And for anyone asking "Why are we boycotting/blocking lemmy.ml?" Here's a quick recap:
Lemmy.ml is an instance run by admins who are hardcore tankies and will enforce their ideology on their instance through various means from allowing (and pushing it themselves) propaganda (Such as Russia being justified in some way to invade Ukraine) and known propaganda outlets (Like RT) to removing content on their instance critical of their favored authoritarian regimes such as Russia or China and even banning users for such speech or speech critical of them if it's off their instance (Just like the Reddit mods of ol!).
If it was just some random instance it would have been defederated from long ago like the rest of the "Tankie Triad" (Hexbear and Lemmygrad), but they've positioned lemmy.ml as the "flagship" instance and abused that position and influence to become large enough to keep other instances from defederating from them.
Which I believe is harmful to the Lemmy-verse's overall growth and outside reputation. I have seen it come up before on Reddit threads (and other testimonials from people who came back and tried it again) that "They tried Lemmy but it was a bunch of tankies and went back to Reddit"
I don't know about you, but I'd prefer Lemmy to not end up with the reputation for being "Tankie Central " or even worse "Voat 2.0".
So if you haven't joined the boycott yet, join today and help us foster a better healthier Lemmy-verse!
You can take a look around here on [email protected] for documentation of it or checkout this list of curated documentation
On bans and censorships:
https://lemmy.world/post/31569892
https://lemmy.world/post/31368129
https://lemmy.world/post/31329952
https://lemmy.world/post/31596159
https://lemmy.world/post/30665418
https://lemmy.world/post/30876228
https://lemmy.world/post/31090903
https://lemmy.world/post/31329952
https://lemmy.world/post/31368129
https://lemmy.world/post/29490804
https://lemmy.world/post/29507466
https://lemmy.world/post/29878102
https://lemmy.world/post/29980157
https://lemmy.world/post/28480760
https://lemmy.world/post/28481615
https://lemmy.world/post/28482147
https://lemmy.world/post/28480936
https://lemmy.world/post/28482273
https://lemmy.world/post/28481272
https://lemmy.world/post/28481064
https://lemmy.world/post/27674360
https://lemmy.world/post/27674117
https://lemmy.world/post/27673934
https://lemmy.world/post/27673724
https://lemmy.world/post/27577337
https://lemmy.world/post/27378634
https://lemmy.world/post/27346630
https://lemmy.world/post/27341283
https://lemmy.world/post/27288224
https://lemmy.world/post/27156418
https://lemmy.world/post/27054157
https://lemmy.world/post/27008261
Allowing altered headlines and permitting known propaganda outlets:
https://lemmy.world/post/30843744
https://lemmy.world/post/28275465
https://lemmy.world/post/27428838
https://lemmy.world/post/27416097
https://lemmy.world/post/27314050
https://lemmy.world/post/27288953
"NK is actually good, and anything counter to that is Western LIES" ~dessalines, .ml admin, head Lemmy dev https://lemmy.world/post/31595035
Spreading Russia talking points like the Ukraine invasion just being a "negotiating tactic" !https://lemmy.world/post/27012640
General negative sentiment to other instances who haven't "seen the way" yet: https://lemmy.world/post/27426510
Open declaration of support for Russia (direct from dessalines (head admin)) https://lemmy.world/post/27352415
"concentration camps were just reeducation camps and weren't that bad" https://lemmy.world/post/26985447
"Don't worry guys, the Uyghur Genocide was REALLY just birth control! ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/30580167
"See! nobody died IN Tiananmen Square, just AROUND it, so it doesn't count!!" ~ Davel, .ml admin https://lemmy.world/post/30673342
"The China censorship tool isnt actually censorship! And if it is, it's actually a good thing a state has that much power!" ~Tankies of .ml https://lemmy.world/post/30010789
Rooting for Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war https://lemmy.world/post/29274763
Nutomics continued transphobia https://lemmy.world/post/29222558
Update 6/1/2025 - adding additional links since original post
Update 6/14/2025 - adding additional links since last edit
Update 6/19/2025 - adding additional links since last edit
In a recent discussion in the Matrix chat, it was mentioned that donations to support development have recently fallen off quite steeply. I mentioned my reason for not donating anymore is because I can't support anyone who runs an instance like .ml. @[email protected] said I could donate directly to him since he doesn't do as much moderation over there, but also mentioned that donations for development go towards server costs for .ml. Hell no.
Also nutomic is a transphobe
https://lemmy.ml/post/18761554
Which is reason enough to not give them any money in my book
Checks the screenshots. Extremely mid take regarding sports that's shared by a lot of people that aren't terminally online. Transphobe, alright.
This is the idiot who was saying the Queer comm are the bourgeois and that trans women in sport are a dead cat strategy. fuck'em
"biological men" is a dead giveaway. Just because a lot of people are transphobic doesn't mean it's okay.
Transphobia is bullshit no matter what. Deal with it.
You too embarrassed to use your main to post this?
Nutomic also said that trans identity was western propaganda and has doubled down on that statement several times.
You see comrade everyone gets their assigned gender in the gender line at the age of 10, is simple no?
Read this in a shitty Russian accent that is slowly becoming a vaguely Ukrainian accent because I have played too much Stalker.
I really need to play disco elysium
I'm in the modlog a lot so I can confirm that that is true, however, like @[email protected] mentioned, he shares a transphobic flavor of their mindset sooo yea
LMAO "Donate directly to me and you won't have to worry about it! Butttt it'll still go to the exact thing you're opposed to."
Having observed a few different types of small team dynamics in my time, my speculation from a distance is that nutomic is the sensible one who does the bulk of the actual work, and dessalines is the other one.
He kind of has my sympathy and I do like Lemmy as software and it is clearly a good thing, but at the same time, at this point in the world if someone on your team is working to silence anyone who talks about Russia in unflattering terms, you can go fuck yourself as far as I am concerned. I am happy their instance is failing and I hope it keeps on failing until they stop doing legwork for murder, tyranny, rape, and torture. Honestly, “I wish my internet place had more users and people didn’t make fun of me so much” is a pretty mild negative consequence to experience from that.
Lol good point
Given how the tankie mind works, that probably means that they are actually russian propaganda.
Nutomic is .ml, not doing much moderation is an excuse probably because he has underlings to do it for him.
If we all stop donating to Lemmy just because the devs are being tankies, how will Lemmy survive?
I don’t want to go back to the bot-ridden reddit with its elon-simping CEO.
If the devs being tankies kills this space then it doesn't matter.
I like Lemmy too, but i don't like it enough to financially support transphobic fascists.
Having taken donations for similar shit before: isn't that illegal if they aren't open about it? Had I done that with my donated money I'd have been sued out my fucking ass
Cutting off funding because of political differences is stupid. Would you rather this go down the same path as Reddit?
Its a delicate balance for sure. ML also servers as a test bed for the rest of the instance.
If you peddle propaganda and justify genocide and wish more genocide on the world, I side with the people you deem stupid every single time.
By the same logic you are supporting genocide by using the platform they developed. See how you can make dumb connections like that?
Just had a ml user tell me russians never did a crime against humanity since all they did was kill nazi collaborators and continue to do so today.
You are doing your mental gymnastics to side with people like that. Not a nice look .
And you are using the platform made by .ml admins so you are doing the same. I'm not condoning anyone's politics or opinions. Just be morally consistent. If you don't support their views then why are you using a platform they developed?
Because i was not aware those pieces of shit developed it. Because i am on a federation made by people those monsters want all to be genocided and im not paying a single dime. Thus they are working for free to improve the platform i'm on. Platform that is used to counter russian propaganda.
(different user here)
No, but I want the funds to only be used for Lemmy development, not for their tankie server. They are the ones that make it impossible to do one without the other.
If the political difference is between building a multistory carpark or underground carpark with a park on the ground level, sure, it's stupid. If the political difference is "Russia does nothing wrong, Ukraine deserved to get invaded because of nazi" and "Russia is to blame for being the aggressor", then it's definitely not.
You're allowed to fund propaganda machine, and people allowed to not do it.
Why are you using the propaganda delivery system they created?
I'm not using lemmy. ml
It's not political differences, really. Go ahead and be communist, I don't care. It's the heavy handed moderation style. It's a 1 sided instance and anything to the contrary gets deleted and a time limited ban. They go against exactly what they think they stand for.
Glavset must be tightening its belt.