this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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His response to that issue is really solid.
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People have a tendency to call anti-trans hate "politics" even when they would never call racism and sexism that. But it's just hate speech.
Giving hate speech free rein does not help anybody, and I'd argue it especially doesn't lead to more actual free speech, because that just leads to the most hateful people taking over a platform while most people, not willing to put up with that, just leave. And voila, you get shit like Voat. It doesn't solve everybody's differences when hate speech is allowed to thrive, it just boosts the hate speech over and above everything else, and creates a hateful echo chamber. This has happened so many times now.
Even choosing to do nothing and not ban the instance would have been a choice based on ideology/politics/whatever you want to call it, imo. "Software should allow any and all speech, including hate speech" is not a neutral or apolitical stance either.
For all I know, he could be trans, or have trans friends or family, and in the current world state, where trans people are being subjected to escalating real world suffering .. If it were me, I wouldn't just step aside and allow my personal project to be used to hurt me or my loved ones, either. I'd be upset if a friend created software, allowed it to become a powerful tool for people who'd wish me dead, and then just handwaved all responsibility and refused to do even attempt to do anything because any attempt at moderation would count as "politics" while creating the software in the first place and freely allowing it to be used for hate... Wouldn't be, somehow?