Is Mastodon an antisemitic platform? The ignorance and partisanship of the Zionist journalists at Fox News cause reputational damage.
@Gargron @Mastodon Benjamin Weinthal, an investigative journalist for Fox News and a Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, describes Mastodon as “der antisemitischen Plattform”.
I hope your legal department can seek damages for the reputational harm caused by these vile accusations!
As a guide, if famously fair and balanced Fox News or the German far(t) right media outlet Nius calls anything anything, it’s probably not that. Or at the very least, it’s a convenient reduction of facts to something that fits their talking point.
Mastodon isn’t a platform in the same way Xwitter is. That’s a centralised platform, Mastodon is many independently hosted instances choosing to federate with each other. Among those instances you’ll find those tolerating asshole opinions of all kinds. And then other instances de-defederate from the collective. So labelling all of Mastodon antisemitic or anything else speaks to a lack of understanding on behalf of the person making that claim.
It can’t possibly be an antisemetic platform, because it’s not a platform at all. No one controls the fediverse. Anyone can launch a Mastodon instance and make it whatever they want, as can the users. There’s no algorithm feeding you hateful nonsense day in and day out for engagement, because there is no benefit to engagement. Mastodon, and the fediverse more broadly, only benefits from your satisfaction, and sometimes, as a result, your donations .
@artyom as I wrote here, Weinthal’s message is dangerous—both because of the falsehoods it asserts and because of the credibility he holds with his audience. The fact that, rather than stating just one falsehood (“Mastodon is antisemitic”), he states two (“Mastodon is a platform that is antisemitic”), does not make matters any better…
The general public does not understand the nuances
What people understand doesn’t change facts. It’s not an antisemitic platform.
@artyom In here, we are all well aware of the truth. But outside of here, that’s not the case. The problem isn’t just the defamation itself—it’s that this defamation is actually credible to the general public!
When someone invites a friend to join Mastodon, that friend might recall Weinthal’s words and feel a sense of doubt or hesitation—and perhaps they won’t sign up, because, well, maybe Mastodon is an “antisemitic platform”.
I was just answering your question.
Smells like em-dash in here beep boop, I would not engage with the clankers.
the twitter link is just to make the post even weirder?
@kathsone Dangerous shit-stirrers… 🤬
I wish the lawyers on Mastodon a productive time and a rich harvest! 🥂
This is the first line of the article (emphasis mine):
In times of rampant anti-Jewishness, which has long since arrived in parts of politics, we want to make the worst failures visible. Every Friday, NIUS awards the “Golden Watermelon” – a negative price for particularly striking anti-Semites. The watermelon stands for Palestine solidarity because of its colors and thus also for the hatred of the Jewish state. This week our award winner is named Michael Blume.
These people are insane ethnonationalist extremists, and should not be listened to. What they say literally doesn’t matter, since the only people who listen to them are already so ideologically compromised as to be unable to appear normal.
@kathsone @Gargron @Mastodon @fediverse
Is #JavaScript antisemitic?
