I’m being told that the largest Mastodon instance - mastodon.social - is now hiding my profile.
One person telling me it’s because of German obsession with making up antisemitism where there is none.
Anyone who knows my work knows that I platform critical Jewish voices. My MA thesis was on Yiddish & Hebrew, I do memory studies which incl Holocaust studies, and I am co-producing a Jewish podcast by three radical Jews. I’m also a writer for 972mag.
So what’s up Mastodon? Am I too Arab for you?
Does anyone know how we can get a concrete reasons given by the Mastodon.social mods? I want them decent and brave enough to simply state the why.
And if they dare say antisemitism they can expect a very long essay about how weaponising antisemitism has been one of the main tools used by the far right to make threaten both Arab/Muslims and Jews.
And I will demand an apology.
@ayoub you should probably write to: [email protected]
Stated under "appeals" here: https://mastodon.social/about
@[email protected] This is likely to be a very high profile incident so I think it's really critical for you to look into the specifics of this moderation decision. I'm Jewish, and have done a lot of moderation work related to antisemitism, and when I took a quick look at @[email protected]'s profile I didn't see anything that would be grounds for silencing. So please consider reversing this -- or at the very least it's critical to be transparent about the specific posts that led to this.
@Captain_Jack_Sparrow
Elia isn't on mastodon.social - but people on there are being blocked from seeing the profile.
@Miro_Collas @Captain_Jack_Sparrow @ayoub
I'm not blocked.
@seindal @simon_lucy @Captain_Jack_Sparrow @ayoub
OK. I was merely clarifying what was said initially.
thanks for clarifying
@ayoub seems like comparing Nakba to Holocaust (both words mean the same in translation btw) gets you banned on mastodon.social:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/1g6iua2/mastodonsocial_is_heavily_censoring_news_about/
There is more evidence, but it's always hard to find because of decentralized and privacy-first nature of Fediverse.
This sucks :/
I don't know when, but I should definitely migrate off mastodon.social
Well, 2 months later, I still haven't migrated. And since I don't really post that frequently, it's not that important... but I looked into a few different alternatives, based on which instances I see used by people I follow.
I'll write down here some thoughts, so if me (or someone else) will return to try to make this choice later, I won't have to start from scratch
> No content illegal in Germany
Yeah, no thanks.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/7/why-is-germany-so-viciously-anti-palestinian
Their current society is deeply sick, and it's not only because of the AfD
https://xcancel.com/GMomurder/status/1854656030405537868
Their "Green" foreign minister also argued in favour of bombing civilians in Palestine
https://xcancel.com/Tarek_Bae/status/1845921059251581161
To clarify, it's not like I want to post stuff that would be illegal, but their laws have been weaponised against minorities, and while I understand that...
...an instance moderator cannot ignore the laws of the place where they live or of where their server is hosted, when making a choice we should be aware of which jurisdictions have been more or less heavy handed in respect to certain issues.
Next one: spore.social they seem to be mostly focused on climate issues, while that's a worthy cause, it's not something that I'd dedicate to (we first need to switch our economies' mode of production, for a better chance to fix climate)
This one seems to be mostly ok, they use a Fediblock, but they don't point out *which* Fediblock they use (there's not a single one anymore).
OTOH,
> We do not allow [...] misinformation, disinformation, and state-sponsored propaganda.
~Given what I see on their /explore page, ...~
PS: I later realised that the /explore page seem very similar across several instances, and shows content across all instances (not necessarily boosted there), so disregard this bit
https://social.treehouse.systems/about
I quite liked this one, but I'll have to keep looking:
> User behavior and content are required to comply with US federal laws and the Revised Code of Washington
https://tldr.nettime.org/about
I quite like this one. Lots of posts I cannot understand without translation.
It's run by an association which has been around for quite a while, so it also gives me more confidence that it would last longer than instances maintained by lone volunteers.
Uses Glitch-Soc
Provided by a cooperative with a clear CoC, funding mechanism, etc.
This gives me the most confidence that the instance wouldn't disappear suddenly. If I were confident that I'd post on Mastodon more than I'm currently doing, I 'd be very keen on joining the coop (which is a pre-requisite to get an account there).
Uses plain Mastodon.
https://toots.matapacos.dog/about
Of the ones mentioned until now, this is the one that I jibe with the most. Highlights from their rules:
> We do not reject violence on principle. Our adversaries will not be pacified by rhetoric. Be mindful about the legal implications of what you say though. Explicit threats against living people and organizations will be removed
> Don't get arrested. Don't get me arrested. 😎
OTOH, of all instances mentioned here, it's also the smallest.
Uses Hometown
One last thing, since I mentioned the concept of legal responsibility...
I checked where the last 3 Mastodon instances I mentioned (plus the Lemmy instance that I just joined) are hosted, and the places (in random order) are:
- Canada
- Norway
- Finland
- Finland
Make of that what you will
@ayoub @Libby_
It's basically because >any< criticism is antisemitism (hm, I guess the concept of Nibelungentreue might fit well), even if you are jewish yourself. You can see the effect of it in german/dach-region spaces like r/de quite well, where accusations of being pro-Hamas or antisemitic get thrown around quickly on related topics.
I only got german sources, but:
News with example: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/antisemitismus-resolution-bundestag-israel-meinung-100.html
which referes to this: https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-1028310
Hope that helps ^^
Die Antisemitismus-Resolution, ist für zahlreiche Israelis ein Hohn. Kritik am Handeln der israelischen Regierung soll als antisemitisch gebrandmarkt werden.
@Libby_
Because he is not from mastodon.social. Different instances has different rules, that's the idea.
And that's in the case that was true.
@Nachtherz @ayoub
@ayoub This is highly disturbing and alarming. How did you find out? Did someone with a mastodon.social account notify you?
Edit: to verify you can simply go there and search for the profile https://mastodon.social
Contrary to other reports, to me it still appears muted:
Attached: 1 image The moderators of mastodon social continue to silence pro-Palestinian accounts, this time @[email protected] Mastodon doesn't feel like the effective and reliable communications platform you proclaimed a few days ago, @[email protected] #Palestine #Mastodon
Elia Ayoub (he/him)
Gamal Sherif
Tommi
Farshid Hakimy / فرشید
Newde
Michael Szell
Colm Ó Donnchadha
Ideal CH
Jon
Riku Mattila 
markus
Cheerios de Bergerac
Captain Jack Sparrow
Miro Collas
Simon Lucy
René Seindal (MOVED)
jan Anja();
berdario
Jargoggles
Libby
Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷
Nachtherz
karlggest
Tor Iver Wilhelmsen
B.@[email protected] into search (if you're not logged in there)@ayoub Just ask by email [email protected] , why mastodon.social has hidden your profile. There must be reasons and usually the moderators of mastodon.social take wise decisions. I can't tell you if this was right in your case, but no one's profile was hidden and no one was silenced without reason. These statements are untrue about #mastodon.social: "silencing any pro-Palestinian voice" and "a hotbed of ziofascists".
You are deluding yourself, it's embarrassing.
@ayoub @Libby_ @Captain_Jack_Sparrow @cybertailor @bhaug @Mastodon
@GerryT @ayoub @Libby_ @cybertailor @bhaug @Mastodon
They're not untrue at all, I went through this, had my account suspended -and a final warning lol - on mastodon.social for criticising the israeli genocide of Gaza, and was forced to move to another instance (mastodon.world) where I use the same language and tone and have recieved exactly zero warnings. I use words like ziofascist and nazinyahu, but IMHO they are warranted, israel is a zionazi terrorist apartheid state. I can say that now.
Works for me. Hopefully restored.
Monoka
Bilal Barakat 🍉
Asta [AMP]
Stephan Uijthoven
Boris Barbour