Hello World,

following feedback we have received in the last few days, both from users and moderators, we are making some changes to clarify our ToS.

Before we get to the changes, we want to remind everyone that we are not a (US) free speech instance. We are not located in US, which means different laws apply. As written in our ToS, we’re primarily subject to Dutch, Finnish and German laws. Additionally, it is our discretion to further limit discussion that we don’t consider tolerable. There are plenty other websites out there hosted in US and promoting free speech on their platform. You should be aware that even free speech in US does not cover true threats of violence.

Having said that, we have seen a lot of comments removed referring to our ToS, which were not explicitly intended to be covered by our ToS. After discussion with some of our moderators we have determined there to be both an issue with the ambiguity of our ToS to some extent, but also lack of clarity on what we expect from our moderators.

We want to clarify that, when moderators believe certain parts of our ToS do not appropriately cover a specific situation, they are welcome to bring these issues up with our admin team for review, escalating the issue without taking action themselves when in doubt. We also allow for moderator discretion in a lot of cases, as we generally don’t review each individual report or moderator action unless they’re specifically brought to admin attention. This also means that content that may be permitted by ToS can at the same time be violating community rules and therefore result in moderator action. We have added a new section to our ToS to clarify what we expect from moderators.

We are generally aiming to avoid content organizing, glorifying or suggesting to harm people or animals, but we are limiting the scope of our ToS to build the minimum framework inside which we all can have discussions, leaving a broader area for moderators to decide what is and isn’t allowed in the communities they oversee. We trust the moderators judgement and in cases where we see a gross disagreement between moderatos and admins’ criteria we can have a conversation and reach an agreement, as in many cases the decision is case-specific and context matters.

We have previously asked moderators to remove content relating to jury nullification when this was suggested in context of murder or other violent crimes. Following a discussion in our team we want to clarify that we are no longer requesting moderators to remove content relating to jury nullification in the context of violent crimes when the crime in question already happened. We will still consider suggestions of jury nullification for crimes that have not (yet) happened as advocation for violence, which is violating our terms of service.

As always, if you stumble across content that appears to be violating our site or community rules, please use Lemmys report functionality. Especially when threads are very active, moderators will not be able to go through every single comment for review. Reporting content and providing accurate reasons for reports will help moderators deal with problematic content in a reasonable amount of time.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    How would I know? And why do you think other people should risk it on your behalf even if it hasn’t happened yet? You have to follow the laws of the country your server is in or you put yourself at risk. That’s just how the world works.

    Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else who isn’t actually paying for and maintaining the .world server should be telling them that they should risk themselves for us. That is really not our call.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Again, it is not your call or my call or anyone else’s call about who should put themselves at legal risk, especially when Lemmy is just people fucking around on the internet. “It hasn’t happened before” is not going to convince someone who is already not willing to take that risk to go ahead and take it. For one thing, there’s always a first time when it comes to a law.

        • intresteph@discuss.online
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          10 days ago

          You’re never going to stop us from celebrating the death of a murderer. And by doing so, you side with the insurance companies. You sound like a pig in plain clothes.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            10 days ago

            Good thing I’m not trying to stop you from doing that. And even if I was, there are how many hundreds or even thousands of other places on the internet where you could do that? So why are you so concerned about one specific Fediverse server?

            • intresteph@discuss.online
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              10 days ago

              Because it’s one of the biggest. Why do you care that people talk about it? Talking isn’t a crime. Can we celebrate hitler’s death? If so, then you’re picking sides with corporations, and you’re just a shill

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                10 days ago

                I care that people think that the people who run Lemmy.world should be put at legal risk so that they can celebrate vigilantism on one specific server out of many Fediverse servers, one of countless places on the Internet where you can express your opinion.

                Because it’s super entitlement. I realize that’s as American as apple pie, but at least realize you’re doing it.

                • intresteph@discuss.online
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                  10 days ago

                  I hope one day you experience what it’s like to have a loved one refused medical care by a greedy corporation run by people who could not give a shit if they live or die.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    10 days ago

                    I have been refused medical care by a greedy corporation run by people who could not give a shit if I live or die.

                    What does that have to do with my point about entitlement and legality? Like I said, there are countless other websites, including other Fediverse servers, so why are you getting so focused on one specific server on one specific type of social media? Because you feel entitled.