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Removal of piracy communities (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by lwadmin@lemmy.world to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world

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Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:

We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world's users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.

This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.

The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.

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[-] joe@lemmy.world 227 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Uh, @lwadmin@lemmy.world .. what's up with the banning going on in this thread? I noticed on a.lemmy.org that someone was labeled "banned" and their comment was simply "Ight, I’m out"

The mod note was "Let us help you".

There are more similarly weak (spiteful?) bans that certainly don't seem to be at a standard for a ban. "Litterally 1984" was another one. Is that all it takes to be banned here?

Edit: Many (all?) the users I referenced as banned are now unbanned from the site, but now banned from this community.

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 117 points 10 months ago

The "ight I'm out" ban note was.... hm. Not a great look. Comes across as petty and vindictive.

[-] joe@lemmy.world 168 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

There are worse, imo.

user @snake posted:

Did you ever consider ceding ownership of the instance to an entity with greater legal capabilities?

In the end, it will not make sense to try to keep this instance running if the owners are unable to provide adequate service to its users.

and was banned for:

reason: Go get your service somewhere else

Definitely not a great look.

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 136 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Lemmy.world admins, I am truly asking you to please reflect on how bad this looks. It honestly makes you seem like you can't handle criticism and if people get that vibe they will use it to absolutely fuck with you. I know from my own personal experience. I understand that you're volunteers but this is a step in a very bad direction that will only serve to cause more issues.

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 65 points 10 months ago

Agree.

This decisions seems emotionally driven. That will not work on the internet.

You created rules. Use your rules to make your decisions. Don't use your emotions.

It won't only bring the site into disarray, it will bring you moderators and your emotional states into disarray.

Make your rules as black and white as poasible. where grayness raises, create new rules.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 10 months ago

Can someone please post this stuff on lemmy world in its own thread? This needs to be brought to attention.

The people responsible for this need to then either concede that they have done wrong, leave or otherwise be made to leave.

[-] DarkWasp@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

If that comment is truly the reason the person was banned that’s unacceptable and makes me wonder about the viability of this as a platform. Even if you move instances you need to create a brand new account with username, history etc it’s not the easiest transition.

[-] experbia@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

removed

[-] sramder@lemmy.world -5 points 10 months ago

Ehhhh… the other two comment/bans seem a tad vindictive. This on the other had seems to have a different tone to me. It’s thinly veiled criticism and almost feels like a threat, especially if someone has been DDOSing your server for weeks.

[+] Mubelotix@jlai.lu -22 points 10 months ago

[removed by mod]

[-] Agamemnon@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

Where I moderate, even implied death threats are a zero-warnings bannable offense.

[-] joe@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm not here to defend that guy, but since you offered this stance, what do you think about JFK's quote

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Is that an "implied" death threat?

This isn't a gotcha; I'm just curious at your personal opinion.

[-] Agamemnon@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Is that an “implied” death threat?

It's not. Where are you going with this argument?

[-] joe@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Precisely nowhere-- I have seen that quote get people banned for advocating violence, and I think that's pretty crazy; I semi-randomly ask people who moderate this question. I promise there's no gotcha here.

What about a "Four Boxes" reference?

[-] Agamemnon@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I had to look up what that even is, because I haven't encountered that one before. (me not being US-American)

I cannot make a call on a reference to a quote brought forth on an unspecified subject without context.

In regards to JFK - yes that would count as advocating violence in a very generalised sense. But without context, again, I am not able to make a call, whether a ban on someone making the quote is justified or not. In general, moderation policy also falls under freedom of expression. Consequently, freedom of speech is not a claimable right against non-governmental agents. It's a thing that a lot of people seem to selectively overlook when advocating for what would actually be better described as "Anarchy of speech".

[-] joe@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Please don't misunderstand. Even the government (US, in my case) doesn't have unrestricted free speech, and that's a good thing. We agree here. I even would say that the line as it is currently set in America is "too broad" and that we need to tweak it down a bit. We fail to acknowledge that stochastic terrorism is a thing, in our speech laws, and it essentially makes it completely legal to do as long as you remain sufficiently coded/vague.

If you don't mind humoring me one more time, feel free to weigh in on my questions, again, but assuming the quotes were both made in context; that is to say, JFK quote for a scenario where peaceful revolution was being restricted, and four boxes (which, in my mind, comes a little too close to the line) in a scenario where people were losing their ability to weigh in on their government actions via speech, voting, and juries.

I can't seem to articulate, even to myself, why the JFK quote is generally (in my mind) considered non-violent, but the four boxes one (again, in my mind) is more threatening. I'm hoping random internet polling will lead to some insight. haha

[-] Agamemnon@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

No problem, it's nice to have a level-headed exchange amidst an ongoing tornado of sewage :)

So, I can try to empathize with either side (mods and users) for each of the two quotes, and there might be scenarios where one is completely right and one is wrong. But as an outsider to the kind of debates where these quotes are commonly used, I simply don't have the cultural understanding to help much with answering your question. Sorry.

Drawing the arch back to my initial statement: There are several levels of escalation present between utilising famous people quotes to make a general point and trying to dodge around community rules by veiling direct threats to a specified (inferred from context) group. I am of the opinion that the guillotine-comment I replied to is definitely stepping over the line and only remains standing, because right now additional enforcement of rules is (probably) not going to improve the weather situation mentioned above.

[-] ricdeh@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago

I hope that this demonstrates to people that the oppressive reddit behaviour is not confined to special individuals (such running major social media sites), but is a systematic occurance in online forums. Simply switching from one toxically moderated space to another is not a solution. But this is where the strength of ActivityPub/fediverse lies: we are able to leave for another server while still using the same fundamental service and being able to interact with the same content as before. I would recommend startrek.website as a new or second home for those who wish to migrate.

[-] joe@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm probably being overly cynical, but I have a pretty unflattering option of volunteer moderators and the type of people that seek out such seemingly thankless positions-- and their motivations for doing so. I know this might seem-- bizarre-- considering where I am posting this, but I think it nonetheless.

I like lemmy because there's a modlog to see these things. I do not believe that these users would be unbanned if it hadn't been noticed in the modlog. And it appears they're unbanned from the sitewide ban, but still banned in the community. Not sure what sense that makes.

If your instance gets big enough, you'll also have to deal with petty tyrants seeking out positions of petty power.

[-] M0oP0o@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Just wondering and looking at the mod log for one admin and maybe I am crazy but are they unbanning and rebaning users? (Keep in mind it goes new on top):

admin Banned @snake from the community Lemmy.world Announcements reason: troll
admin Unbanned @snake
admin Banned @soviettaters from the community Lemmy.world Announcements reason: Troll
admin Unbanned @soviettaters
admin Unbanned @ilfi
admin Removed Comment Spineless pieces of shit. by @sused reason: toxic
admin Banned @sused reason: Bye
admin Banned@ilfi reason: Inactive account comes back to troll. Bye

[-] joe@lemmy.world 38 points 10 months ago

They're unbanning them from a sitewide ban and then immediately banning them from the lemmyworld community.

[-] gabe@literature.cafe 13 points 10 months ago

What in the hell?

[-] CrypticVader@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I think some of this instance's admins are not onboard with the rest. Too many cooks in the kitchen.

[-] joe@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Well the radio silence on it sure seems like they're circling the wagons to protect an admin that clearly isn't emotionally mature enough to be in such a position.