I’ve earned a lifelong shadowban on the largest Mastodon instance just because I doubted a political paper (which later turned out to be as unsubstantial as I said it would be).
Not much to expand. Some German left-wing politicians “ordered” a report on the German right-wing party. That report was deemed “secret”, so nobody was supposed to see it. Left-wing politicians told everyone that this secret report is the ultimate proof the right-wing party is extremist and can finally be forbidden and banned. Which is the part I said I doubt until there’s a way for everyone to see the actual report and verify the findings. (I’ve compared that to “Sure, I did my homework. But then my dog ate it.”)
Someone reported me with the note “supports <name of Germany’s right-wing party>”. And that’s that. Shadowban for life. No way to contest it or explain myself as support auto-responds with “we only answer to actual members of <instance>”.
(And yes, that “report” leaked later and turned out to be just a collection of quotes from social media from party members. Nothing against the law and lots of quotes were taken far out of context. It was great stuff for the media for a week or two but that’s it. Nothing ever came out of it.)
Wanna expand on that?
Not much to expand. Some German left-wing politicians “ordered” a report on the German right-wing party. That report was deemed “secret”, so nobody was supposed to see it. Left-wing politicians told everyone that this secret report is the ultimate proof the right-wing party is extremist and can finally be forbidden and banned. Which is the part I said I doubt until there’s a way for everyone to see the actual report and verify the findings. (I’ve compared that to “Sure, I did my homework. But then my dog ate it.”)
Someone reported me with the note “supports <name of Germany’s right-wing party>”. And that’s that. Shadowban for life. No way to contest it or explain myself as support auto-responds with “we only answer to actual members of <instance>”.
(And yes, that “report” leaked later and turned out to be just a collection of quotes from social media from party members. Nothing against the law and lots of quotes were taken far out of context. It was great stuff for the media for a week or two but that’s it. Nothing ever came out of it.)