The Lemmy software is intended to be somewhat censorship resistant, but that does not mean that lemmy.ml is a “free speech platform”.
Like most instances, lemmy.ml has rules (they’re in the sidebar on the front page) and we regularly delete posts and comments which violate them.
That instance you’re talking about is intended to be a “free speech platform”, which in modern internet parlance is a synonym for “nazi bar”. One of the two admins of that instance says explicitly: “racism, bigotry, sexism is allowed".
Most Lemmy users aren’t into racism, bigotry, sexism, and the other things people there are into, so, most Lemmy instances have defederated them.
So essentially it’s highly censored to defederate them. Not only you can’t view them using a different instance and post, but registering there, you can only interact with their instance. Lemmy needs a better method. I was thinking about this the other day, why is something as simple as blocking content on the users end or blocking x type of content not an option, even on registration. Even if there’s hate speech mixed in, freedom of speech should exist, but freedom to not hear it, should also exist. Essentially shadow banning, but done by choice of those who don’t want to hear said content.
Racism, bigotry, and sexism, exist in everyone. Maybe there’s just better ways to express it, or not to. But it’s cultural, people want to be with their culture, their people. When you force people to ‘accept’ everyone, they lose their Identity.
I really don’t think Lemmy will survive as everyone will be afraid of getting cancelled and defederated.
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