Hello everyone,

Following the recent discussions on [email protected] and [email protected] , it seems that people realize that Lemmy.world is subject to European laws, and not the US ones.

This is another event where US citizens seem to be looking for an instance that would adhere to their “legal culture”, the previous one being the US elections, where the topic was discussed everywhere, before getting channeled into [email protected]

I don’t know anything about Dutch or Finnish laws, but I’ve seen many recent articles about people arrested in Germany for their social media posts that were considered hateful or violent (which is frankly a culture shock to me as an American), so I can see why some of the posts on Lemmy in the past week would be concerning.

https://lemmy.world/comment/13870047

So, the question is: could Discuss.online become that instance? And host US-focused communities like “AskUSA”, “USPolitics”, “USFinance”, this kind of things?

I am mostly asking because there’s no secret that the DO admins aren’t the biggest Lemmy fans, so would you guys be okay if your instance would get promoted, potentially causing an influx of users and communities, some requiring moderation?

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    2·
    16 days ago

    Things like AskUSA or USAFinances could go pretty much anywhere. And even USpolitics does not have to be so problematic. But it sounds like you want a space more for international people to talk about international matters, not only in relation to the USA, though perhaps sparked by events happening in the USA, at least for today but for tomorrow perhaps it will happen elsewhere.

    People discussing things in good faith can do so easily and anywhere, I generally find, but the problem with social media is that people who refuse to restrict themselves to good faith discussions will join as well. So basically you may be wanting 4chan, except without the toxicity - but that’s not how that works, it would take enormous efforts to build something like that, which could be done but would be supremely difficult especially with the tools offered by Lemmy?

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Things like AskUSA or USAFinances could go pretty much anywhere.

      Hosting them on a US based instance seems better from a legal framework perspective, as we see with the clash between European and US legal cultures on LW

      4chan

      Oh no, definitely not. More like a community for US Americans to discuss without being subject to German laws, as it seems to be an issue from time to time

      • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
        1·
        16 days ago

        If your goal though is to see how far you can push the law, then it sounds like someone would need a lawyer? I am not one, nor do I have money I want to pay to one to find out. Why does it matter where the exact line could theoretically be drawn, if it’s so dangerous to even approach it? Like child porn or piracy - even if merely sharing links to such rather than the reality of such directly, sites get taken down all the time, and then those sites aren’t useful for anything at all.

        I get that you are trying to do some kind of morality crusade about the rightness of the cause of whatever, but nobody knows what the USA is going to look like in the next month, 3 months, 6 months, or a year. The DOJ (Department of Justice) may be removed entirely, along with several other departments in the government, and what will then take its place?! Even if that were not true though, the DOJ could ask Discuss.Online for the IP addresses of everyone who interacts with this server. With names and identities revealed, anyone who has commented on this post may be investigated. Why risk that? And totally aside from any consequences to users, what if some agency had to ask jgrim and lazyguru for such records every single time a post like this happened - or even anytime someone responded, or even voted? It could be a huge nuisance even just to comply. Or not, what do I know, but I didn’t sign on to make another, better, more friendly 4chan, or to come anywhere within a mile (or kilometer, whatever) of something even remotely illegal.

        And telling people that murder is okay - regardless of the rightness or wrongness of such (e.g. even if not serious but merely to lay off some steam) - seems to fall into that category?

        You say it’s definitely not 4chan, but it sounds an awfully lot like 4chan, or if you meant to make it better than that, the difference hasn’t been made clear, nor how much effort it would take to achieve, nor do I see anyone volunteering to do that effort either. (Edit: and to be clear, I’m not volunteering for such either.)