[dredmorbius]

There are federated networks which don't allow for centralised access restrictions as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, et al, are evidencing today.

But projects such as Mastodon put control in the hands of site or node administrators, and at least on Mastodon, there's an exceedingly healthy culture of blocking sites which themselves advocate oppressive practices.

So those looking for an uncensored microphone may be somewhat disappointed.

I welcome their tears.

[icy]

> there's an exceedingly healthy culture of blocking sites which themselves advocate oppressive practices

Oppressive, but defined by whom? I've seen arbitrary blocks of instances simply because they run Pleroma or Soapbox. In fact, my own instance was briefly on fediblock.org's list because my bio says "I care about freedom—both in software, and in speech"; the reason stated was "free-speech". That's absurd!

As is often said on the fediverse, some switched over from Twitter due to too much censorship, others due to to little.

[jamesgeck0]

“Free speech” servers are sort of infamous for nazis and brigading, unfortunately. There have been enough incidents that some moderators block first and ask questions later.

[cesarvarela]

Don’t you think the tears might be yours someday? Will you always be on the “right” side? Will the people with the power to censor you always be “good”?

I think censorship is a game where everybody loses eventually.

[hpcjoe]

This. Precisely.

All you need is for the definitions of various words to change over time. And then you find yourself on the wrong side of an (arbitrary) line. Then you get deplatformed.

I'd say think carefully before you open that door, and walk past that particular dangerous line, but our "platforms" seem to have driven their mobs/herds over that line, with nary a thought to what comes next.

The slope is slippery. And we are gathering speed. Whilst people cheer the actions.

[zoobab]

"I welcome their tears."

Hopefully we have mathematics and physics on our side.

[eclipseo76]

> there's an exceedingly healthy culture of blocking sites which themselves advocate oppressive practices

That's an issue, not a feature.