Due to recent concerns surrounding feddit.uk's enforcement (or lack thereof) of policies against transphobia, and lemmy.blahaj.zone's unilateral defederation of that instance, it's clear we need to take action in order to protect our users.
For context, please see the following threads:
feddit.uk has been defederated (via blahaj)
Emperor (feddit.uk admin)'s response
Hexbear thread with further context and discussion
Seeing as the feddit moderation team's policies clearly do not align with our own stances on transphobia, bigotry, and reactionary rhetoric generally, we are considering two different options, with feedback requested for whichever route you would prefer (NOTE: we are primarily concerned with how trans users and other marginalized groups feel):
- Unilaterally defederate from feddit.uk due to lax enforcement of rules against transphobia and their admin citing the recent UK anti-trans court ruling as one of the reasons for this
- Remain federated with the instance at large while banning their admins, mods and any transphobic users, along with those who violate Hexbear CoC generally (the same way we handled issues with dbzero a while back)
We want to communicate these discussions we've been having behind the scenes to the userbase at large and allow those most impacted to give their input on how to proceed. Please give any feedback below.
I'm fine with defedding them because I don't recall ever seeing a non-annoying post from there (mostly just the libs and chauvinists in their Buy European comm and formerly some cryptofash comm/clout farmers that are now banned here.)
Buuuuuuut, I will say we have very little to go on on this topic besides just bad optics and the fact that this one admin ghosted Ada for a couple days, and I think people are jumping to conclusions without really understanding the context (not all of which is even available). And even Ada is saying they will refederate if the policy is clarified to be definitely not allowing transphobia in dogwhistle form.
There is no link to the offending comments because ada doesn't want to trigger "brigading" against anyone, even a transphobe. I don't doubt it exists and wasn't removed promptly by mods but the context would really help make this situation clearer to me (plus the transphobe deserves whatever attention they get for this)
The feddit admins also have clarified that they at least do not intend to allow transphobia (not that this is enough on its own, but it's relevant). What they are "considering" is how to deal with this comm of theirs which has a rule that basically boils down to "bad take = downvote, heinous shit = ban/remove". The mods of that comm basically thought they could get by with just social pressure (downvotes, dunking in replies) for certain kinds of "disappointing" behavior that didn't rise to the level of instant removal.
Now, that's lib shit, and was destined to fail after contact with bad faith bigots, fascists, etc. but they don't seem to put transphobia in that "just disappointing" category, and admins are seemingly reconsidering even allowing that comm rule to stand (in my reading of the posts) in response to the wave of transphobia brought on by the recent court ruling. I believe that is what they are saying, not what everyone here is assuming, that they are considering allowing transphobia because of the court ruling.
I'm of the opinion that if they make the right call (that comm rule has to go, or at least can't apply to bigotry, even in dogwhistle form), we should stay fedded. We gain users from exposure to other instances and people realizing we're cool and not a boogeyman, which is good for the community, so we shouldn't defed at the drop of a hat.
If they don't make the right call, then defed away. I won't be mad either way, they contribute very little to our instance, but its the principle of the thing, wouldn't want to punish them for ultimately growing and making the right call.
edit: I also find it important to note there's only been like 2 or 3 mod actions from hexbear against feddit.uk users in the past 2 weeks. That's a very manageable amount, and the only instance of transphobia specifically appears to have been dealt with by feddit.uk's admins themselves (siteban)
https://hexbear.net/comment/6090766
I did see that but its a pretty limited excerpt and when I commented I couldn't find the source. Here's the full exchange now that I've found it: (CW transphobia of course) https://feddit.uk/post/27973987/16868783
What I didn't expect to find was that this transphobe was literally arguing with an instance admin, flamingos-cant. That paints it in a somewhat worse light, even though she was correctly calling out their transphobia and that of Sir Queer Harmer, she could have cited the rule, said "that's outright horrible" and deleted his spew.
But if they come back from conferring with the other instance admins in the next couple days and say "yeah nah fuck this guy, transphobia is ban-on-sight now" I'm still in for staying federated. If such comments are not removed, then their statement of "transphobia is not and will never be allowed here" is just a lie (or is one admin's stance and doesn't represent the rest) and obviously we should defed.
edit: It really is a bit bizarre to me to explain in minute detail to someone how what they're saying and supporting is transphobia, and then not moderate it, and then claim "transphobia is never allowed here", but I suspect there's some internal politics going on about it, and flamingos seems to be on the correct side of that dispute. like fine, there might have been enough vagueness in the first comment to justify not deleting on sight, but the doubling down and saying worse things was pretty clear cut
This is a pretty good point. I am basing my anger in one definitely bad comment from the mods and general distrust of the uk. There's still the chance they resolve this, learn, and grow, but I'm definitely sus.