#fediblock Arguments That #fediblock Can Function as Censorship Coordinated Social Pressure Posts tagged #fediblock often call on multiple admins to isolate or silence a user or server. Even without formal enforcement, this can result in mass blocking or silencing across the network — a form of de facto censorship through collective action. Lack of Due Process Fediblock posts often lack transparency or formal review. Accusations may spread rapidly, with limited opportunity for the target to respond or appeal, especially if their instance is already defederated. Chilling Effect Users may fear being #fediblocked for controversial or dissenting views, leading to self-censorship. Especially in ideologically homogenous parts of the Fediverse, this can suppress legitimate but unpopular speech. Disproportionate Power Large instances using #fediblock carry more weight; if Mastodon.social posts a block warning, smaller instances often follow, amplifying impact. This creates a centralized influence dynamic in a supposedly decentralized system — similar to how major platforms shadowban or algorithmically suppress content.

@sally@freesoftwareextremist.com You shouldn't be forced to interact with people you don't want to and if they want to crowdsource their cancellation, that's their problem. The only real concern I have is that decisions made by the head mastodongs affects all the mastodongs that depend upon them *and they don't always know about it*. So as long as an instance publishes its blocks, I don't see anything wrong.

@yomiel@new.asbestos.cafe @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com [email protected] It's good for us when small instances get severed from the mastodon side of things. Let's let the sheltered pansies cloister themselves off from everyone else, and let's rejoice in their infighting.

@Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith Yeah the problem is retarded admins stepping in and making choices for the whole crowd, if their culture wasn't so rotten you wouldn't even have fediblock at all, users deal with who they want and don't want to deal with.

@sally@freesoftwareextremist.com I don't mind the instance model, tbh. People of similar minds aggregate and generally have similar moderation opinions so they can share the duty and all benefit. Like it's more annoying to have to have each and every person block CP spammers, instead of one of a group of ~5 people among ~100 that go "oh another CP instance, blocked" and then report it to the instance and move on.

@Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com This is a valid perspective, but the people who willingly curate these systems are often powerhungry nuts who are very block-happy. You would want essentially someone like dcc/kirby maintaining this type of system (I'd be too lenient, graf would be too strict).

@ceo_of_monoeye_dating@lab.nyanide.com @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com >(I'd be too lenient, graf would be too strict) Doesn't matter? As long as anyone making moderation decisions on behalf of anyone else suitably informs those people of the decisions made, everything else is irrelevant. Publishing a block list doesn't make a moderation decision on anyone else's behalf; other people have to choose to import it and they're responsible for confirming the contents before doing so. Updating a block list that's in use might constitute something worth publishing a diff for, but if you're just pushing a file and someone else's got a script to pull it and import, they can put a diff in the middle of it themselves.

@Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com >suitably informs those people of the decisions made This being a bit of a problem: who is going to do this well? >other people have to choose to import it and they're responsible for confirming the contents before doing so. A real criticism here being that they *don't* do this in practice. When it comes to CP, who is going to actually do that? If you're going this route: a better, similar solution is to pick a set of 5-10 instances with public blocklists, pick the instances which are on those lists 3-7 times, and then use that to create a blocklist for yourself.

@ceo_of_monoeye_dating@lab.nyanide.com @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com If you import a blocklist of someone that you don't trust and it turns out to be not what you expected, that's a skill issue. If you import a blocklist of someone that you trust and it turns out to be not what you expected, that's a different kind of skill issue.

@Zergling_man@sacred.harpy.faith @sally@freesoftwareextremist.com "skill issue" is a valid counterargument and many people have them.