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

  • The sentence “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”

  • Comparing Israel to the Nazis

  • Calls to end Zionism

  • Calling for the dissolution of Israel

And much more. The full original post can be found here, or

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).

To help you understand why, I'll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL).

  • A news report:

    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 […]

  • A legal treatise:

    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).

  • Another news report

    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 …)

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Amnesty International

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Human Rights Watch

federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
    1·
    2 months ago

    The write-up they link is also insightful. Notably, they “explicitly reject these accusations” of being Zionists and insist it’s a legal precaution required by their countries.

    I’ve bought servers for hosting some small communities and I sometimes thought maybe I was paranoid for retaining anonymity and carefully picking the country and company to allow muh freedoms as far as speech goes, but it’s interesting seeing .world and feddit pull out the “just following legislation” card (which is understandable, given that staff imprisonment is obviously bad for their community, but also irresponsible and complicit to simply accept the situation instead of resolving it, and because this is an internet community there are safe ways to resolve it).

          • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            It is however illegal for them to allow such material to remain on their servers once they’re made aware of it.

              • poVoq@slrpnk.net
                0·
                2 months ago

                This is false. The German police will contact the Austrian one, who will share the contact details of the persons legally responsible for publication, and if those happen to be residents of Germany, the Austrian laws are irrelevant to what the German police does.

            • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              0·
              2 months ago

              Their server isn’t located within Germany, from what I’m reading.

              From what I understand, the situation they are worried about is a german authority gaining access to their personal devices or somehow de-anonymizing their accounts and associating them with their actual identity while living in/traveling through germany, and seeing the type of content they are posting/allowing to be posted on a community they moderate.

              The actual risk of exposure to them is incredibly small.

            • blinx615@lemmy.ml
              0·
              2 months ago

              Ok, so all German mods/admins should be removed of their roles until they move to a country with reasonable freedom of speech laws. Instead they’re enforcing the terrible laws of their home country on the rest of the people in the community, which is bullshit.

            • blinx615@lemmy.ml
              0·
              2 months ago

              I didn’t say they needed to refuse, but they could make a statement regarding their feelings on this. And they should find a new location for their server…

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
      0·
      2 months ago

      Feddit.org was not started as an law-skirting activist space with specific op-sec requirements.

      My impression when talking with the admins is that they are quite sympethatic to such efforts, but simply ask that to be done somewhere else where it is safer for everyone involved.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
      0·
      2 months ago

      The post literally says that you can critizise that 🤦

      Please understand that there can be some nuance on the topic and that people in Germany are understandably extra careful on the topic.

      • wpb@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 months ago

        Claiming that the genocide, apartheid, and colonialism perpetrated by Israel is in any way complex or nuanced is such a disgustingly smug way of revealing you haven’t spent even a moment thinking the situation through, or reading up on the history. Gross.

          • ok_comfortable6561@lemmy.ml
            0·
            2 months ago

            You watched some video of some civilians getting hurt in a war zone and formed all your opinions about the conflict based on your emotional response to that, so yeah, you are being reactionary.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 months ago

        So hand over the instance moderation to people in a different jurisdiction, or shut it down entirely. Don’t comply with this bullshit.

          • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
            0·
            2 months ago

            Having an opinion isn’t “complaining”. I’m not even on that instance, I just happen to care about solidarity with victims of genocide.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 months ago

      Assuming you’re using the default Lemmy UI, there’s a block settings menu in your account settings page. It’s worth exploring, there’s some good options to play around with.

  • frostysauce@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    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”.

    Y’all grabbed your pitchforks before you even got to that part, didn’t you?

    • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
      1·
      2 months ago

      • You can criticize Zionism as an ideology, but you can’t call for its end.

      • You can refer to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” but you can’t call for the dissolution of the state of Israel as it currently exists.

      You see the problem, surely?

    • deathbird@mander.xyz
      0·
      2 months ago

      What, you’re scared of getting harrassed by your government for wrongthink on your hobby project? You sir are the actual fascist! We’ll defederate! Can’t let any of those instance users access ours. 🤡

    • MetalMachine@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      You can’t call for the end of israel, a state started by ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and stealing their land. You don’t realize why thats a problem?

    • IttihadChe@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Germans and being complicit because they are “just following laws/orders”. Name a better duo.

  • highduc@lemmy.ml
    1·
    2 months ago

    Wow, real mask off moment, though they were using the “German law” pretext for a while now.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
        0·
        2 months ago

        both are regime fronts on fedi.

        It amazing to see how organic opinion is against them and without centralized social media they can’t suppress this sentiment.

        Makes you wonder how often public opinions get subverted by these regime whore shills.

        • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          I doubt Lemmy has any major effect on public option at large. Reddit never did when they supported Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders, at the height of its user count/activity.

          But I don’t doubt that Lemmy enables echo chambers and filter bubbles that enable people to brush aside any criticism of their favorite politician or nation-state as The Good Guys.

          • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
            0·
            2 months ago

            I understood the comment above to be comparing how public opinion is allowed to shape itself in the fediverse, vs being censored and molded to only fit particular permitted messages in mainstream social media. We can express ourselves without worrying that we’ll get locked out of the entire fediverse for stating an opinion that mods or admins don’t like. Which makes it fair to wonder how much suppression is going on elsewhere, that we don’t see and never hear reports on, because censorship.

            I’m not sure where the idea of Lemmy having an effect on public opinion at large came from. It feels like a non-sequitur, but maybe I’m just too tired and I missed something.

          • Omega@discuss.online
            0·
            2 months ago

            Lemmy is the most ML oriented community I’ve been in… Well, it literally has been created by ML

  • Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    I was banned today from !Europe on feddit, a community I’ve never posted in, because apparently reporting a disinformation spam account posting uyghur genocide fake news rubs the mods the wrong way. I had no idea that instance was this much of a dumpster fire. Am I officially a communist now? Seems like a rite of passage has occurred

  • answersplease77@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    I did not leave reddit to come to a fucked down version of political censorship. fuck you and begone. I’m blocking their instance

  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    Palestinians, remember the following: you can resist your occupation but ONLY on the occupiers terms.

    For the rest of us, remember the following: you can protest genocide, but ONLY on the genocider’s terms.