baffling, and the Chinese government would not want a social media site that’s uncontrollable by the state.

If they aren’t Chinese agents I’m completely flummoxed as to how this community formed that’s so incredible pro china?

Show threadCaoldence222

They’re literally financed by the EU, via NLnet grants. They aren’t CCP agents, they’re just communists, who tend to have a more nuanced view of china because they’ve actually read the history and theory of the chinese state.

There are tons of commies who have major issues with modern china, though idk if the lemmy devs are in that camp or totally onboard with dengism/modern chinese policy, but typically their (communists’) issues aren’t as surface level as “but tiananmen square! uyghur genocide!”. because they see those issues as being 99% used as western propaganda and heavily distorted.

Jul 12, 2023 at 2:23pmWeb
Show threadastral_avocadoJul 12, 2023

EU

The .ml instances are financed by the EU? What are NLnet grants?