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by ____mr____ 6 days ago
> the maintainers of Codeberg do not believe that they are a "coffee hosting service" that neutrally hosts code from a variety of perspectives.

They do not believe this because this is simply not the reality we live in

> Their view is that hosting code is a political act and this is backed by the donations funding Codeberg's operation.

They are correct in this view. No matter how "apolitical" platforms like Github and various maintainers of open source projects pretend to be, the reality is that creating, hosting and distributing code is highly political and should be treated as such.

3 comments

Yeah. It's like everybody's forgetting that github also bans things, such as certain projects that receive DMCA takedown requests.

And github pushing its LLM garbage into Visual Studio. If banning crypto or LLM's is political, so too must be pushing them on people who don't want them and very loudly object.

It's only 'political' when someone is trying to divert from the actual, specific subject of a discussion. It's a thought-stopping tactic, not actual substantive criticism.

No, it's not. If you see everything through these political lense, you end up constantly in a us vs them mentality. Or a "you're either with us, or against us". I don't think it's healthy.
It really is. Hosting requires a server owned by a company or private individual located in a country. The goals of these companies/individuals and the pressures put on them by their countries are quite political - and as a result hosting becomes political.
That's not true. You can definitely think critically about the political context of things without being partizan about things.

Taking a stance does not mean you adopted an "us vs. them" mentality.

What a bonkers generalization.

Do you also see your local library hosting Mein Kampf as statement of support for fascism on part of the librarian?
It is a political statement about the freedom of press though, no? Some libraries ban books, others do not. But that doesn’t mean it’s not political.
No, but it is a result of international western politics that Mein Kampf is widely available to read
I think it's generally understood that people read Mein Kampf because they want to understand Hitler and not because they agree with him.
Not always, but usual. It isn't that strange for a library to have a copy and it isn't that strange to check it out although the librarian is definitely checking you for swastika tattoos.