cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/fediverse/p/887450/piefed-flagship-instance-shadowbanning-instances-from-discoverability-other-questionable-upd
This morning while checking if Quokk.au’s new instance logo was federated out, I discovered that overnight we had been shadowbanned from the PieFed.Social Instance Chooser (This is a tool to help spread out users across the platform and help avoid funnelling users into the largest.)
Knowing that Rimu was happy to explain, I just asked for some clarification as we were visible on every other PieFed instance except his.
Apparently for ’ obvious reasons ', of which I can only assume is our left leaning anarchist/pro-trans stance we were chosen not be advertised on the PieFed flagship instance and first point of contact for many potential new users. Seeing as a large portion of our new users found us via this method, it will have a tangible effect on a small instance such as ours.
This was a pretty sad sight to see, and reflects the sort of petty drama that is emanating from the PieFed project lately. It’s now the third such move to discredit and harm left leaning instances by PieFed’s lead developer. This also shows a trend towards autocratic unilateral decision-making on Piefed.social, of which is starting to be run as a personal fiefdom without consulting the team or users.
I must commend Lemmy.ml for remaining neutral and not letting its own political leanings influence join-lemmy.org, while simultaneously condemn PieFed.social for this immature move that is harmful to the health of the Fediverse.
Following this exchange, Rimu announced a new update to PieFed allowing for some rather concerning things.
- Modlog: Reason for the action is only shown from trusted instances, so abusive mods won’t have an audience. Admins can still see the reason though. Which instances are trusted is set in the admin UI.
This feature means problematic users can now go undetected, and will harm moderators ability to view their past moderation history. For example PieFed.social runs a ‘trusted’ list of only 34 instances, meaning any mod action taken by any of the hundreds of instances outside of this will not show up. So for example if Quokk.au was to ban a user for transphobia (our most common ban), this will not be reflected for piefed.social users potentially leading towards more hate speech on the Fediverse.
- Instance silencing similar to Mastodon. A silenced instance is not defederated from but their posts do not show in the Popular or All feeds and their communities are not shown in Starter packs aka Topics. Their communities can still be found in the communities list and joined in the normal way. Once joined, posts in there show up in the subscribed feed as usual.
This is another way to shadowban instances and not ‘advertise’ them. Surely if an instance is problematic enough that a defederation would be in order rather than this reddit-like move.
That is “free speech” 101: everyone must have the ability to listen to their BS. They burn books, while you are “free” to “speak” only one among the approved talking points, which may shift over time. e.g. they routinely call for murder, even for admins of other instances, yet they are perpetually the wronged and totally innocent party, never admitting an ounce of responsibility to others, yet demanding “fair” treatment in return (which as the quotes suggest, is the epitome of unfairness actually, due to being lopsided - but somehow the righteousness of their cause justifies their zeolosness; in short, in their view their good end somehow justifies the means, and not only in terms of promoting irl murder but also in using lies over the internet).
When you see the similarities between the argumentation practices used by incels and tankies it suddenly all makes perfect sense. DOn’T yOu KnOw WhAt A nIcE mAn I aM? Watch Innuendo Studios The Alt-Right Playbook series for a treat. Their goal is not arriving at truth via means of discourse, they use toddler tactics where they want to WIN, by any means necessary. And since Might Makes Right in their view, they push as far forward as others will allow, i.e. until others expend the effort to stop them, while they refuse to stop themselves or to abide by the conventions that exist in a more polite society (which they explicitly excuse themselves from, again citing their excuses as to why you should be okay with their zeolotry, thereby gaslighting you into their worldview - as in its surely not their problem that they are lying, its everyone else’s fault for not doing as they say).
openstars getting on a soapbox about how other people are liars and toddlers but simultaneously can’t stop vomiting up disinfo and gaslighting about widely documented events.
also comparing people they disagree with on the left to incels, classic authoritarian liberal horseshoe tactics
OpenStars has been caught lying how many times this month alone? And then kept going with it?
Genuinely pathetic attempt at gaslighting from them.