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Comment by throwawaysea | Hacker News Reader

What is the point of Mastodon if its creators practice the very censorship that centralized platforms like Twitter and Reddit practice? I feel like I can’t trust a platform/protocol whose controllers harbor anti free speech views. https://reclaimthenet.org/mastodon-blocks-gab/

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It’s decentralized censorship. Run your own and you’re free to accept anything you like. Be warned that if your instance’s about page says you’re all for “free speech”, a lot of other admins will casually block your entire instance if you and/or your users start violating their rules of behavior, what with a general tendency for “free speech” instances to end up as havens for trolling and racism.

You are fundamentally missing the point. That mentality though perfectly exemplifies the inherent and likely existential flaw in Mastodon or any other alternative technology that says "diversity" and "equality" and "inclusion" out of one side of their mouth, while out of the other side comes "your color and views are unacceptable and contrary facts are not allowed" … and it's all said, totally without even a shred of self-awareness of their tyrannical, let alone hypocritical nature.

I have been on the internet since the days when newsfroups ruled the earth, and it is my experience that unmoderated spaces claim to be havens for free speech, but usually end up being havens for people racing for the ethical bottom and recruiting each other into, at best, mass-trolling other sites; at worst, you’ll get people going from cosplaying nazis “for the lulz” to being actual neo-nazis.

plonk

It's not just you.

"if you’re against witch-hunts, and you promise to found your own little utopian community where witch-hunts will never happen, your new society will end up consisting of approximately three principled civil libertarians and seven zillion witches. It will be a terrible place to live even if witch-hunts are genuinely wrong."

https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservativ...

Can I setup my own instance that peers with 5 of the top servers by user count at the same time? So pawoo.net, mastodon.social, switter.at, joindiaspora.com and gab.com?

Or will some instances ban you by association?

Yes, there are some admins who will ban any instance that federates with Gab and its ilk. Personally I think that’s going a bit overboard.

>I can't trust an open protocol and platform that lets me set up a server and peer with Gab today with no restriction

It's Gab that didn't get the point of Mastodon, thinking they could somehow monopolize (and monetize) the Fediverse, and then getting mad when they found out a decentralized peering system doesn't mean a captive audience they could firehose.

Just to highlight: That quote is partly rewritten to say something different.

The point seems to be increased privacy/no tracking/ads. Also, there's no penalty to starting your own server with entirely your own rules.

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