Lemmy.world reportedly bans people for being anti-Zionist. At the same time, numerous human rights organizations have documented that Zionist policies and actions amount to crimes against humanity (e.g., forced displacement, collective punishment, apartheid).
If banning opposition to crimes against humanity is itself anti-humanity, doesn’t that make lemmy.world complicit? How do you reconcile defending a platform that silences critics while atrocities continue?
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When the admins themselves take offense to anti-Zionist slogans without them being directed towards them, you can take their word for it that they are indeed what they are taking offense for
I have high doubts that Lemmy.world bans people specifically for being anti Zionist.
Context and number of incidents of ban is required.
Obligatory ‘Israel is a piece of shit country.’
Literally banned me for calling Kaplan a Zionist.
And then they unbanned me, unprompted.
Your doubts are unfounded.
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Modlog is public, they were banned for calling Kaplan “Zionist scum”.
https://lemmy.ml/modlog/view?page=1&actionType=All&userId=15127012
Fair enough. I was guilty of assuming their disinterest in the truth elsewhere was part of a larger pattern. Blocked them though so I won’t make the mistake again.
Got it. Next time you’ll do the same mistake with a different user. One person at a time!!
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Comedy.
I’ve found some evidence and posted it here:
Lemmy.world Is Anti‑Humanity. How Its Admins Weaponized Defederation to Silence Palestine SolidarityMaybe I’m missing something, but that post just has a ton of claims and no screenshots or links to what it’s talking about.
Zionism isnt judaism and acting like it is is a huge red flag.
Instant credibility loss for me.
We need to ask the rationale for the decisions. I am very much opposed to any genocide, whether by direct action, a third party or inaction. If Zionist practices are leading to genocide then I need to call it out. If Israels current practice is to create genocide then I need to call it out. I can do all that and not be Anti-Semitic or anti Israel.
If any Lemmy instance removes the debate, they need to be left in the cold or closed down.The problem is, Israeli far-right groups and Zionist advocates have spent decades turning “antisemitic” into a shield. You call out forced displacement, apartheid, collective punishment—all well documented by Amnesty, B’Tselem, and Human Rights Watch—and they call you an antisemite. It’s an old trick, and it works.
So when a platform like lemmy.world bans “anti-Zionists,” they’re buying into that same smear. They’re not separating bigotry from basic human rights criticism. That means you literally can’t speak out against genocide there without being branded an antisemite. The only way to say “stop the genocide” is to wear that label as a badge of honor. And that’s exactly the point: any platform that forces you to accept a false accusation just to state the obvious is complicit.
I completely agree. There was an analogy used at work some years ago. If we decided to call a dogs tail a leg, would that mean that all dogs have five legs? The answer is ridiculously simple. Dogs have four legs and a tail. The names used make no difference. In this case, if Israel is committing genocidal acts, then that is just a straight fact. Renaming objection as anti-Semitic does not take away the fact of the genocide.
The term is broken and should never be used by anyone outside of their fascist bubble. Arabs are a semitic people too I would add. If they don’t give the exact details of the offense, ignore. And if they do give the details, call it what it is, anti israel, anti zionist, anti fascist, or anti jewish. No country represents a race of people.
It’s all in bad faith anyway, it’s not about the plausibility of the argument, it’s about bullying you, and as such they come hard and fast at the first provokation to dissuade others before an organized resistance can form.
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Who gives a shit what they call you, they have no credibility
I don’t think people should join censorious instances either, but if you’re implying something else like defederation then that’s a bridge too far. Interoperability and interconnection are key to federation ever working.
Is lemmy.world anti-humanity for banning anti-Zionists?
The quick answer is: probably no. You claim this is the case, provide no receipts, and most importantly don’t place these terms into enough context. And context matters.
I don’t know if you’re right. You might be. I’m not excluding that possibility.
No instance is under any obligation to tolerate all opinions. Other admins may defederate, users may move away and block. All moderation decisions are shit. It’s much easier to have principles than to apply them equally everywhere and without fail.
If they have indeed chosen to err on the side of what I’m going to call something like antisemitic caution and remove stuff more broadly than you are comfortable with, it’s not just a question of values. It’s could also be a reflection of their experience with this topic, the resulting workload, and lack of moderation manpower. It’s much easier to ban all boobs than having to differentiate with each post if they’re breastfeeding or not, to put this in the context of past moderation problems. Facebook isn’t opposed to breastfeeding as a function to suckle our offspring but as the proprietors of their platform they can ban all boob related posts. And while this is of course within the realm of apples to oranges comparisons, I don’t think it’s justified to leap to the conclusion you did based on moderation decisions alone.
The last I’ve seen was this, but I remember before lemmy.world’s admin defederated from an entire instance over one user’s “death to all Zionists” display name. That user stepped down. The damage was done.
This was a political act. When a platform punishes critics of documented apartheid and ethnic cleansing more harshly than it punishes the apologists for those crimes, yes—that’s anti-humanity in practice. Complicity doesn’t require intent, just silence and a ban hammer.
edit: I’ve found more evidence and posted it here:
Lemmy.world Is Anti‑Humanity. How Its Admins Weaponized Defederation to Silence Palestine SolidarityWait, givesomefucks got promoted to mod? I haven’t specifically seen pro-Zionist comments from them, but this is the user that regularly comments trying to convince everyone how the Democratic party has seen ‘major reforms’ by electing a new leader months ago despite us continuing to see them capitulate to Republicans at nearly every turn.
Maybe the account is run by Chuck Schumer and OP here is completely correct.
I got into it with that account too now that you mention it. That person is a tool.
I won’t be quite so harsh toward someone who now has the power to ban me, but I will agree that it seriously calls their judgement into question and they remind me a lot of FlyingSquid who also regularly made seriously questionable claims and was eventually demodded.
I read through that last link and then the first comment is asking why this AI wall of text. There is also very little evidence meat on that bone. A user did this, a user got that. That’s not receipts, that’s just more claims.
The claims of censorship are non sensical to me. You can still post most of that stuff, just not on that instance. An instance isn’t a democracy and no one has the right to be heard there no matter what. Your right is to go elsewhere. It’s a living room sofa problem. If you came to my house and took a dump on my sofa, I’d kick you out too. As it is my house, I get to decide what constitutes a dump. You thought it was just a fart, I smelled a shart - you’re out anyway. You are free to go sit on somebody else’s sofa. Go somewhere else, vote with your feet. Sure, tell others about my tight ass sofa rules. You still haven’t convinced me of your OG conclusion.
I’m still not excluding the possibility that there is something rotten in the state of Lemmy dot world. Maybe that admin is indeed on a power trip. What a decade on reddit and now a few years on Lemmy have shown me is that most bans are not shot from the hip. “I just said maybe Israel isn’t so nice and got banned IMMEDIATELY,” professed the user innocently. And then the admin comes back with three documented community violations including threatening the moderators with violence. Exceptions are rare. If you had a “no violence” rule, then “death to Zionists” would be functionally the same as “death to all little old ladies,” a no-go. You don’t get to decide what constitutes a dump and since the fediverse is larger than Lemmy dot world you’re also not being censored.
Is that piece of shit admin still around? If so, then the answer is yes.
Is that piece of shit admin still around? If so, then the answer is yes.
do you know how little that narrows things down?
Restricting certain forms of speech can be interpreted in two ways: As suppression of legitimate political critique. Or as boundary-setting to prevent generalizations or escalation.
Whether specific political positions are restricted depends not on how you see them, but on how moderators classify them. “Anti-Zionism” is not a single, defined category. It ranges from policy criticism against Israel, to positions that some moderators may interpret as targeting jews.
Additional note: Your framing is somewhat binary, relying on a “if you’re not with me, you’re against me” logic. I understand the emotions that come with this topic, but your logic reduces complex positions to two options despite the existence of intermediate views. Nuanced actors might then be pushed into opposing camps, therefore intensifying conflict.
Edit, for context: Damned be Israel for everything they are doing right now. I am just trying to maintain some discourse quality.
Question. Does it matter which you login to all that much? Many of my subs are not world… but my login is. Has been for a long time. I never really think about it.
it is an issue if any of the subs that are outside of your instance are defederated
It’s just about what you can see, and who can see you. For maximum content and interaction pick one that defederates, and is defederated by, as few instances as you can find.
Some good ones to try: Lemmy.zip, startrek.website, and lemmy.dbzer0.com, but maybe wait until this blows over to commit to dbzer0 unless you’re cool with losing federation to .world, I understand there is a lot of stuff there.
I’m on my ninth Lemmy account, I ditch them after I think I’ve dropped a few to many PII breadcrumbs, I’ve used all of these multiple times and they’re all good.
I started on .world like you, but now that you’re here there is no reason to let .world mods curate your experience.
Also, you can always maintain multiple different accounts.
Bonus question. I am using jerboa. Some people it shows where their acount is from, but others it doesn’t. Is that just a jerboa thing, or is that a lemmy feature that you can hide what instance you are from?
I use Voyager and a lack of instance name, either on users or in communities, means it’s the same as mine.
Do you see any that say .world, or just others?
Ha! That makes sense, and fits. Thanks.
I don’t think a solicitation for an opinion about mod decisions is the kind of question that a general “Ask” sub is for.
Lemmy.world reportedly bans people for being anti-Zionist.
They ban people for posting “Death to all Zionists” and other calls for violence.
Death to all nazis
This is just a paradox of tolerance moment
Lemmy.world bans you then apologizes to the ones promoting and defending what’s happening when you report tos breaking comments.
They are fully okay being complicit
no
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What I’ve seen is that people get called a zionist without just cause frequently so I’m highly skeptical of anyone even using the term without evidence. I myself have been called a zionist a dozen times at least and I have never really even said anything that could be construed that way. The last time I remember it happening was by a user who literally had re-posted a neo-Nazi and was trying to sweep it under the rug. What was my offense? Pointing out that the user was a neo-Nazi. Yeah man sure if you think Nazis are a bad place to get your info you must love Israel and genocide /s
Pot calling the kettle black. Which just further lessens your credibility, if one wasn’t already familiar with your lack of it.
Ooh wow such coolness. A user hates me for cryptic reasons. Must also make me a zionist somehow. I take it I’m less credible than neo Nazis in your eyes
Another bad faith shit take, not answering the critique and playing victim. You have no credibility.
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What a crash out, wow.
Hey buddy. This really isn’t so difficult. I’m going to clarify things for you and make this very simple for you.
Do you believe Israel has a right to exist as a nation state? Yes or no? If you answer yes, you are a Zionist. There is no burden of proof required. It is an ideology, this is not a court of law.
You pussyfooting around the point all but confirms to a scrupulous reader that you’re very likely a Zionist, but I’m willing to be wrong on this. Just tell us you condemn Israel and admit it has no right to exist and we will happily clear your name of the evil Zionist label.
But something tells me deep down inside that you’re going to throw a fit instead.
Do you believe Israel has a right to exist as a nation state?
The correct question should include “as a Jewish state”.
No, that’s just a random caveat you created to make yourself feel better.
Israel has no right to exist as any kind of state. I did not stutter.
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Right, if you can’t tell us that Israel has no right to exist, you’re a Zionist. “Fuck Israel” is a weak cop out that scumbags use to hide their Zionism.
Now you can stop acting confused when people label you that way, right? Right?
Zionist trash.
