The username explains it. I’m Jewish and would really just like to avoid nazis (also avoiding racists, violent misogynists, fascists, and other authoritarian-apologists would be nice, but I’ll start small). From my understanding of Diaspora* based on its outreach, I thought that it tried to avoid this stuff. I tried to join a certain pod that is hosted in DE/Germany. From the barebones stats available on https://the-federation.info/ and https://diaspora.podupti.me/ it looked like a healthy, growing pod. When I got on, I couldn’t find “Terms of Service” in the sidebar, nor could I learn how to block/report people based on the wiki (on the site, I see the ‘ignore’ feature; is this it?). I naively hoped maybe none of this would be necessary soon and I could figure out block/report down the road.
Based on outreach from Diaspora* and my understanding of German laws, I did not expect the #jewish tag to be clogged up by a user spewing the antisemitic end of QAnon. I have done a bit of (painful) investigating and saw that this (German) user is hosted on a different pod (in France…). Is there any way to avoid users of this sort besides “ignoring” them one-by-one? I have already left a job, left other social media, nearly left 2 schools as a kid, etc. due to nazism and other bigotry. When I get on social media, I want to relax, see silly stuff or pictures or cute animals or talk with friends (tv, philosophy, whatever) or engage with my culture/religion without giant corporations scooping up my data. Not encounter someone proud to be the “most blocked user” with basically porn and hatred for who I was born as all over their account.
I am generally in favor of free-speech, but not when it’s done with clear malintent. I have engaged with people with all sorts of out-there and at times nerve-wracking (for me!) beliefs, but I don’t want to see threats against myself all the time, especially when I have no way of knowing whether people could try to doxx me, etc.
I’d hoped Diaspora*, especially DE-hosted pods, would be a safe place to be myself, even if speech might be a bit more limited than I would prefer*. (*I don’t know how far Germany’s antinazism laws go.) Is there any way to block stuff flagged as NSFW and/or antisemitism/racism/etc. either within a pod or by joining a different pod?
I’d like to encourage friends to make the “jump” to Diaspora* and other alternative sites, but can’t do so in good conscience when that’s one of the first things I saw. Would those editing Diaspora’s structure consider finding a way to include modmin descriptors of pods, user ratings/descriptions of pods, or flagging options. I’m not a coder but would be honored to support however I can.
Am I welcome on any pods with who I am? Does anyone have any advice? If some of these ideas/concerns deserve a post of their own, let me know and I’ll split them off.