It is real easy to argue “Freedom of Speech” (which doesn’t actually apply to corporate environments but…) and so forth up until you are the one hosting a server and you are the one getting the angry emails and ominous letters.
If you think the average lemmy admin is going to fight for your right to say whatever the fuck you want then I got a bridge to sell you. Obviously being hosted in a different country helps but it also only goes so far when you are getting that letter from a foreign country’s militarized law enforcement. And even if the admin wants that smoke, the actual hosting company most likely won’t.
I wouldn’t blame any Lemmy admin who’s facing a legitimate threat for shutting down rather than fighting it. But the thing about the fediverse is, everything we say is copied to hundreds of instances. If that one instance shuts down, it’s still there to see in many, many other places.
Which will resolve itself REAL fast if lemmy ever becomes popular enough for governments to (officially) care.
Admin: “But Agent Bauer, I can’t delete that post. It is on the dot zip instance and we are the dot world”
???: “Okay. Hey, can you go pick up a car battery by next Tuesday and keep it in your apartment? No reason”
Admin: " Okay. We’ll defederate from zip, I guess?"
???: “Good. But could you get the battery anyway? And can you help by letting me know who these dot zip people are so we can contact them too?”
That said, I do think it will come to a head real fast. Which is why so many instance owners are proactively making complete bullshit “rules” (see: the world admins and how they decided to handle Luigi Mangione in the early days).
I’mma just gonna say:
It is real easy to argue “Freedom of Speech” (which doesn’t actually apply to corporate environments but…) and so forth up until you are the one hosting a server and you are the one getting the angry emails and ominous letters.
If you think the average lemmy admin is going to fight for your right to say whatever the fuck you want then I got a bridge to sell you. Obviously being hosted in a different country helps but it also only goes so far when you are getting that letter from a foreign country’s militarized law enforcement. And even if the admin wants that smoke, the actual hosting company most likely won’t.
I wouldn’t blame any Lemmy admin who’s facing a legitimate threat for shutting down rather than fighting it. But the thing about the fediverse is, everything we say is copied to hundreds of instances. If that one instance shuts down, it’s still there to see in many, many other places.
Which will resolve itself REAL fast if lemmy ever becomes popular enough for governments to (officially) care.
That said, I do think it will come to a head real fast. Which is why so many instance owners are proactively making complete bullshit “rules” (see: the world admins and how they decided to handle Luigi Mangione in the early days).