some of these people might do to read instagram/threads TOS before complaining about suppression of speech
Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
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Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#12> It's very common on Mastodon to block servers with a heavy hand, with huge blocklists such as "Fediblock" naming nearly every server on the network. This is a big problem, because it creates a fragmented network where people cannot communicate with each other.
This "problem" is actually a feature. The requirement that everyone must be able to communicate with one another is a fallacy.
An admin of an instance has a right to block any server they wish to block, just as a user of that instance has a right to move to another one if their instance's administration policy doesn't suit them. This includes Threads, since it decides to become one of the many other instances on the Fediverse.
> goes against the open nature of the Fediverse
The nature of the Fediverse is that it is decentralized and that you, as an instance administrator, own your instance, with all the ups and downs of that fact. Who are you to impose your own limitations upon owners of other instances and tell them what they should or shouldn't do with their own hardware and their own software?
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#13> Threads must moderate users, not servers
Why does threads have to do that? Server blocks are incredibly common in the fediverse and last time this came up as a complaint people defended this religiously as being just how stuff works. The server I'm on has an incredibly large blocklist and it's not even entirely clear what it blocks given that half the blocks themselves are censored: https://hachyderm.io/about
This is exactly what one would expect to find if the fediverse can't agree on shared rules.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#14The complaint by the author that Meta should moderate individual users rather than simply block "loosely moderated" servers feels like an unreasonable expectation.
I suppose it fits with the rest of this article being rather disingenuous. Alex Gleason, Spinster and Neenster are part of a controversial group that detractors call "trans-exclusionary radical feminism." For better or for worse (the details of this controversy are not necessarily relevant), instances of that nature (and pretty much anything that runs on Soapbox) are defederated by a lot of Fediverse servers, and it seems that Meta for one reason or another has joined those servers. Gleason is well aware of this controversy.
My best guess is that Meta hopes to make itself appear more palatable to mainstream Mastodon servers by also defederating.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#15The complaint by the author that Meta should moderate individual users rather than simply block "loosely moderated" servers feels like an unreasonable expectation.
Exactly; one of the most valuable things federation brings to the table is the ability to choose which servers to federate with and which not to. I don't want Meta moderating individual users on sites they don't own.
The "moderation" line for e-mail has been drawn at spam/hacking/phishing. If the fediverse succeeds, then it will do the same. Servers that fail to police spam/hacking/phishing will be blocked, everything else will be allowed. If the lines are drawn elsewhere, each server will choose their own lines, there will be no agreement, and thus no ability to share blocklists, and the fediverse will be in name only.
There is a very good reason to see this path being taken, given what the Apple App Store disallows and new EU law with rigid speech requirements.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#16some of these people might do to read instagram/threads TOS before complaining about suppression of speech
Why? They aren’t legally binding. No reasonable person thinks they are.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#17In case the author doesn't know or willfully didn't post the reason Spinster is banned both on Threads and Mastadon; the server is a safe haven for TERFs who co-opt feminism as the cover for open seething transphobia disguised as criticism when communicating to a wider audience. Credit where it's due they're much smarter than your typical bigots and know how to hide it better to avoid bans.
The fact that the OP is out here defending them as just feminists is the a sign it's working. There is nothing in feminist thought that would earn them a ban on any major social network that isn't that "gender critical" nonsense.
Whether or not you agree with the position or not Threads calls what they do hate speech and so defederating makes total sense from their perspective.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#18Lots of instances block Threads too. That's how it works.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#19> Threads must moderate users, not servers Why does threads have to do that? Server blocks are incredibly common in the fediverse and last time this came up as a complaint people defended this religiously as being just how stuff works. The server I'm on has an incredibly large blocklist and it's not even entirely clear what it blocks given that half the blocks themselves are censored: https://hachyderm.io/about This…
I think the issues with server blocks are mainly related to the way administrators use them to settle personal beefs or play a nuclear negotiation game with other admins who they want to impose their moderation policies on. "Moderate my way or you'll all be defederated."
Mastodon administrators aren't "faceless corporations," they are people with as many personality flaws and weaknesses as your coworkers or any other group of techies you didn't get to choose to work with. Some of them are Machiavellian narcissists, who want to decide how the entire network functions - and they're not afraid to use their ability to sever social connections with unaware users as a negotiating tool.
Re: Threads is blocking servers on the Fediverse. Here's how we unblocked ourselves.
#20It's an odd omission that the "feminist server" mentioned is actually a gathering place for TERFs, after they were banned from places like Reddit. If your community is problematic enough to be kicked off of Reddit, I can imagine your users/content may not be desirable to Meta/Threads' brand, either.