Feddit.org officially announces they will bans criticism of Israel and pro-Palestinian posts and comments.
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A Solarpunk with better opsec, yes. Maybe you should learn a bit about that yourself.
The OPSEC of "censor discussion"? That's not the OPSEC or solarpunk I'm familar with.
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The OPSEC of "censor discussion"? That's not the OPSEC or solarpunk I'm familar with.
You need to look up the definition of censorship, because you are apparently ignorant or brainwashed by some freeze peach people on the topic.
Asking people not to post stuff on a public forum that could endanger themselves and the operators of the forum is good opsec practise, as is removing such posts that are made regardless of that.
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You need to look up the definition of censorship, because you are apparently ignorant or brainwashed by some freeze peach people on the topic.
Asking people not to post stuff on a public forum that could endanger themselves and the operators of the forum is good opsec practise, as is removing such posts that are made regardless of that.
"I think Israel is commiting genocide in Palestine."
Is this personal info that must be scrubbed?
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"I think Israel is commiting genocide in Palestine."
Is this personal info that must be scrubbed?
No, that is perfectly in line with what is explicitly allowed on feddit.org.
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No, that is perfectly in line with what is explicitly allowed on feddit.org.
Yeah, it would only be against the rules to say that genocide should be stopped
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The moderators less likely, but the server admins quite likely, as those are legally responsible for the publication. Where the server is physically located is actually of lesser relevance in that regard.
Is their any precedent for social media admins being arrested for comments on the site the administrate?
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Is their any precedent for social media admins being arrested for comments on the site the administrate?
There are precedences of public forum admins having their homes raided by police and all communication devices confiscated, yes.
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Yeah, it would only be against the rules to say that genocide should be stopped
That is also explicitly allowed. Are you even reading anything before posting senseless accusations?
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That is also explicitly allowed. Are you even reading anything before posting senseless accusations?
Nope, they've been explicit that any calls for violence against Israel are forbidden.
Are you even reading anything before posting senseless accusations?
You really love this line, you're posting some variant of it in every comment you make.
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Feddit.org announced today that they are changing their rules to match German law despite their server not being hosted in Germany.
Feddit.org now bans
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The sentence "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
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Comparing Israel to the Nazis
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Calls to end Zionism
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Calling for the dissolution of Israel
And much more. The full original post can be found here, or
::: spoiler Click here for full text of original post:
Hi.
In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post.
While the servers of feddit.org are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic.
And with that, let's go:
In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called "Reason of State" introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as "Israel-related antisemitism".
Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it's not that fun.
There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules.
If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community:
- Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.
- Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like.
- Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism.
- The slogan "from the river..."
- Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany.
- ... and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis
Comments will not be removed for the following:
- Denouncing genocide.
- Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
- Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
- Referring to the current Israeli government as "criminal," "expansionist," or "far-right".
If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I'd also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @EuroMod@feddit.org account (which all mods have access to).
:::spoiler To help you understand why, I'll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL).
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Berlin in mid-May [2024] around 6 o'clock in the morning. A loud, continuous "banging" against the apartment door wakes student Alina T. from her sleep. [...] When her husband opens the door, several LKA officers, two employees of the district office and the SEK "storm" past him into the apartment. Puzzled, he looks at the search warrant. [...] The background to this was a Facebook entry in the student's profile: "From the river [...]
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In November 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs also issued a prohibition order against Hamas.[60] According to the order, "the slogan 'From the River to the Sea' (in German or other languages)" is a distinguishing mark of Hamas[61].
[...] the current legal situation [regarding "Denial of Israel's right to exist"] is - contrary to what the statements of the Federal Ministry of Justice suggest[63] - anything but clear. Whether incitements to eliminate the State of Israel are prosecuted depends on the respective legal opinion and the prosecution will of the respective public prosecutor's office. -
Press release from the previous government:
In this context, Section 111 StGB, which covers public incitement to commit crimes, may also be relevant. Incitement to extinguish Israel's existence by force may be punishable under this provision. The same applies to calls to publicly display the Hamas flag. If Hamas attacks are publicly cheered and celebrated, this may also be punishable.
This means that people who cheer on Hamas's actions or publicly express their sympathy with the attacks may constitute the criminal offence of "approval of criminal acts" under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code (StGB). -
In connection with the controversial Palestine Congress in Berlin, the German authorities have also imposed an entry ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. "In order to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda at the event", several entry bans have been issued, the news agency AFP learned from security sources on Sunday. One of these concerned Varoufakis.
(Notably, Varoufakis would have spoken about one-state solutions ...)
federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)
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Tbh, I can understand it. There have been police raids kicking in doors of families with small children at 5 in the morning for having a Facebook post saying "from the ... to the ..." (I am also in Germany...). The police went through all of the families belongings and took all web-connected electronics.
The situation is really rough here in Germany.
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Ok great, than explain it to us, because apparently you have no idea about the actual situation Mr. "DevOps Engineer"... (a joke of a job title for actual security professionals). /s
You're as competent a security professional as your beloved Rhodesian military was at fighting.
I also literally did tell you how in the comment above. Setup a point to point VPN and set the remote endpoint address in DNS for the URL. Make sure the remote endpoint is not in German jurisdiction.
Someone that was actually competent (not you) would know how to do that.
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I live in Germany, and it's a totally realistic scenario, especially in Bavaria. They seize computers to intimidate digital activists all the time for way less serious topics.
Have they ever raided someone just for being the admin on a social media site?
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Why would they have to "go" anywhere?
What would you do with them if you don't relocate?
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Have they ever raided someone just for being the admin on a social media site?
social media site specifically I don't know, but raids for managing infrastructure for completely legal but politically inconvenient activities, yes, plenty. I remember going to a talk from a guy managing the servers of Extinction Rebellion and he got all his stuff seized, never got accused of anything, had to wait months to get his stuff back and never got back a few things.
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What would you do with them if you don't relocate?
Who said anything about relocating?
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Who said anything about relocating?
So they stay?
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social media site specifically I don't know, but raids for managing infrastructure for completely legal but politically inconvenient activities, yes, plenty. I remember going to a talk from a guy managing the servers of Extinction Rebellion and he got all his stuff seized, never got accused of anything, had to wait months to get his stuff back and never got back a few things.
Source?
And that's very different to just being an admin on a social media site that doesn't ruthlessly enforce German law.
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So they stay?
Borders change, governments fall, but people stay. When people say "death to <country>" they usually don't mean its inhabitants in general.
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Tbh, I can understand it. There have been police raids kicking in doors of families with small children at 5 in the morning for having a Facebook post saying "from the ... to the ..." (I am also in Germany...). The police went through all of the families belongings and took all web-connected electronics.
The situation is really rough here in Germany.
Do you have a source about that incident? Reminds me of a dude arrested in russia for holding a blank piece of paper.
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Do you have a source about that incident? Reminds me of a dude arrested in russia for holding a blank piece of paper.
Here is the first entry of a google search. But it happened several times. Many people, probably several thousands by now, have been arrested and/or sued for saying or writing this phrase.
Ist die Parole "From the river to the sea" zwangsläufig strafbar?
Seit dem 7. Oktober haben antisemitische Vorfälle in Deutschland stark zugenommen. Doch nicht hinter jedem Fall steckt eine strafbare Handlung. Auch bei bloßem Verdacht kann es zu Durchsuchungen kommen - und sogar zur Abschiebung. Von Iris Sayram.
tagesschau.de (www.tagesschau.de)
Sorry, it is in German.
Mind that SEK stands for Special Task Force. Those guys come in full armour, masked and armed with full auto weapons.
And yeah, that is what the mods and adminis of feddit are afraid of. It is a very realistic fear.
