Feddit.org announced today that they are changing their rules to match German law despite their server not being hosted in Germany.

Feddit.org now bans

  • The sentence “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”

  • Comparing Israel to the Nazis

  • Calls to end Zionism

  • Calling for the dissolution of Israel

And much more. The full original post can be found here, or

Click here for full text of original post:

Hi.

In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post.

While the servers of feddit.org are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic.

And with that, let’s go:

In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called “Reason of State” introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as “Israel-related antisemitism”.

Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it’s not that fun.

There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules.

If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community:

  • Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.
  • Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like.
  • Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism.
  • The slogan “from the river…”
  • Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany.
  • … and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis

Comments will not be removed for the following:

  • Denouncing genocide.
  • Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
  • Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
  • Referring to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” “expansionist,” or “far-right”.

If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I’d also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @EuroMod@feddit.org account (which all mods have access to).

To help you understand why, I'll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL).

  • A news report:

    Berlin in mid-May [2024] around 6 o’clock in the morning. A loud, continuous “banging” against the apartment door wakes student Alina T. from her sleep. […] When her husband opens the door, several LKA officers, two employees of the district office and the SEK “storm” past him into the apartment. Puzzled, he looks at the search warrant. […] The background to this was a Facebook entry in the student’s profile: "From the river […]

  • A legal treatise:

    In November 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs also issued a prohibition order against Hamas.[60] According to the order, “the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ (in German or other languages)” is a distinguishing mark of Hamas[61]. […] the current legal situation [regarding “Denial of Israel’s right to exist”] is - contrary to what the statements of the Federal Ministry of Justice suggest[63] - anything but clear. Whether incitements to eliminate the State of Israel are prosecuted depends on the respective legal opinion and the prosecution will of the respective public prosecutor’s office.

  • Press release from the previous government:

    In this context, Section 111 StGB, which covers public incitement to commit crimes, may also be relevant. Incitement to extinguish Israel’s existence by force may be punishable under this provision. The same applies to calls to publicly display the Hamas flag. If Hamas attacks are publicly cheered and celebrated, this may also be punishable. This means that people who cheer on Hamas’s actions or publicly express their sympathy with the attacks may constitute the criminal offence of “approval of criminal acts” under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).

  • Another news report

    In connection with the controversial Palestine Congress in Berlin, the German authorities have also imposed an entry ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “In order to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda at the event”, several entry bans have been issued, the news agency AFP learned from security sources on Sunday. One of these concerned Varoufakis. (Notably, Varoufakis would have spoken about one-state solutions …)

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Amnesty International

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Human Rights Watch

federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)

  • Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml
    1·
    4 days ago

    I was banned today from !Europe on feddit, a community I’ve never posted in, because apparently reporting a disinformation spam account posting uyghur genocide fake news rubs the mods the wrong way. I had no idea that instance was this much of a dumpster fire. Am I officially a communist now? Seems like a rite of passage has occurred

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
    1·
    7 days ago

    So they’re basically declaring themselves a fascist instance. I mean calling for end of Zionism is calling for an end of a fascist ideal, therefore that instance is declaring itself a fascist organization. Simple. Yeah no one should be Federated with this place.

    • homura1650@lemm.ee
      1·
      6 days ago

      A bit more context for that quote:

      calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.

      The “one state” in the one-state solution is Israel, which currently views itself as an occupying power, and has Jewish Supremacy enshrined in her basic law (essentially constitution). Jews are not the group that is at risk in this scenario.

  • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
    0·
    7 days ago

    Tbh, I can understand it. There have been police raids kicking in doors of families with small children at 5 in the morning for having a Facebook post saying “from the … to the …” (I am also in Germany…). The police went through all of the families belongings and took all web-connected electronics.

    The situation is really rough here in Germany.

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    01·
    7 days ago

    Oh man. Come on Lemmy.

    Maybe read the post again and put yourself in the shoes of the admins and mods who do live in Germany.

    Each of you personally has your own views on the Israel / Palestine genocide, and that’s absolutely fine.

    However, very few of you risk personal criminal prosecution in support of Palestine. The people involved in hosting a lemmy instance are volunteers, who probably didn’t sign up for that kind of risk.

    Also, the very nature of federation means that feddit can restrict this content on their servers confident in the knowledge that other servers can host this content in a jurisdiction that doesn’t have the same risks.

    • IttihadChe@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      My country is literally arbitrarily detaining and deporting/imprisoning people for advocating for a free Palestine. I still go to protests.

      Free Palestine, from the river to the sea!

        • IttihadChe@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          I think it’s far more unreasonable to go along with a genocidal regime in the name of “following laws/orders”. Where do you draw the line on that front? Is joining the IDF and activily participating in genocide fine because it’s required by law and you can’t expect others to sacrifice anything of themselves in the name of opposing genocide?

          • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Quite obviously, you draw the line somewhere between shooting innocent children and risking imprisonment for your self-hosting hobby.

            I don’t understand how the nuance can be lost here? There is no slippery slope between managing a docker container on a server and murdering people.

            As I have repeated ad nauseum, there is absolutely no benefit to Palestine for reddit admins to take this risk. The nature of federation means that these admins can forego this risk and allow someone else to host that content.

            One of the fundamental concepts of activism is to strategically pick your battles. This just isn’t one worth picking.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 days ago

    Better than what the headline seems though.

    The description reads almost like malicious compliance.

    Still. There are people advocating for similar measures against statements not as normal as the listed.

    I hope these people can see how their wishes being fulfilled might lead to similar regrettable results. It’s better not to walk the preceding steps.

    One set of basics a decent human being should always remember - “I am not wise, I am not righteous, and I don’t know what is right and what is wrong, I can only try not to multiply evil and to avoid lying to myself and others, and when I make a decision, I know it’ll harm people”.

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
      1·
      7 days ago

      The comments section is a circle jerk full of chuds going “it’s about time somevody stood up for poor Israel, only here and world isn’t Hamas”

      I’d call it a psyop but Eur*peans have proven to be this ghoulish across their entire history so

    • IttihadChe@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      Germans and being complicit because they are “just following laws/orders”. Name a better duo.

    • Omega@discuss.online
      0·
      7 days ago

      I find it more disgusting than .ml and even hexbear, Chinese Human rights violations lean towards cultural genocide, Israel is killing, starving, dislocating and destroying their culture, ethnicity, community and land, it is as bad as it can get, any defence of Israel is disgusting for me, and criticism of Palestine on that front is very ill timed in that manner, you can’t worry about ‘terrorism’ when the alternative is extermination

      • mathemachristian[he]@lemmy.ml
        0·
        7 days ago

        CuLtUrAl GeNoCiDe

        Go to xiaohongshu right now and look at all the uyghurs sharing their music, food, language, stories, spreading their culture freely on a predominantly chinese app!

        Whole ass street festivals in the main streets going on in xinjiang of uyghurs celebrating community

        easiest fake news to dispel but god forbid (redd/lemm)itors step out of their bubble

        • Afflictedlife@lemmy.ml
          1·
          4 days ago

          Bro I just got banned for pointing this out today. Like seriously talk to one chinese person in your life feddit mods

          • mathemachristian[he]@lemmy.ml
            2·
            3 days ago

            samesies!! they will need you to be careful with how you criticize the occupation regime of west palestine for their genocide but bash china for a completely imagined one and ban anyone who disigrees.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
      1·
      8 days ago

      Assuming you’re using the default Lemmy UI, there’s a block settings menu in your account settings page. It’s worth exploring, there’s some good options to play around with.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
      0·
      7 days ago

      Says the person not at risk of early moring police raids of their home including months long confiscation of all their communication devices and costly legal proceedings to get them back.

        • poVoq@slrpnk.net
          1·
          7 days ago

          The irony of all the armchair warriors here is too thick 🤦 Go get yourself squatted and possibly arrested, that will for sure help the Palestinians that are facing a genocide /s

      • marcie (she/her)@lemmy.ml
        1·
        7 days ago

        I’m a communist trans woman with guns who helps house people for free in the USA. I’ve had ICE and police show up to my doorstep before. For some reason, I doubt a bunch of cishet white nerd guys in Germany are about to have as many problems as I do for hosting anti israel content on a small social site.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
            1·
            6 days ago

            Communists have always been pro-gun, you can’t have a revolution without them. Things get more nuanced within Socialism, once the revolution has broadly succeeded, but an armed working class in Capitalism is harder to oppress.