A shroom community was removed from lemmy.world as it was considered "illegal" content by the admins. The logic behind this is boggling, to say the least.
Marijuana is considered an illegal substance in some states in the US and is still federally illegal. /c/trees should be banned, correct?
Clown pictures of Putin are absolutely considered illegal in Russia, so that should require and immediate ban.
Freedom of speech can also be considered illegal in some places.
Incest is considered illegal so that should automatically trigger a ban on all incest porn, real or not. Hell, porn is universally taboo, so that shouldn't have any place on this instance, I guess.
You see where I am going with this? Rule 1 is a catch-all and needs clarification. Simply saying something is illegal is not quite enough. Owning and sharing pictures of shrooms is not illegal. Trading spores or mycelium is generally not illegal either.
This is not about me being salty (which I am) about the community being removed and forced to relocate. It's the odd bias that was applied to justify its removal.
Please note that I said fix Rule 1, not remove it. There are some really bad things on the internet that shouldn't use lemmy as a safe haven.
I wish other people were making this point as well. Certain content is illegal various places around the world, and I don't think anyone is saying we want the admins to risk that, but entire communities are - at worst - slightly more prone than others to having users post illegal content. If I post illegal content anywhere, sure, go ahead and remove/ban. But removing discussion of entire topics, just because those communities* might* be places where people might be a little more likely try and post such content, just isn't making sense to me. Isn't it the content, not the name of the channel, that's the issue, or am I missing something?
Gonna be that guy. But just because something is legal in one place doesn't mean it is legal where the instance/owner is located. And the owner is protecting their own skin, I would do the same. Can also be realted to the host.
So as others have mentioned, it's better to find an instance welcoming this kind of content.
OP's point stands. If that's the case, be specific about it. Have a rule saying no drugs. Otherwise rule 1 is just a vague excuse to ban anything and everything
This is a fair take. If world can't legally host this stuff say so.
Now if it won't do so, because the owner of world is some Puritan, then that also needs to be disclosed so I can immediately stop my donations to the sever.
That is why I am asking for clarification around rule 1. I am sure many people would be glad to comply and start communities on other instances because of local laws and such.
It's an extremely vague rule, is what my point is.
I agree that it would make sense to be more clear. But how clear? List of all things that are illegal? Just those things thay differ from "normal" laws? But then what are we to set as "normal"?
Think the best would be to state where the instance is located and what national and international laws governing it. For example "No illegal content on instace based on German and EU laws".
Just want to also point out that lemmy.world is already a huge instance and these communities would be better if they were spread out to more instances
Like banning pics n photos of MUSHROOMS whether psychedelic or not is FUCKING BAZAAR to me ... I don't get it... Are amanita mascaria banned, how about blue meanies , or is it just cubes ? Banning nature / biology / science(mycology) is idiotic
Is there magazines about alcohol, vaping and or tobacco ?
Cause I assure You (Lemmy) shrooms been consumed by humans for far longer then any substances that You allow discussions over, and it's one of those organic substances that's more good than bad (obviously it's not for everyone) but it's a great 😃👍 substance... "
"several antibiotics have already been isolated from various mushrooms and microfungi (including penicillin and griseofulvin, which are isolated from microfungi)"
Are you gonna ban the discussion over antibiotics next ?
I don't understand why people keep comparing one instance of Lemmy to reddit? I think it's missing the point. You can still make a plea to the instance admins, but it's still their choice. Just as you have plenty of other instances to join.
The question of legality on Lemmy is something that has to evolve and be discussed because of federation. Stuff on one instance gets replicated on others in other parts of the world. What factors should be the determining ones? The place where the instance is hosted? All the places where the content is replicated? Who is liable? The owner of the originating instance or all the instances that replicate illegal content? If this wasn't free and open, but rather a huge corporation, the fediverse would have a legal team to decide already.
It's almost like our made-up borders and laws are somehow at odds with the fact that, in almost all cases, anyone can access any information from any place these days, and that information is replicated and stored across the globe!
It really doesn’t matter how hard you want to push back on these rules. If the servers for the instance you’re complaining about are there to protect them against laws, granted, misguided laws. For the sake of the longevity of the instance, then, so be it, you have the freedom to take a walk and find a better spot to have a picnic. That’s the benefit of a federated universe.
It matters if we stop donating to them. If that happens, which it could since a lot of people are quite mad at them it would be detrimental to them. I'm all for it to be honest, people shouldn't donate to someone they dislike or view as crooked.
While the rules might vary the law is very clear here. Shrooms are a regulated substance and that community is hosted on a site which chooses not to engage in illegal activity, so naturally they are going to want to remove it.
Shrooms are perfectly legal to grow in my jurisdiction. Like others have said, where do you draw the line? Legal is a very vague definition and allows for a lot of grey.
Isn't it kind of the point of federated communities? Admins of one particular instance can set whatever arbitrary rules they see fit and good for the instance they operate, and in turn everyone else can organise their own instance with their own rules.
I absolutely can understand how an admin based in US doesn't want to answer the questions like "what are all this talks about controlled substances on your server"
Well, the thing about the fediverse is that each instance has its quirks and particularities. In principle, each instance on its own would be shittier than reddit, but it's the distributed structure, the freedom to vote with your feet, roam between them and to see each other even when one server is down that makes this protocol so refreshing compared with social media. I still think it's good of you to ask.
There's nothing wrong with having active discussion about how the largest Lemmy instance is being run. Maybe it'll even nudge the admin to reflect on their policy choices, you never know.
The problem is you’re never going to control how people use Lemmy the internet treats censorship as if it were damage and routes around it.
The only option is to abide the laws of local jurisdiction. No amount of reddit protesting is going to work in this case. You’re either going to enjoy Lemmy.world or it won’t be your cup of tea and you’ll find another instance. The question is what will it take to boil your frog.
To be fair, cannabis is legal in a lot of states now despite the slowness of the federal government. Especially medical cannibis. Psilocybin is only legal in two states. It's gonna take a while to catch up.