Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:
We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world’s users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.
This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.
The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.
Do they have the right to be our “front page”?
It’s within their rights to make that claim. Anyone can.
What? I am actually confused here, are you saying anyone can represent a group or individual without their permission or knowledge? And this is not some ethical issue?
That’s just the nature of the fediverse. If another instance wants to make that claim, .world would have no jurisdiction to counter it. Right now you could make m0o.p0o and say it’s the front page of lemmy.
I can not in good conscience do that and my statement had nothing to do with the nature of the fediverse. I am saying it is a bad look to tell the world you represent Lemmy but also censor instances. This is not a fediverse technical issue but a broader more general issue of integrity and claims.
Honestly I can certainly see that point. I think that is the precise reason .world defederated though, to make it seem like more of a wholesome alternative rather than a den of pirates. I mean look at places like Voat… You do have to curate your content, and the nice thing about the fediverse is that you can trailor your experience beyond what the ‘default’ has chosen.