This is a reminder to everyone. If you or someone you know is still on Reddit. Use an extension to bulk deleted everything before deleting the account. You’re friends and family are not safe posting on reddit.

I am no fan of reddit but in this case Reddit appears to have championed this users anonymity going so far as to actively draw the ire of the administration.

• Reddit refused to comply with the initial administrative subpoena
• the Federal government came back with this grand jury subpoena and warned Reddit not to disclose the existence of the subpoena or they’d consider it interference in federal law enforcement
• Reddit complied with this new legally binding subpoena, but did not comply with the demand to keep it a secret. In the contrary, they immediately alerted the user of the subpoena which allowed him time to immediately lawyer up.

You’re not wrong that you’re not safe posting on Reddit, but if this case is any indication you’re not any less safe posting in Reddit than any other site, including Lemmy.

You can choose the location (and thus legal jurisdiction) of your home instance, but yeah, in general, I think that people need to be aware that server operators on the Threadiverse are probably not going to fight legal battles on your behalf.

We had someone ask about turning over IP addresses to law enforcement a while back on lemmy.today. The lemmy.today server admin gave what I’d call probably a pretty accurate answer.

lemmy.today/post/7255213

How will Lemmy Today handle IP subpoenas?

Lemmy instances are run by volunteers who wants to see a social media network without big tech.

I dont think you can trust any of those volunteers, including this one, to not comply with law enforcement. Thats not why we are running instances. Its about providing a platform without tracking, ads and algorithms for talking to other people and having a good time.

Hope that makes sense.

Use a VPN if you have a reason to. :)

It linked to a similar question for lemmy.dbzer0.com:

How will dbzer0 handle IP subpoenas?

Don’t know man. I’m not making enough in donations to pay for the server costs, never mind hiring lawyers. I’ll deal with this when I have to 😅

There are platforms more-aimed at providing harder pseudonymity. I’d put Hyphanet fairly high on the list of “a pain in the ass to track a poster down due to technical barriers” list (though that comes with very real performance and latency and suchlike costs).

To answer for Quokk.au. If I had to, I’d delete the instance and all data before ever handing anything over. They can take me to court if need be.

If you’re subpoenaed and a request for discovery is not met because you destroyed evidence, that comes with severe penalties. In court, you’d have to prove that you didn’t intentionally destroy data. You’ll have to find an attorney that can protect you against a government or powerful corporation.

Depending on the country and jurisdiction, intentional spoliation of data will lead to harsh penalties, criminal charges, expensive financial restitution, and jail time. Would you want to serve multiple years in jail and pay hundreds of thousands in fines just to protect the data on your server? Would you want criminal charges and job loss, and the incredible difficulty of finding employment again when you get out of jail? Permanent criminal charges on your record for the rest of your life?

If yes, you’re very, very brave. Most other server owners would just comply. They’re already struggling to pay their bills, including serving Lemmy. Must be expensive trying to get legal representation when they’re ordered to turn over data.

I run an instance filled with trans people and anarchists, I would risk a lot to protect them from the state.