Exactly. In this case it was db0 users, who had the door shut in front of them and wanted to fight back.

It‘s totally fine for Lemmy instances to restrict speech in whatever way they like. That’s kind of the point of the fediverse.

The more restrictions an instance has, the less free speech it allows.

The right to free speech is about the government restricting speech. Human groups like Lemmy instances and communities always restrict speech in one way or another, as in manners, what topics and opinions are deemed appropriate, etc. That‘s by necessity.

There’s also a constant push and pull going on about what’s considered acceptable and not acceptable speech in every group. The political overtone window is an example of that.

Let’s be specific to db0 in this context. Defederating feddit.org isn’t about regulating speech on db0, it’s a political power move. It‘s trying to influence speech regulation on feddit.org itself and indiscriminately bans feddit.org users from db0, regardless of what they have ever said. This is an attempt to discredit speech, that’s considered main stream in Germany. It also affects users from Germany the most, again indiscriminately.

Feddit.org didn’t demand any restriction on speech on other servers on the other hand. They simply have rules db0 doesn’t like.

So this move by db0 is directly aimed against free speech of others, and their ability to regulate speech as they deem appropriate. So characterizing db0 as pro free speech is not a good fit.

To db0‘s credit, their community [email protected] where people can complain about moderation policies around the fediverse is pro free speech. It highlights arbitrary application of rules, abuse of mod power, makes unwritten rules visible. It’s great that it exists. Certainly one of the best communities on the fediverse.