Update 3: @[email protected] did state that they (singular) disagree that a genocide is taking place.
Update 2: My conclusion
- @[email protected], one of the developer of Lemmy, is a “tankie” who refuted the Uyghurs genocide.
- @[email protected] is also an admin of and funds the website Lemmygrad.ml.
Update: So I dug around a little deeper, and found that
- @[email protected] is /u/parentis_shotgun on Reddit. Source: https://archive.is/Ky9vd
- /u/parentis_shotgun moderates some subreddits, including r/InformedTankie, r/asktankies, r/GunZedong. Source: https://www.reddit.com/user/parentis_shotgun
- /u/parentis_shotgun got banned from r/socialism for “refuting the ‘China is genociding Uyghurs’”. Source: https://archive.is/CwFZC
- /u/parentis_shotgun then launched lemmy. Source: https://archive.is/132fW
- @[email protected], one of the admin of lemmygrad.ml, referred to themself as @[email protected] in a post on lemmygrad. They also claimed that they built Lemmy. It seems like @[email protected] changed their username. Source: https://archive.is/LlzKb
- At this point, I am convinced that the admin @[email protected] is @[email protected].
- Another admin over lemmygrad.ml said that Lemmygrad is paid by @[email protected], while another mod said that @[email protected] is funded by the NED. Source: https://archive.is/G5Dh7
- What is the NED? I have no idea, but Google suggests that could be The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.
- Lemmy was also funded by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet programme. Source: https://nlnet.nl/project/Lemmy/
On another topic, there are rumors circulating that we are fascists or supported genocide. These claims are completely false, and like most viral twitter threads, are coming from a single Mastodon user on a personal vendetta who didn’t provide any sources. Such slander doesn’t deserve any response and is best left ignored.
- Previous discussion on the moderation policy on lemmy.ml including response from @[email protected] : Expressing concerns about moderation policy on lemmy.ml
- Accusation of a Mastodon user (probably the one they are referring to): https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106835057054633379
- Essays from @[email protected]: https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/socialism_faq.md
Update: More info about @[email protected]
I don’t agree with these views at all, but I don’t agree with the view that no one should use lemmy because of the opinions of the developers. Its an open-source project, just don’t use anything hosted by them. Like I don’t support the US military, but that doesn’t stop me from using the internet.
One sore point there is that the code comes by default with a donation link (the heart at the top) to join-lemmy.org. Even without the tankie issue it should rather go to a page local to the instance explaining donation options, and the default should be “The admin didn’t set this up, if you urgently need to get rid of money here’s a link to Doctors without Borders”.
OTOH there’s now a huge influx of people including tons of developers so I expect tankie influence to be drowned out sooner than later.
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