[en] FAQ
isolateByoblu edited this page 3 years ago

#isolateByoblu FAQ (11 August 2020)

HOW-TO'S

Q: I have an account on example.social instance, and I have never read a social.byoblu.com toot.

A: If your instance has already de-federated social.byoblu.com: fantastic! If not, there may be a few accounts of your instance boosting social.byoblu.com toots, and a few social.byoblu.com accounts followed by your instance's account.

Q: How can I check whether my instance is still federated with social.byoblu.com?

A: You can search the tag #byoblu, and see whether you can read toots from social.byoblu.com scrolling the tag timeline. If so, the instance is very likely to be federated.

Q: What about other instances federated to social.byoblu.com?

A: Help yourself with the standard URL for tag timelines. This can be done adding tags/byoblu to any Mastodon instance's url, e.g. example.social/tags/byoblu. This can be checked directly in your browser even without an account. There are 3 possible outcomes.

  1. If you read only the IsolateByoblu toots: cool! Your instance is de-federated from them! picture: #byoblu tag timeline on octodon.social (8 August 2020): only toots by isolateByoblu are visible.

  2. If you read toots by IsolateByoblu and from social.byoblu.com accounts, your instance is still federated. picture: #byoblu tag timeline on mastodon.social (8 August 2020): toots by isolateByoblu and Byoblu are visible.

  3. If you read toots only from social.byoblu.com accounts, and none from IsolateByoblu, your admin silenced IsolateByoblu. picture: #byoblu tag timeline on mastodon.uno (8 August 2020): only toots from Byoblu are visible.

Q: If you de-federate their instance, why should we de-federate them too? Aren't you safe enough yet?

A: Because your instance becomes the means to circumvent our block. A message tooted from a safer space and boosted on a third instance that federates with theirs can be read by any account of their instance. If the account on the third instance is followed by any account of their instance, the boosted toot is automaticly shown on their federated timeline.

picture: depiction of three instances with one de-federating another: instance B federates instance A and C; instance A de-federates instance C. Also, an account in C follows an account in B. (picture made with Hex Kit)

picture: depiction of a toot shown in the federated timeline of a de-federated instance: an account in A toots; an account in B boosts the toot by the account in A; if any account in C follows the account in B, then all the accounts in C read the toot by the account in A —which de-federates C— from the federated timeline. (picture made with Hex Kit)

That is a far cry from what we expect from a safer space. Instance-to-instance de-federation is actually a Maginot solution, when it is not accompanied by efforts on the federative level. We'll make it clear: it will eventually be impossible to comply with Mastodon Server Covenant §1 at these conditions.

"LIBERAL" CONCERNS

Q: De-federating their instance is against my right of information to read toots from them, and against my right to disseminate my toots across their instance. It's against free speech.

A: You can read their public timeline even without an account in the fediverse, and they can read the public timeline of any instance or your account timeline even without an account in the fediverse. The bulk of the problem isn't your rights — it's how they can exploit yours.

Q: This is censorship, and it's against free speech.

A: De-federation is not censorship. We are not deleting their platform —we recognize they wish to express their ideas in their own instance, and we do not prevent them from doing so. We are simply preventing them from having additional platforms to exploit them in oppressive ways. The word "censorship" is straight out of line, as it undermines the struggle of public awareness against actual censorship. Receiving toxic and unsolicited content, death threats, gaslighting, having your identity doxxed and shared in attempts of extorsions and political persecution — all things done and sometimes condoned by users like those from social.byoblu.com, are actions that go against self-determination. "Free speech" is a dog-whistle for "free hate": they ask for "free speech", but they actually demand "free audience" to spread their politics with no repercussions, and to mess with the safer space we build together on the federation level.

Q: They aren't doing anything illegal.

A: Besides the fact that not every harmful content is illegal, there is plenty of exploiting/oppressing/marginalizing laws that we find unjust. Thus, we refuse to give law a value by itself. If you are strict with law, we can legally refuse not to platform their content, and so can you and your instance.

Q: I see no harm, and you just want every instance being a gilded cage.

A: The fact that you do not experience harm from their content, does not mean it can be generalized. Our concern is not about casting everything we disagree with out of the Internet, it is about preventing damage to whom already is target of harassment and marginalization.

Q: You can't think the fediverse will always be "pure" and "homogeneous" with people thinking like you.

A: We promote diversity in opinion, and encourage debating ideas, not people. A line should be drawn when opinions threaten to harm people on a discriminatory basis. Just to be clear, "pure" and "homogeneous" is their line of work, not ours.

"NONE OF MY BUSINESS"

Q: It does not hurt me. Why can't you wait and see how it goes?

A: As the name implies, the "fediverse" is a federation. The object of a federation is to consider the risk for others, take responsibility, and act accordingly before the situation gets worse.

Q: We don't speak Italian, they can't harm us.

A: Violence does not need just language. A difference in language does not prevent fascists to organize worldwide. Just because they have a preferred language, it doesn't mean they won't likely speak yours. In addition, several apples of the fash eyes speak Italian, and are regularly interviewed by Byoblu. Here is the discussion between US-Romanian right-wing "strategic consultant" Edward Luttwak and Russian eurasianist fascist, and self-proclaimed "Putin’s ideologue", Aleksandr Dugin. The latter in particular is a Byoblu habitué. If they managed to root in Italy, it is easy to understand they can support others in your place too. We act in solidarity with you isolating your-language-speaking alt-right, transphobic, casteist, etc. instances. It is your turn now.

Q: I can choose on my own what to block, and I am able to discern toxic content. Your initiative exudes paternalism towards exploited/oppressed/marginalized people.

A: Exploited, oppressed, and marginalized people themselves are asking for a safer space in the fediverse to make their participation possible. We stand in solidarity with them. Our initiative is along the lines of public information, and awareness, too. You might be able to discern toxic content on your own, and that's good. Other people, particularly those who are not Italian speakers, are unable to do so at first glance, and might even feel targeted.

DISMISSING CONCERNS

Q: Byoblu is a plural platform where any idea can meet: liberal, fascist, communist, etc.; anti-immigration, pro-immigration discussions; etc. This is the "Socratic method".

A: Claiming a supposed "neutral" or "impartial" discussion or exposure of ideas is a blatant lie. First off, Byoblu users are already polarized by themselves, and already believe what they want to believe; social.byoblu.com is only giving them fuel for a fire. The so-called "plurality" they sport is also the means to increase their reach to a broader audience that would not traditionally listen to fascists and far-right media: they might be winking at different people, but the core is crystal clear. One can look at the guests, and to whom the hosts are condescending, to understand where they meddle. The same condescendence is not applied when they interview somebody with opposite opinions. Their brand of "Socratic method" is just another form of sophism.
⚠️ UPDATE ⚠️: We copied the sentence from a toot made by one of social byoblu mods. After a bit more exposure in the fediverse and a lot of criticism, social byoblu changed policy, now formally anti-fascist. (see their policy, point 9) They adopted a deceptive wording that does not prevent them to share the same ideas, and to broadcast party conferences with the very same characters. That is often enough for ingenuous liberals who want to dismiss their responsibilities.
We also spend a few words about the last part of the comma 9, literally "discussions with contrapositive (sic) overtones between fascism and communism are EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN". English-speaking audience may be used to Blair's (and Clinton's) "Third Way", sort-of non-existing "capitalism with a human face". European continental audience knows that it is third positioning, which has a long-running "tradition" in Italy and is now becoming mainstream due to political illiteracy and post-ideological soil.

Q: I actually found good videos on their channel. They don't seem nazis to me.

A: A broken clock is right twice a day. Yet, it's still a broken clock. There are anti-fascist folks out there who enjoy Byoblu, and they profit by association from these antifascists' accountability to broad their audience. Yet they are openly platforming contents these anti-fascists would not agree with. Sure, explicit nazis are few and far between, since Byoblu mods, admins, and content creators, strategically choose not to show the insigniae describing their politics. This is not a novel idea: nazis and fascists had a need to downplay themselves due to the engineered genocides, massacres, and disasters they caused.
However, there are widespread "theories" (i.e., wildly speculative and baseless accusations) involving BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people as "useful idiots" for a plot to undermine the stability of "our people", "our nation", "our culture", "our values", "our tradition". Just as an example, despite histories of emigration and classification as "people of color", racist Italians think themselves homogeneously as "European"; the only values they believe in is "our religion", i.e. their interpretation of Roman Catholicism irrespective to whether they are actual worshippers). These are recurrent themes in many conspiracy theories but we point out that the plot is canonized as Kalergi plan, an anti-Semitic conspiracy (a renewed "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"), proudly narrated by Byoblu himself in a prime-time national broadcast. If you are still doubtful, again Byoblu satisfies your concerns in this racist, queerphobic, possibly sexist masterpiece presenting his project: «vi siete fatti convincere [dai Poteri Forti™] che le razze sono un'illusione [e] che i sessi non esistono». (literally: "you let The Powers That Be™ trick you into thinking [...] that races are an illusion [and] that sexes do not exist")

Q: They do not share the symbols and rhetorics of fascists, yet they shared interviews with communists, constitutionalists, "do-gooders".

A: You will not see swastikas, fasces or roman salutes since showing those symbols does not help anyone to court a broader audience, but the result is racist and homophobic nonetheless. Actually, they even exploit traditionally anti-capitalist and pseudo-socialist language and topics, yet diverting towards reactionary solutions (pro-tip: mainly ignoring class struggle). The mix brings us closer to far-right policies and ethno-states.
The interviews with opposite ideas is just cherry picking. Since the utmost majority of interviewees are "do-badder", anti-communists, fascists, the minority is made of placeholders (sometimes popular placeholders, sometimes definitively not) to let them claim they give everybody "space". Make no mistakes: there are also people sharing their undercover strategy, for instance who reinterprets the formally-antifascist Italian Constitution as an instrument of power for ethno-nationalist programmes. Toscano, a former Byoblu host "interviewing" Dugin, is indeed the president of such a political party; another Byoblu habitué is Fusaro, the ideologue of that political party according to its president, whose racist and anti-Semitic baseless claims score the party front page. There are self-proclaimed communists who think migrant workers as "reserve army of labour" and put "social" rights against "civil" rights with no reason whatsoever. For example, one of Fusaro's selling points and right-wing party The League secretary Matteo Salvini's electoral programme wave the same misinterpretation of Marx.

Q: BUT 👏 THEY 👏 ARE 👏 NOT 👏 FASCISTS.

A: TL;DR: Yes they are.

Q: They are not technically/legally/self-proclaimed fascists.

A: This is an interesting discussion among academics. We are aware of several definitions of fascism, and here is an unfinished list according to the consensual Wikipedian point of view. Academically, we may say we fight kyriarchal content. We adopt an operational definition called "fascist duck test" that serves for the purpose of discerning who deserves the "anti-fascist prejudice" in the public discourse. Even if some of them is not aware of this, they are spreading far-right propaganda.

FEDERATION CONCERNS

Q: Why do you federate if you want a closed space/comfort zone/echo chamber?

A: We ask for a "safe space", or rather for spaces which are safer than now (there is no 100% safety) so that marginalized people can feel safe/r and socialize (more) freely their experiences and thoughts. The other terms in the question have been used interchangeably whereas their meaning neither overlaps nor each contains the other.

  • An echo chamber is a place where a set of homogeneous ideas is practically the only proposed, and a prominent source (for instance the algorithm) selects and encourages affine contents reinforcing the public opinion towards the same ideas in a feedback mechanism.
  • A comfort zone is a psychological state where to feel at ease without perceiving risks, stress, anxiety, etc. Since it stands on psychology, it could be not safe at all!
  • A closed space... is the opposite of an open space hence just a private office?...

Q: I can block single users. Why should I block the whole instance?

A: Blocking users is a time-consuming operation not everybody can invest into. Mods know that single-user blocking requires a continuous monitoring of new accounts and contents. One may even consider moderation as work, which is indeed paid in a few cases. With these premises, it is more likely marginalized people will avoid to invest in that direction if the burden is on their shoulder, and ultimately drop to animate your instance since no safe/r space is possible, shifting the public discourse in the fediverse more and more towards racism, sexism, etc. It is a self-sustaining cycle. Concealing those contents to yourself will not contribute to the creation of a safe/r evironment. Conversely, advocating for the single blocks is a false ableist solution that put us farther from solidarity.

Q: That is against developers' will and software design.

A: Mastodon developers - as devs of other programs - adopted an opt-out model: you accept to federate until you choose not. The opt-out model should not absolve you and your instance's admins of your responsibilities. Indeed, indolence guarantees accountability and paves the way for acceptance. We shall take the notion of federative responsibility as granted after the isolateGab campaign, which visibly inspires isolateByoblu. We also note that, Mastodon core developers do think blocking is a legit move as they did with Gab.

Q: If you are anti-social, why do you choose social networks at all?

A: Provided that there's nothing wrong with being so, social networks are tools anybody decides how to use them, the most introverted too (just lurking is fine).
Nonetheless: being anti-social means avoiding social contact at all, being selective is a completely different thing. Avoiding discrimatory ideologies is in fact pro-social toward oppressed categories. Defederating ByoBlu means opening the door to underrepresented, marginalized groups. This isn't about fulfilling our self-righteous sense of justice; it's about creating a safer, inclusive environment for a broader group of people.

CREDITS

Our initiative is heavily inspired by @isolategab@todon.nl and @gabwatch@likeable.space, which we independently support as sibling campaign. We also thank @dzuk@weirder.earth, whose writings here (archive) and here (archive) inspired this FAQ.
Last but not least, thanks to Lattuga, our friendly hosting server. Tips are welcome here!

first version: 11 August 2020; last revision: 29 September 2020