Lead Lemmy Developer, Dessalines, denying the Tiananmen Square Massacre and praising the Uyghur Genocide

https://sh.itjust.works/post/8419342

Dessalines AKA “parentis_shotgun” on Reddit, is the main Lemmy dev, also the admin of lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml.

Their post and discussions on Reddit (archive as the original post must have been removed):

https://web.archive.org/web/20230626055233/https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/cqgztr/fuck_the_white_supremacist_reddit_admins_want_me/

Please join the discussions for Lemmy.ml tankie censorship problem:

https://lemmy.world/post/16211417

And the discussions for finding/creating alternative communities on other instances:

https://lemmy.world/post/16235541

What is a tankie?

Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support acts of repression by such regimes or their allies. More specifically, the term has been applied to those who express support for one-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republics, whether contemporary or historical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

  • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    the devs have absolutely no say over how the software being used

    It seems like they have some strong say when it comes to their own instance. According to some recent posts, ML admins (and maybe even mods?) have the ability to erase any record of mod actions, for example disappearing critique of the CCP’s brutal actions in Tiananmen Square that were posted on ML. That left no record in the public mod logs, and the users were never informed that their contributions had been (completely) deleted.

    I’m only a 1yr Lemming myself, but I never saw such a critique aimed at any other instance, hence why I’m skeptical that the devs don’t have influence over how the software is used.

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      the devs have absolutely no say over how the software being used

      According to some recent posts, ML admins (and maybe even mods?) have the ability to erase any record of mod actions, for example disappearing critique of the CCP’s brutal actions in Tiananmen Square that were posted on ML. That left no record in the public mod logs, and the users were never informed that their contributions had been (completely) deleted.

      That isn’t an example of them having a say over how people use the software. That’s them using their own property as they wish.

      • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        It’s more than just that IMO. It’s breaking the stated aim of open federation by tampering with comments, posts and mod records, which in turn get propagated or de-propagated to connected instances, right?

        Yes, you may say that ML is of course free to screw with their own instance, but 1) one instance (particular a significant one like ML) affects other instances, and 2) they’re breaking the spirit of their own software by shamelessly abusing admin powers, in turn helping to normalize that behavior to the Lemmy side of the FV.

        What’s the point of leaving oppressive, commercial social media only to run in to the same kinds of abuse of power on a supposedly transparent, user-run, P2P social network?

        • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          It’s breaking the stated aim of open federation by tampering with comments, posts and mod records, which in turn get propagated or de-propagated to connected instances, right?

          I’m not convinced that this is in conflict with the aim of federation. The whole point is to give people the power to create their own instances with their own rules instead of having to rely on a single central authority. The network isn’t necessarily distributed — it’s decentralized. An instance can administrate their content as they see fit. An instance cannot alter the content produced by any other instance. An instance can only manage the content originating from itself.


          but 1) one instance (particular a significant one like ML) affects other instances

          Would you mind being more specific?


          they’re breaking the spirit of their own software by shamelessly abusing admin powers, in turn helping to normalize that behavior to the Lemmy side of the FV.

          Hm, well, it depends on your perspective. The whole point of the Fediverse is to give people the freedom and power to control how they interact with the service. A server has the freedom to associate with the users that they wish in the same way that you have the freedom to consume what you wish. The spirit of the software is to enable people to have this freedom that otherwise wouldn’t exist with a large central service. The way I like to look at the Fediverse is where each instance is like a country, and each community is like a regional/state/provincial government within the country, and federation between instances is like cross-border policies between nations.


          a supposedly transparent […] social network?

          I’m not sure what you mean by “transparent”.


          a supposedly […] user-run […] social network?

          It is user-run, in that any user can create an instance.


          a supposedly […] P2P social network?

          It’s not P2P. A P2P network would be distributed. The Fediverse is decentralized.

    • GarfGirl [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      all instance admins have the ability to do this on their own instance, the functionality was added to deal with doxx info being posted so it wouldnt be visible even in the modlog, and it was used a lot to deal with the CSAM spam attack too - basically whenever this happens the relevant message will still be in the modlog but it will be changed to “Permanently Removed”. Currently there’s no evidence or even accusation that this functionality has been used for anything except the stated purposes though so i wouldnt worry too much.

      • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        That’s fine on ‘paper,’ but can you seriously not understand how it’s being shamelessly abused on the Tankie / ML front?

        • GarfGirl [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 months ago

          well i havent seen anyone even claiming its been used against them or pointing to their post being permanently removed from the modlogs unjustly, only people saying that maybe it could be used in this way, so no i dont think that the ML tankie front are using it that way. and since i know it has been used for its stated purpose to fully remove actual doxx information and child porn i dont see why it should be removed as a feature, at very least until there’s some evidence of it being used maliciously

          • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Well then, good for you.

            Meanwhile, there’s been a legion of solid users here pointing out across the FV that the ML has in fact been abusing its admin powers, or did you think that the whataboutism of CSA would somehow, magically erase that shizzle?

            If so, then shame on you.

            • GarfGirl [she/her]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              5 months ago

              I didnt say that lemmy.ml mods havent been overbearing with their moderation i said “i havent seen anyone even claiming its been used against them or pointing to their post being permanently removed from the modlogs unjustly”.

              if you want me to spell it out slowly i can:

              • lemmy.ml mods have abused admin powers at some points
              • it is possible that the lemmy.ml people could abuse this admin power
              • as far as im aware there is no evidence that anyone has misused this specific admin power
              • this specific admin power has been used to remove child porn and dox info
              • since this admin power has been used for good reasons and hasnt been used for bad reasons it shouldnt be removed as an admin power
              • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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                5 months ago

                as far as im aware there is no evidence that anyone has misused this specific admin power

                In that case, then congrats for living in your own little delirium, apart from the many, many reports people have made reporting those specific abuses.

                  • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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                    5 months ago

                    Absolutely.
                    I will make it a special point tomorrow to look up the many, many posts upon that matter made in the last couple days across the FV.

                    One also wonders what people like you were doing in the meantime, but never fear-- please DO add on with any more requests for such information in the coming days. I will be happy to do the lookups and get back to you. ^^