meta mastodon moderation / blocking
Wow - this is awesome. Now, I'm old enough to have been a moderator on Fidonet. And on IRC. Both the regular IRC and the one that ran as a backend to a huge social network (Sweden only) that was a bit like Facebook but long before Facebook. And some other things.
But the discussions on #fediblock regarding defederation are definitely bringing up a completely new aspect to network moderation I haven't really seen in this light before.
(1/n)
meta mastodon moderation / blocking
Instances can get defederated by other instances for the following reasons:
1) Not moderating "well enough"
2) Peering with other instances that aren't moderated "well enough"
3) Hosting accounts of a type others don't want to have in their federation
... and no two instances are in complete agreement what's covered in 1, 2 or 3.
Now let's be clear - I don't consider anything here to be wrong. I'm pondering the wider effects.
(2/n)
meta mastodon moderation / blocking
On Fidonet (fully authenticated real name network) you could get excommunicated. No Fidonet node would be allowed to host you. It was a complete ban.
On IRC this sort of instance-wide disagreements would lead to complete network breakups. EFnet, IRCnet kind - etc. Currently the fediverse has done something like this with the alt-right instances vs "the rest". (I don't consider the US left vs right terminology to apply globally, but let's use that here)
(3/n)
meta mastodon moderation / blocking
So, back to the original list. I think we're fine with instances blocking other instances because that specific instance has an opinion. It'll lead to a lot of user support (and I think muting should be the first option instead of defederation) but ok.
3 is stranger. When it's about specific accounts, block those - not instances.
And then we have 2 - defederating because other instances federate with those you block:
(4/n)
meta mastodon moderation / blocking
That's dangerous. It's a "you should do as I want you to otherwise I will punish you" action. It's authoritarian. It's the very opposite to the whole point of decentralization.
And the effect it will have is the full network type split - but not just between "alt-right" and "the rest" - but anything where two people can be of different opinions.
Which is everything.
And that will lead to the fediverse ending up as a few large _unconnected_ instances.
(5/5)
quality twitter cross-post
everything.
And that will lead to the fediverse ending up as a few large _unconnected_ instances. (3/3)
ioc. exchange/@troed/109388964247684952
