getting_started | Moderation / Censorship on Dreamwidth?

I was a longtime LJ user back in the day, got sucked into the Facebook borg, and am now returning to my roots. Many thanks to the staff and volunteers for creating/maintaining Dreamwidth.

I'm still finding my bearings, so apologies if this is not the right place for this kind of question.

As y'all are probably aware, Facebook heavily censors a wide variety of topics, from porn, to vaccines, to erotic Bernie memes. (Ask me how I know about that last one). I've been banned (temporarily) and seen friends banned (temporarily and permanently), sometimes for posts they made years earlier that were consistent with Facebook's rules at the time.

As a result, I've become increasingly angry at being treated like a child by Facebook's Dolores Umbridge algorithms. One of the main reasons I've fired up my account on Dreamwidth is the founder's stated commitment to free speech:

"With servers in the US we're obliged to follow US laws, but we're serious about knowing and protecting your rights when it comes to free expression and privacy. We will never put a limit on your creativity just because it makes someone uncomfortable — even if that someone is us."

...and from the site's Operating Principles:

"We will not place limits on your expression, except as required by United States law or to protect the quality and long-term viability of the service (such as removing spam)."

While I'm heartened by the apparently vigorous commitment to free speech here, many sites that claimed to support free speech at their founding, grew to support censorship of a wide variety of topics. For example, when reddit was founded, it claimed to be a "bastion of free speech". Over the intervening years, however, it has censored or banned thousands of communities, on topics ranging from drugs to sex work to conservative politics.

The founders of Dreamwidth also don't seem very active on the site any more. denise hasn't posted publicly since 2015. mark hasn't posted publicly since 2013. Many of the founding documents are outdated with references to policies that don't exist any more (such as invite codes).

As a result, I'm hesitant to invest in a site that seems to be on autopilot, and de facto controlleded by volunteers who may not share the founder's commitment to free speech.

So, before trying to recruit my friends here, I'm trying to get a sense of the real boundaries of free speech on Dreamwidth.

To help clarify, I've made a list of topics that have been banned on other major services. Note, to be clear, I don't necessarily support the communities that were banned on other sites. For example, I'm not a Trump supporter, and I'm certainly not a Nazi. However, I'd like to occasionally be able to discuss those topics without fear of being banned.

Which of these topics, if any, is likely to put my Dreamwidth account/communities at risk of a ban/censorship?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this matter!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Inviting everyone in your circle to go participate in illegal activities is much more likely to be banned."

Looting and arson are illegal activities, and happened at many BLM protests.

Okay, here's the thing: if you encourage people to go do something legal, you should be fine. If something illegal then happens at that otherwise legal rally, that's for the authorities to sort out, but if you didn't encourage it here? Should be fine.

If you encourage people to go to a rally and specify they should bring bricks, tear gas, and/or fire-starters, that's when you're getting into trouble because you are right on that fine line of inciting illegal activity.

If you encourage them to go to the rally and use said accoutrements in illegal fashion (assault, destruction of property, etc), yeah, you're now over the line, I'd guess.

All of this is speculation: I'm not a volunteer or staff here.

Thanks! That seems like a reasonable "bright line" that would satisfy me.

Allowed: Everyone's invited to go with me to a BLM protest!
Not Allowed: Everyone's invited to go with me to a BLM protest, and also please bring gasoline, fireworks, and brass knuckles!

(If someone in a position of authority at Dreamwidth should happen to see this, it would be nice to hear that this is how the line will be drawn here.)

Edited 2021-05-29 17:35 (UTC)

Moderation / Censorship on Dreamwidth?

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