u/LeninMeowMeow moderates a large amount of big subreddits, r/therightcantmeme, r/gamingcirclejerk, r/animememes, r/greenandpleasent (a known russian propaganda subreddit source: Center for European Policy Analysis (think Lemmygrad)) and much more.
Anyways on r/lemmy, he says that lemmy.world is right-wing and thatcherite. I reply that it is more social democratic.
I instantly get banned from the subreddits he moderates and blocked by him. I have not commented or participated in any of their subreddits before, and this is my first ever encounter with them.
Weird and concerning behaviour. I fear that tankies are taking over most left wing spaces on reddit (not that I really use reddit for politics anymore, that’s why I’m on lemmy, but for the implications to our democracies, as a non-negligible chunk of voters are politically influenced by reddit).
It’s weird because I also commented in that thread and my comments were arguably more confrontational. But I didn’t get banned for whatever reason.
They did say I would be banned in any socialist space for truthfully talking about the history of Leninism but they didn’t actually do it.
The tankie takeover of online left spaces is a problem but I’m not sure what to do about it. I guess try to politely point out that it’s not just a harmless difference of opinion whenever it comes up in more neutral spaces. Their preferred system means the murder of dissidents. That’s not what left politics should be about. And maybe try to create more open and non-violent left spaces where the truth can be discussed.
Defederation from Hexbear, lemmygrad, and lemmy.ml would be a decent start, but since they have support from the Kremlin/CCP it’ll probably turn into ongoing whack-a-mole.
What do you mean by support? Like ideological support or more direct support?
Things like the internet research agency (russian keyboard army propaganda organisation ) and chinese equivalents are far more widespread than most imagine
Is there evidence they’re on Lemmy? I find this hard to believe given the anonymity of the platform.
Impossible to prove or disprove, but grad ML and Hexbear follow the exact leftist ideologies these agencies try to push.
They also push extreme right ideologies too, anything that destabilises and improves relationship with russia china is good for them.
If you were trying to influence foreign affairs (like elections) you’d likely LOVE the anonymity.
You can say you’re voting for Harris even if you’ve never left the walled city.
I meant the anonymity of the platform itself, not its users. In other words, most people just don’t know the platform exists, likely including people running bot farms and similar. I’d like to see evidence that this activity is taking place in Lemmy before jumping to conclusions.
Actually Lemmy is probably less anonymous for users than other platforms because you have a bunch of unrelated admins all separately monitoring unusual activity.
More direct support. I think a large portion of the accounts on those three instances are bot/shill accounts run by the CCP and Kremlin. I suspect the CCP runs lemmygrad and lemmy.ml. Not sure about Hexbear.
To be clear, I generally don’t have a problem with Marxists or communists. I think that’s a facade used to cover up the propaganda. No intelligent communist or Marxist would support either the Kremlin or CCP at this point.
The fediverse is a fantastic place for propagandists. There’s no central censor, absolutely no budget for countering propaganda.
Yeah. MLs are neither. It’s not necessarily bots, they’re just that stupid.
Agreed there are real people. Apparently the term is “useful idiots,” kind of sad