Today I got banned from Mastodon (infosec.exchange instance) for stuff nobody should ever consider wrong. I can't add screenshots (because I can't register on imgur for some reason) but I can add the comments below:

1. @eff tbh I'm considering joining Meta because I support their recent decisions. The FOSS alternatives are very toxic and don't want to change.

2. @BrodieOnLinux do we have any evidence of you actually living in Australia though?

3. @GossiTheDog ugh how do so many people not understand that opinion based censorship is not democratic at all? It's more nazi actually if you ask me.

4. @nixCraft well I support the changes. Moderation nowadays is pretty terrible and doesn't allow any unpopular opinion or religion. You can use heavily moderated forums that only allow your opinion but for gatekeepers it's not the way to go.

5. @eff @theintercept @jilliancyork ok the first example is kind of hate speech. Calling people trash is kinda bad.

6. @eff now this is better than fake free speech.

However, the admins at least very kindly recommended me finding another instance before suspending my account. That kind of attitude is highly appreciated, even though I disagree with the moderation techniques themselves.

With that out of the way I would like to remind everyone one more time that FOSS social networks do not offer what they claim to be offering. If you're on such a network, you can stay there only as long as your political, religious, cultural and other views are the same as the admins' and the users'. If you want real free expression, I guess you can only get it on Facebook or by creating a new network. In other case you'll constantly be getting reported and eventually banned like in my case.

As many active internet users already know, Meta is changing (or claiming to be changing) their policies to reduce censorship and allow "not popular" opinions on their platforms.

I personally think it's the best decision a social network has made in the past few years. The majority of the internet being significantly left-leaning caused censorship and hate against those who legally and rightfully support a different position. Unfortnately this also affected big "user-focused" networks such as Mastodon and Lemmy to such an extent many of the instances outright banned such opinions.

This is an extremely severe threat to political freedoms and freedom of expression in places that consider themselves democratic. This is why I fully support the Meta's decision and encourage other social networks and communication platforms to follow Meta in this particular decision.

Also I would like to add that considering civil expression or promotion of an unpopular opinion on topics such as politics, gender and religion "hate speech" is ridiculous for a democracy and inclusivity supporting individual, even if such opinions kind of hurt their beliefs. This has already been a problem in the past and now it's pretty much the same but only the "allowed opinions" have changed.

Give freedom of expression back to everyone!

No like seriously, I get that the admins work for free but FOSS is supposed to be about freedom and making products that everyone can benefit from yet still the bias is simply hilarious sometimes and concerning usually.

For the record, I'm talking about conflicts of different opinions here, not justifying hate speech or extremism. I know there is a major difference between FOSS and Big Data in terms of treatment of troll behavior (with the latter supporting it because it generates engagement), but it is clearly being misunderstood and abused now.

I even think I'd rather recommend proprietary options to others at this point because of mental health risks. Yes, I know that some major platforms are quite heavily biased politically (with X even being accused in supporting fascism) but it's not as bad as being biased in everything imo.

Can't we finally understand that the modern trends in most cultures praise exclusiveness (often cleverly disguised as distorted inclusiveness which sounds impossible but is actually a case and it hurts people's understanding of the latter) and work against it? Or at least we could do it for the FOSS reputation.

On the positive note though, Mastodon that is probably the biggest FOSS social platform seems to be pretty good (though probably a bit too close to the Big Data in terms of troll treatment). Could it be because of the size?

I think it's just nice to be able to verify a file with a right click instead of opening the terminal and typing the *sum command. Yes, it is technically bloat, but also good for time saving.

Idk much about emacs but some people love it and probably will find it useful. Also the app seems to require a self-hosted backend so don't check it out if you're poor.

Many features are still incomplete and barebones but I think it's good to have it installed, especially for those who share and post photos all the time.