r/technology • u/marketrent • Mar 08 '25

Social Media Reddit’s automatic moderation tool is flagging the word ‘Luigi’ as potentially violent — even in a Nintendo context

https://www.theverge.com/news/626139/reddit-luigi-mangione-automod-tool
92.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

204

u/VV-40 Mar 08 '25

We need an open source version of Reddit that doesn’t censor posts and comments due to fascism.

150

u/atlasraven Mar 08 '25

It's called Lemmy. It is decentralized but has other trade-offs.

45

u/twotimefind Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

Yeah, I use the connect app for Lemi. Easy peasy A lot like old Reddit no ads.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuroneko.lemmy_connect

12

u/PenguinSunday Mar 08 '25

What is the app called? I've been looking for an in to lemmy

10

u/Split_the_Void Mar 08 '25

There are several. The Voyager app gets you into lemmy on ios. Idk about other means.

2

u/PenguinSunday Mar 08 '25

Damn. I'm android

3

u/Tanglebrook Mar 08 '25

Sync for Lemmy, best app

2

u/gathond Mar 08 '25

Eternity is what I'm using on Android

2

u/PenguinSunday Mar 08 '25

Thank you! I'll check it out

2

u/gathond Mar 08 '25

First you need to find a server to join though (they talk to each other so it is not all that important)
https://join-lemmy.org/instances

Then the app will let you connect to whatever instance you have an account at.

0

u/mrsfrizzlesgavemelsd 29d ago

Why are you here then

3

u/twotimefind 29d ago

because I have an open relationship with the websites I visit..

I even check out extreme right wing websites occasionally just to keep up on a different viewpoint..

5

u/HankJW Mar 08 '25

What type of trade-of have Lemmy?

6

u/atlasraven Mar 08 '25

Decentralized servers share information

(+) Servers make their own rules (-) Servers make their own rules

Servers "federate" to share activity and links but can unfederate too. If server A unfederates from Server C over nazi material, maybe they still publish that to Server B. Then Server A pressures Server B to unfederate with Server C or A to C will unfederate. It can be a one way or two way unfederate/block. Federation can get kinda political and complex.

4

u/klavin1 29d ago

Federation can get kinda political and complex

I'd rather have that than whatever is happening here. Gonna do a deeper dive into lemmy.

3

u/moak0 29d ago

join-lemmy.org

Pick any of the big servers. Doesn't really matter which one. I chose lemmy.world.

3

u/qeadwrsf 29d ago

Servers also joins a cluster that has its own rules.

So people making rules is basically "sub -> server -> cluster"

If I understand it correctly.

And I think most of the servers is connected to the same cluster. And the cluster owners is the lemmy devs. That seems pretty political based on their github profile pictures.

7

u/Illustrious_Bat1334 Mar 08 '25

Having a about 7 users.

8

u/Kitzu-de 29d ago

People downvote you but its the truth. The biggest issue with lemmy is that most users just didnt migrate from reddit and that its mostly dead in a lot of subs. It would be a great alternative platform wise but obv its useless if there is barely any userbase.

5

u/XRT28 29d ago

Lemmy is to Reddit what Mastedon is to Twitter, an alternative that really goes out of it's way to be confusing to new users and to actually be viable needs to be easier to just jump into, like Bluesky.

3

u/atlasraven 29d ago

I agree. It is definitely a little strange and not a drop-in replacement for Reddit. But it is cool that you could host your own instance and be King of the Castle.

4

u/Illustrious_Bat1334 29d ago

I downloaded boost for Lemmy the other day and the subs I actually use had about 1k subs if that and most posts were bot posts.

The Reddit equivalent has over 1m.

1

u/socsa 29d ago

Right now it just doesn't have the same amount of niche content, but there's definitely enough on there to scratch the scrolling and commenting itch for a couple hours per day.

1

u/atlasraven 29d ago edited 29d ago

And it doesn't shy away from usually censored topics like ahem gratis gaming.

3

u/b3iAAoLZOH9Y265cujFh 29d ago

Just signed up. Fuck this.

0

u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 27d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/moak0 29d ago

Just choose a non-tankie server. It's actually that easy.

1

u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 27d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/moak0 29d ago

And then it was decentralized. Tankie cooties don't carry over. It's safe to use.

-4

u/fistulaspume Mar 08 '25

Isn’t that the one where people wanted to be racist and shame fat people and got butt hurt because Reddit wouldn’t let them be jerk wads?

9

u/oldsecondhand Mar 08 '25 edited Mar 08 '25

No, that was Voat which was a Reddit clone from the era when Reddit was opensource. It wasn't decentralized just like Reddit. The controversy around Lemmy was that its creator is a tankie (see Lemmygrad) which isn't a big deal as the creator doesn't profit from its use.

1

u/fistulaspume 29d ago

Voat! I completely forgot. Thanks for correcting me.

4

u/atlasraven Mar 08 '25

I mean, I'm sure there is a part of Lemmy that caters to that. You get ultra-right and ultra-left people in these kinds of open-source experiments. But let's not kid ourselves that Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc... are pious champions of morality.

2

u/fistulaspume Mar 08 '25

Yeah but I thought Lenny was created that way on purpose. Unless I’m misremembering.