Lemmy is federated and decentralized and that means that we can all coexist
regardless of our differing political opinions. I think it’s important to
preface this by saying that I am not offended by or concerned with anyone’s
politics, and I’m certainly not here to argue with anyone about them. My concern
is that users are being banned and content is being removed on lemmy.ml
[http://lemmy.ml] citing a rule that is not publicly stated anywhere that I have
seen. Moderators of lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] are removing posts and comments
which are critical of the Chinese government and are banning their authors. This
came to my attention because of how lemmy user bans are federated just like
everything else, and I was confused about why my instance had logged a lemmy.ml
[http://lemmy.ml] user ban citing “orientalism” as the reason for the ban.
Screenshot of my own instance’s modlog, as viewed by an admin
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/81e3aa97-9fa0-4045-b27a-76d7f8a304e8.png]
I noticed that the banned user had recently commented on a post in
!worldnews@lemmy.ml that had been removed with the reason “Orientalist article”.
Screenshot of banned user’s history on lemmy.ml
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/c3ac484c-6ae3-490a-82a7-1ae866286d48.png]
Screenshot of lemmy.ml modlog
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/6be9f59a-1a6b-41fc-9642-7c3127559c84.png]
Here’s the article that was removed, titled “China may face succession crisis”.
It was published by axios.com [http://axios.com], which mediabiasfactcheck
describes as having “a slight to moderate liberal bias” and gives its
second-highest ranking for factual reporting. The article writes unfavorably of
Chinese President Xi Jinping.
https://www.axios.com/2023/06/06/china-may-face-succession-crisis
[https://www.axios.com/2023/06/06/china-may-face-succession-crisis]
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/axios/ [https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/axios/] I
had not remembered seeing anything in lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml]’s rules that
would suggest that “orientalism”—meaning, as I understand it, the depiction or
discussion of Asian cultures by people in Western ones—was against the rules. So
I checked, and I found that there was not. Not on the instance’s front page, and
not in !worldnews@lemmy.ml. Screenshot of instance rules for lemmy.ml
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/b539fafa-ba1a-43f6-aa37-d954e908c809.png]
Screenshot of community rules for !worldnews@lemmy.ml
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/9a5a8a2d-cfac-4658-8ef5-77a885079756.png]
There is a stated rule against xenophobia, but I think that xenophobia is not
widely understood to include Westerners writing critically of the actions of an
Asian government. This is where I went from confused to concerned. Lemmy
instances have public moderation logs, which I think is a very positive thing
about the platform. So I looked more closely at lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml]’s
moderation log. Please note that moderation logs are also federated. It’s hard
to be 100% sure which instance a mod action is actually associated with, looking
at these logs. The previously mentioned user ban and post removal were, I think,
definitely actions taken by lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] moderators. My own
instance’s mod log identifies the banning moderator as a lemmy.ml
[http://lemmy.ml] admin, and the removed post was submitted to a lemmy.ml
[http://lemmy.ml] community. I’ve done my best to verify that all of the
following removals were really done by lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] moderators,
but I can’t be absolutely certain. Please forgive me if any of them were
actually made on other instances that do have an explicitly stated rule against
orientalism. > Removed Comment Ah yes. Being against China’s racist genocide is
racist. China, the imperialist ethno-state, is clearly innocent. by
@CrimsonOnoscopy@beehaw.org > reason: Orientalism Screenshot of lemmy.ml modlog
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/2c779f63-b231-4cec-8774-d999c8e26677.png]
> Removed Comment Lol. Thinking some countries have better governments than
others is supremacist? Whatever, dude. By the way. If there are any countries
with decent governments, I don’t know of them. But like. If there were decent
countries, they wouldn’t behave like China. by @balerion@beehaw.org > reason:
Orientalism Screenshot of lemmy.ml modlog
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/2232fd34-b6f4-4958-a683-9ca549989922.png]
These following moderator actions did not specifically cite orientalism, but did
not seem to be breaking any of the instance’s or community’s explicitly stated
rules. > Banned @0x815@feddit.de reason: Only makes anti russia and anti china,
crosspostst from reddit. 2nd temp ban > expires: 9d ago Screenshot of lemmy.ml
modlog
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/ba863eac-59a9-48b1-bc0e-801adebf5d37.png]
> Removed Comment Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet are all Colonies of China,
which it treats as Colonial Territories, by - Forcibly destroying the local
culture. Forcefully extracting to harm of the locals. Genocide, abuse,
kidnapping, rape. But there is no point in engaging to you. You are a liar. You
know you are. When you deny genocides, you put yourself on the same side as the
fascists and reactionaries of the past. by @CrimsonOnoscopy@beehaw.org > reason:
Rule 1 and 2 Screenshot of lemmy.ml modlog
[https://lemmy.pineapplemachine.com/pictrs/image/a0e242b1-9a9a-4f66-8361-2f4b9d5a1a17.png]
I have no affection for the Chinese government and I do not call myself a
communist. I would not enforce a rule against orientalism on my own instance.
But I think that lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml]’s moderators are entitled to enforce
whatever rules they please. It’s only that, as the largest single lemmy instance
so far, I believe that they have an obligation to disclose these rules, and an
obligation to not ban users or remove content for failing to follow unobvious
and unstated rules. I’d like to raise some awareness about this, and I’d like to
openly ask the moderators of lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml] to state the rules that
they intend to enforce clearly and explicitly. I will be very clear and state it
again: I am not asking for anyone to change their opinions or to not enforce a
rule that they believe in. That is the great thing about lemmy, that we can
coexist in this federated community even when we don’t share the same opinions.
What I am asking is for lemmy.ml [http://lemmy.ml]’s rules to be clearly stated,
because I think it does not reflect well on the broader community if the
predominant instance moderates its users and content according to rules that are
not being explicitly disclosed.
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
All Chirp! content and data are available under the