I'm split on this. On one hand I want to run an instance with freedom, and I want users to resolve conflicts amongst themselves, and using the mute button if push come to shove.

But on the other hand, if I allow that, other servers will de-federate from me.

So these last few months I've been put into a lot of hard moderating situations. Where for example an entire instance reports a user on my instance, saying it's spreading hate speech, or transphobia, but it's not. The user just happened to use an aggressive tone in a thread with a famous person, for example, or just piss off the wrong admin.

And now I have to make a decision on how to handle this user, who didn't break any of my server rules.

And I even ran into a straight up racist on my instance, but didn't suspend their account because while they were clearly a supporter of the right-wing party, that same right-wing party has a majority vote. So why should I suspend them for voicing their political affiliation? Again, not breaking any rules, not breaking any laws, just voicing opinions in line with the current right-wing majority party.

I just don't believe in sweeping people under the rug. In that case, of the right-wing person, they ended up getting muted by other instances, fortunately not de-federated.

But it feels like I'm always balancing on a knife's edge between free speech and a de-federated instance.

Basically, I feel myself becoming a "language-police", and that's not what I want.