Fosstodon: Covering For Fascists, Again

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Remember back at the end of April when I wrote about the double-team of admins at the Fosstodon instance having themselves a little meltdown over having to come to public terms with on-boarding a neo nazi to their moderation team? Remember how they stomped their feet and declared they’d be running away to new instances, while handing the keys to an unknown named Gina? Well, it seems the new admin is no better, or, at the very least, on the exact same page as the previous two, and nobody’s learned a thing.

Here’s my post from April: Fosstodon: The Neutral Problem

Recently, the new admin (Gina) had on-boarded some guy who goes by the name of “Anachron,” who wrote up an entire post disparaging marginalized people over their “intolerance” of his (and other’s) fascist views, as if it’s still 2015, and the manipulative talking points of neo nazis on Twitter are brand new to the world. And he did this with a fourth-grade level of understanding of language, and editing.

But, it’s definitely not a new talking point to call vulnerable communities the real fascists for “wanting to control free speech” (FREEZE PEACH!), or, i.e., wanting to restrict violent rhetoric, as it should be restricted. Anyone whose been alive for more than five years should know that the first amendment in the United States has never covered for violent speech that incites hate, and, surprise-surprise, violence, and that it also doesn’t apply to websites, or social media communities.

Don’t tell that to these people though, as Anachron writes:

Another topic I want to shortly adress here is the current fight against free speech. A certain group of people claim that for the sake of peace and harmony, we need to control free speech. They go a crazy length to justify this restriction of freedom to be needed. Yet, this not what their end-goal is: They make all these restrictions broad, effectively silencing everyone else who thinks differently. This is not to make the world a better place. This is to enforce power and control over humanity. Do not let them fool you. This was never about peace and love.

This is among many other troubling things in his blog post. Absolutely not something you’d want to see coming from someone who’s about to be a community moderator over thousands of people.

But, Gina? Oh, she read all of this right before she on-boarded him.

She has also since written a large diatribe about how the fediverse needs to tolerate “both sides” of the spectrum in order to foster a healthy community. Anyone whose actually been an admin or moderator knows that this is a red flag that … well, covers for neo nazis.

Via her post, available here: Views on the Fediverse

I want to be open and transparent about this; I read his blog before accepting him into the mod group. To me his thoughts felt like the other end of the spectrum of what we find acceptable for our community; the first end being strict modding to keep everyone safe, with the risk of hurting plurality of thought (side a), the other end protecting freedom of speech with the risk of hurting marginalized people (side b). This is a tension that mods constantly have to balance.

And this is after she went on a half-page talk about how she’s an ally! (excuse me while I cough and puke)

She then says,

But yall, there have been a lot of bad faith arguments lately. Accusing us of ‘running cover for nazi’s.’ Calling people extreme terms such as white supremacists, nazi’s, fascists, etc. for having a different opinion. Riling up other users, dog piling, and starting flame wars. Some do it out of concern for their community or from a place of trauma, which I can understand. Even when getting hurled insults, we’ll still respectfully engage. But I see a few users spreading hate in a way they ironically accuse others of. It's deeply unpleasant. I worry about this undercurrent on the Fediverse. I worry about the vitriol. And I worry about the erosion of words such as ‘nazi’ and ‘fascist’ – we need these words to describe actual threats, of which there are still many. It's not my intention to both-side this. But if everyone’s a nazi then no one is. If you disagree with this premise, that’s okay.

Not “people,” Gina, just the two moderators you and the previous admin team have brought on, and then tried to defend, in exactly the same way. By using manipulative rhetoric in order to frame this as some kind of anti-tolerance hate-brigade over your entire community, rather than just two guys, who suck a lot of ass.

“It’s not my intention to both-side this,” and yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing.

“If everyone’s a nazi then no one is.”

Again, Gina, this all has been about two dudes.

Inflate, paint broadly, distract, deny: The strategies of fascists, and how they seek to control communities.

Yes, I am calling the three admins who’ve been in the spotlight via bad decisions at Fosstodon, fascists, because when you try this hard to deny what you’re doing, in broad daylight, the truth of the situation couldn’t be any clearer than it already is.

But, I wanted to write about this, again, for a second time, because it’s important to keep all this stuff on a timeline, in a single place where it can be referenced, so that it doesn’t get jumbled up in hundreds of fediverse thread-chains. And, so that when most of the fediverse has blocked Fosstodon, people know why.

It is especially poignant to be vigilant about protecting marginalized communities now, in 2025, and to make sure one of the last bastions of the open web, and social media communities not controlled by oligarchs, remains in-control of the people, rather than inhuman, evil shitheads who seek to infiltrate, and destroy.

If you’re an admin who is as short-sighted as the three people who’ve been in-charge of Fosstodon now, I ask that you please step down, and let someone who knows what they’re doing take charge.

Thanks.