It’s like watching the history of internet filesharing and warez from the 90s on a speedrun. LW happened to be the most populous instance by chance, and the nature of federated network means the admins can get legally held liable for contents they didn’t choose nor wanted to host, because all it takes is another federated server going rogue.
Sure, freedom of speech is fundamental. But it’s a hard place between “saving yourself from financial and legal troubles” and “betraying the (vaguely defined) principles”. When the crowd is shouting “freedom of speech”, they don’t just want a nice speech for an announcement; they want the admins become a martyr for the cause. And shit, what for? For some vague internet fame?
Had lemmy.ml become the largest instance, we would have potentially watched this unfold on lemmy devs themselves. Knowing their political affiliations, it might have turned into a different scenario. Legal threats might have been rebutted in an open way that even pleased the “freeze peach” crowd despite the “tankie” accusations. Perhaps all the extra pressure and legal threats meant Lemmy development come to a halt and slowly decline. But no one knows, really.
I don’t condone nor condemn LW or its staff. I wish they didn’t have to carry the baggage of becoming the guinea pig of this ongoing experiment.