Cross posted here as it was highlighted that the individual is a lead Lemmy developer, raising serious concerns about the direction of Lemmy, a leading Fediverse platform, and the impact on future user adoption.
Hi
There have been some rather concerning actions taken by an admin of the !privacy@lemmy.ml community, dessalines@lemmy.ml. Based on recent moderation decisions and a complete lack of communication, it seems like their account may have been compromised, or even more concerning if these actions are deliberate.
- Erroneous Rule 4 Enforcement, First Instance: a guide posted to !privacy@lemmy.ml, despite receiving many positive votes and comments, was removed under Rule 4:
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
However, this post was a guide and not a question, so Rule 4 does not apply. Attempts were made to reach out for clarification but there has been no response, despite their account showing recent activity.
-
Erroneous Rule 4 Enforcement, Second Instance: an on-topic informational video also posted to !privacy@lemmy.ml, despite also receiving many positive votes, was again removed under Rule 4. This post was again not asking a question, so again Rule 4 does not apply. Again, no explanation has been given.
-
User Bans in Completely Unrelated Communities: user bans of over a month have been applied for not only !privacy@lemmy.ml but several completely unrelated communities:
- !emacs@lemmy.ml
- !personalfinance@lemmy.ml
- !linux@lemmy.ml
- !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml
- !opensource@lemmy.ml
- !india@lemmy.ml
- !asklemmy@lemmy.ml
- !steam@lemmy.ml
- !linux_gaming@lemmy.ml
- !degoogle@lemmy.ml
- !libre_software@lemmy.ml
This is especially concerning given that the above posts have no relation to these communities, and no recent activity has been made in any of them, meaning none of their rules could have been broken. Moreover, a public track record of positive contributions across Lemmy has been established, with many positive votes and comments received over a sustained period. Given all of this, the bans appear to be highly disproportionate, only adding to the growing concerns around moderation practices.
- Repost with Disclaimer Removed: a repost of the guide, despite a disclaimer explaining the original removal appears to be in error and that attempts to contact the admin have failed, despite again receiving many positive votes and constructive comments, was once again removed. Again, no explanation has been given.
Given all of this, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that something is not right. Mistakes in moderation happen but the complete lack of communication, the disproportionate actions, and the ongoing bans from unrelated communities raise serious concerns. It seems as though the account is most likely compromised, or even more concerning if these actions are deliberate.
Has anyone else experienced similar issues with this admin, or does anyone have more insight into what might be happening?
TL;DR: Admin dessalines@lemmy.ml of !privacy@lemmy.ml appears to be making seriously concerning moderation decisions, including erroneous enforcement of Rule 4 in at least two separate instances, failing to respond to messages, and applying user bans in completely unrelated communities despite a long track record of positive contributions across Lemmy. This has led to speculation that their account is likely compromised, or even more concerning if these actions are deliberate.
Any thoughts or similar experiences would be appreciated.
Cross post with https://lemmy.world/post/43944126
You were instance banned under lemmy.ml’s rule 4, not the privacy community’s rule 4. ml’s rule 4 is “No Ads / Spamming”. This seems to have been prompted by you reposting a removed post, which frankly seems fair despite what I think of ml’s moderation normally.
Rule 4 does seem to be a bad reason to remove the original post, though I think it should’ve been removed simply for how cringe ‘cuckloading’ is as a term. Stop trying to link sexual deviancy to moral deficiency.
Just jumping in to boost this message, posting your own videos is advertising your channel, probably fine if one and done, but consistently I’d consider it advertising or spamming too. Even if not own videos, just persistently posting videos is bad etiquette and I can see how that’d be construed as spamming too.
This op is cringe either way. “This moderator’s account has been compromised! No other way to explain them enforcing the instance rule 4 after consistently spamming the communities with my videos!”… Jesus christ.
What I find quite ironic is that dessalines started Lemmy to get away from the perceived over-moderation of Reddit… only to do the exact same thing.
*Overmoderation as perceived by a tankie.
dessalines is known for questionable moderation. Avoid the .ml communities when possible.
Lmao no. That guy is just a fucking nutjob. It’s nothing new really. The only thing compromised is his brain really.
You have been a user for 3 years at least, surely you have heard about the tankie situation on Lemmy? If you don’t share these views it’s better to ignore/block those three or four instances. It will make your Lemmy experience much more relaxing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
This is literally how he always acts. There’s a reason that many instances do not federate with lemmy.ml, his instance.
He’s incredibly pro communist, pro Russia, pro China, and will ban you for even mentioning that something could be foreign propaganda.
At the end of the day, hopefully your instance builds their server code from source and inspects it to make sure there’s nothing nefarious. It would be nice to use a decentralized Reddit like platform not coded by him, but no one else has the time, resources, ability, and/or dedication, to step up.
I would still rather use Lemmy over Reddit, though I did switch to donating to piefed, the Canadian instance runners, over donating to him.
Piefed isn’t the canadian instance runners, you’re thinking of fedecan
It would be nice to use a decentralized Reddit like platform not coded by him, but no one else has the time, resources, ability, and/or dedication, to step up.
piefed, the Canadian instance runners
PieFed and Mbin don’t share any code with Lemmy at all, they’re in totally different programming languages
It would be nice to use a decentralized Reddit like platform not coded by him, but no one else has the time, resources, ability, and/or dedication, to step up.
You literally mentioned piefed in your next sentence.
Mbin also exists…
Also, to be fair, the software isn’t necessarily problematic like the moderation is. No point throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Worth noting that Lemmy receives at least some institutional funding for its development. And I believe some of that funding is contingent on hitting active user goals or similar metrics.
Power tripping people rarely limit themselves to power trip on a single angle.
And while Lemmy’s open source, it’s a big enough codebase for someone to add a bit of admin override that can go unnoticed for quite a while. Just remember what happened with xz.
What’s xz?
A utility package for Linux that MANY packages depend on, often including core distro/system packages. It implements LZMA de/compression. Meaning it would come pre-installed on many, many distros.
Tbf Piefed also does have opinionated moderation literally hardcoded into the source code.
It’s pretty easy to modify since it’s python and not rust, but still not great
Ok what opinionated moderation?
In b4 discussion of what constitutes hardcoding
ml users are just like that
Ahahaha.
This would be deliberate. You’ll want to post this on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
He didn’t have his account hacked.
Multi comms is likely an instance ban, which they hand out freely on the .ml instance for anyone not in line with their ideology.
The above is a complete list. I would have expected to see more than 12 communities for that.
It sometimes only shows if the user has posted or voted or something like that in the listed communites. Can’t remember exactly what, but there is something that limits what communities are listed when someone is instance banned, which for lemmy shows as a bunch of community bans.
That user had his brain compromised years ago.
.ml stands for marxist-lenninist. Why are you even there?
Perhaps OP is a Marxist and/or Leninist.
