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The (very few!) super fashy trans folk want the Fediverse to stay uncomfortable for Black folk. Some want to make it even more uncomfortable. Some are literal nazis.

Some trans folk pretend to be surprised that there are actively anti-Black trans folk, and ask questions like, "But isn't the Fediverse welcoming to all marginalized communities?"

I used to try to explain that being welcoming to one community isn't by default, welcoming to another.

Defining a term "civility trap," and explaining why nazis wear suits, and why Obama never gets angry:

A civility trap is where a Black person receives an intentional provocation. If the Black person responds with understandable frustration/anger, they are perceived as unreasonable / unhinged / untrustworthy. The original provocation is forgotten.

If they respond reasonably, another provocation will follow. And more. Hundreds more.

Nazis wear suits to try to make the contrast even greater.

There are kind trans folk involved with the FSEP project, from the approval of the project, to feedback on its design. There are also cis folk, queer folk, Black folk, white folk, Muslims, Jewish folk, Buddhists, atheists, etc. It's a big effort.

A big part of the project is collecting feedback and input, because this is far too important to get wrong.

So the initial design is being done in the open. There are a number of things that need to be improved before this is ready for prime time.

Most of this criticism is good and useful. Even if it's repetitive / something that's already covered in the proposal, it is good feedback.

All great questions:
* Who controls the blocklist? One dude? No new kings!
* Blocklist get weaponized! See [insert example].
* How do we audit reasons for blocks?
* What's the path back for blocked instances?

Knowledge of these harms didn't start with Twitter Blocklists. Years before GamerGate, those same bad actors targeted Black women.

This is not new.

But some of the criticism I'm seeing is not useful. It's just a targeted attack against one individual.

Quick history:
* There used to be an instance called Play Vicious.
* That instance was run off of the Fediverse by abusive fashy people, some of whom were trans
* Some of those abusers continue to harass the PV admin to this day
* Some of them tried to DDOS the hashtag that Black users and others use to stay safe on the Fediverse

(Obama would probably handle this with grace and composure)

If an instance is added to The Bad Space in error, that admin can reach out to have it removed. This happens. Admins do this every day.

The FSEP proposal makes a number of points:
* There needs to be more info about how/why an instance was added
* There needs to be more than one person making add / remove decisions
* The Bad Space won't be the only provider
* Human mods make mistakes
* The false negative/positive rate is as important as the weaponized abuse rate

None of this is controversial.

If you say "Why is my instance on the Bad Space? Did I do something wrong?"

You might get a response like, "Sorry! There is an ongoing DB issue. No changes needed on your end. Should be fixed in an hour."

But if you say, "See! We don't need blocklists! The people that tried to stop Black people from using Fediblock were right!"

Then the Black person that's been fighting nazis on the fediverse for 6 years without much help or backup, might tell you about yourself, and where you can take that.

I've said this before but I'll say it again:

* I don't trust any one individual to run a blocklist. Whatever individual we choose, could turn bad. Consensus is required.

* Blocklists will be weaponized against the most marginalized communities (read: Black users). This is not a possibility. It's an eventuality. Good instances will wind up on the blocklist. The path back needs to be clear, and actionable.

* Reliability requirements are increased when thousands of instances depend on you.

If you take one thing away from this thread, it should be that you should always be suspicious when you think "That Black person seems so hostile!" Take a moment to dig into why. And become immune to racists in suits.

If you take 2 things away from this thread, the 2nd should be to think of a problem with the FSEP proposal (yes, even if you think it's probably already been raised before!), and bring it up. Criticize the idea. Point out flaws and ways it can be abused.

https://nivenly.org/docs/papers/fsep/

@mekkaokereke What’s the best way to financially support the FSEP work?

@inthehands

Donate to Nivenly! Thank you!

https://nivenly.org/

And bonus: Nivenly is a co-op. That means that when we donate to Nivenly, the collective gets to decide how to support the project.

So please, also consider joining the co-op. Donating doesn't automatically get you membership in the co-op.

https://nivenly.org/governance/