Fled Reddit to join lemm.ee a few months ago. It was a glorious few months, and I hope the admins know how appreciated their work was.
I’m very sad but grateful that there was a place to go where I felt like I could speak freely, read, and share information that is being suppressed on other platforms.
I was wondering what recommendations people might have for any instances that are allowing new users, and seem to have found a good balance between avoiding disinformation/astroturfing/bad actors, without swinging too far in the opposite direction and potentially suppressing information?
I feel like a “good balance” inherently means accepting that you will probably see some things you don’t agree with or support, but you can also present your own case for why you don’t agree without attacking the person who posted it, or just keep scrolling past that to something else.
A bad balance would be just imbalance where everyone in a community is trying to push one single opinion/agenda, and if anything contradicts that opinion, even if it’s well supported by evidence, it results in removal of content or a ban.
That seems to be the real root of suppression of information. Like if someone is told from the time they join an instance or a community that bigotry/abusive speech isn’t allowed, and then they use a bunch of slurs or abusive language, they’ve violated a rule, and it seems like that really shouldn’t surprise anyone that would need to be addressed.
If someone can’t present evidence contradicting a popular narrative, or critique an argument, idea, or a public individual without getting banned, that is an issue.
People can disagree with what is said/downvote it/present their own evidence why they disagree/or ignore it and block the person, but if it’s not intentionally violating a rule, you shouldn’t have a bunch of people reporting it as being a violation just because they don’t like it.