this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Is lemmy.ml turn into authoritarian? (lemmy.nz)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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I just realised, I can't post anything on lemmy.ml

So, I checked https://lemmy.ml/modlog, there's a new moderator.

All posts and comments talking about China, Jinping, Russia, and Putin have been deleted and users banned

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[–] wit@lemmy.world 114 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think this is bad for Lemmy as a whole, as a community but only due to misunderstanding and generalizations... People are going to equate the "censorship" on the server lemmy.ml as censorship on Lemmy, the platform/software. That is just NOT THE CASE. Please, whenever someone mentions lemmy.ml and its censorship or the likes, be fast to mention that that is a specific lemmy server and the beauty of lemmy is its decentralization and the fact that it is open source. There are plenty of other servers.

I fear that this kind of thing drives people away from Lemmy, when it should not.

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 78 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Well, the situation is a bit more complex. Admins of this "specific Lemmy Server" are creators and main maintainers of the Lemmy project as such.

So, generalization you are afraid of makes some sense.

[–] wit@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have replied to someone else further down with my opinion on this topic. I think it also fits in a reply to you, so I will just copy paste it here:

Yes, it might sound worrisome, but I dont think you are pushing authoritarian ideology by using Lemmy. The code itself is fine. The code is not authoritarian. The server which hosts your account is also not authoritarian.

Lemmy is, right now, the best alternative for a reddit-like platform. It is something created for the users, by the users. By using lemmy, you are not enriching the wallets of the shareholders. By using something like reddit, you provide content and a select few get to buy a new yacht.

Also, plenty of people are contributing code to lemmy. It is no longer just these 2. The code is also Open-Source. Anyone can fork it and create a new version of lemmy, with compatibility with the current version of lemmy. By using lemmy, you are allowing the possibility that, at any time in the future, someone else comes and says “I have some ideas to improve lemmy, let’s do this on my own terms”, forks it and continues the work without massively spliting the community.

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You have many good points here. Still, I have a feeling that Lemmy as a platform and as a software is still very coupled with its creators.

Yes, there are other contributors as well. But these guys currently own the official repo and make key decisions. And if you donate to Lemmy you pay a salary to these two guys (afaik, Lemmy is their full-time work these days).

So, for me, it is still rather complicated.

[–] ToxicWaste@lemm.ee -2 points 1 year ago

I don't see a problem about their work, just because of their political orientation. And frankly, neither should you.

They develop good software, which is open source and everyone can inspect it. There is nothing wrong about them getting paid for it. Not giving donations to them because of what they believe would be the same as an employer running you through a political evaluation before actually employing you.

Don't get me wrong: there is nothing wrong about not donating (i did not). But not donating, solely because of some ideology a developer of open source Software has (which does not reflect in the code), seems quite stuck up to me.

[–] iegod@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By using lemmy, you are not enriching the wallets of the shareholders.

You actually have no guarantee that any given deployment doesn't harvest and sell data. They probably don't, but it's not guaranteed.

[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

The data is public. It doesn’t matter.

[–] HKayn@dormi.zone 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only if it's actually having an effect on the Lemmy project.

From what I've seen, the Lemmy devs recognize that their opinions aren't welcome everywhere, and that Lemmy should not have any biases.

[–] Natanael 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That might still have secondary effects such as in what kind of moderation features they develop and support

[–] hypelightfly@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hint: the moderation tools they are choosing to develop are none.

They are intentionally refusing to develop any moderation tools despite current moderation tools not working and it being the biggest issue instance admins are facing.

[–] HKayn@dormi.zone 5 points 1 year ago

"Intentionally" is a bit overdramatizing, don't you think?

It's just not as much of a priority, which is still questionable.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It also has the largest worldnews community, which bans you for discussing a literal war in Europe