Fosstodon might get blocked on Mastodon instances

https://mastodon.social/@lo__/114370692797365997

by roywashere • 1 year ago

12 3 1 year ago

Fosstodon, the popular instance that hosts many FOSS open source software developer accounts, might get blocked by multiple Mastodon instances because of an alleged alt-right moderator on their instance. This sucks and I'm unsure what to think about this

delichon• 1 year ago

Drill down and find that the issues are the ones that typically divide the right and left in the US. These opinions make the moderator an outlier to one political camp, but normal to the other, in a country divided roughly down the middle. So enforcing a block due to this person's opinions will be precedent for blocking any moderator who aligns with the ideology of about half the country. It's similar in effect to declaring "no Republican moderators".

I'd guess that a plurality of Mastodon users are OK with that. I fully support the right of Fosstodon or Mastodon to do so on freedom of association grounds. But I prefer more inclusive communities like this one.

goku12• 1 year ago

My account is currently on Fosstodon after the previous host shut down. While I don't agree with what this particular moderator said, I haven't seen their political stance affecting the instance itself. From the discussions, it looks like the moderator took care to keep their decisions free of their personal biases. Fosstodon is a relatively well managed instance and besides, much of my feed comes from other instances anyway. I don't know how bad the situation is, but I'm not very enthusiastic about yet another migration.

It's one thing to block an instance that allow trolls to repeatedly spam other instances despite appeals. But it looks like that isn't the case here at all. Fosstodon is (or was) home to several FOSS projects and developers. It looks like the fediverse hosting community decided to torch fosstodon and burn all its tenants because one of its moderators held views that they didn't agree with?

I want to highlight the ridiculous cancel culture that pervades the non-mainstream social media. I say this as a person with strong liberal views. Holding progressive views don't automatically give anyone the moral authority to punish others for dissenting views. Doesn't freedom of speech matter to the liberal side anymore? If you don't even want to see dissenting views, how do you recognize any flaws in your views? And the liberal community has plenty. The community seems to be to be demonstrating the same intolerant and authoritarian tendencies that victimized them earlier. Decentralized social media seems to have become a tool for decentralized censorship with a large area of collateral damage. If this is the demise of fosstodon, it will probably be that of my fediverse presence as well.

Fosstodon might get blocked on Mastodon instances

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