Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, Found to Support Nazi’s Agenda

@mguhlin

So far it has worked in our favor.. about 20 instances have reversed their stance on us and now support us, there have been dozens of emails to eugen asking him to reconsider his stance. We remain one of the most connected and largest instances in the fediverse.

Most likely it wont die, but hopefully thrive.

Doing nothing would have more than likely caused it to die.

That said, if things do start going south and that trend reverses you always have the option to move at any time and take your followers with you.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@rbe_expert very reasonable and we'll backed up article.

I still very much dislike the title, though. It makes it look personal to you (whereas the article explains very well that it has nothing to do with your personal opinions). As if you have a score to settle, a grudge held.

@Elephantidae The Nazi's agenda was to get us defederated and delisted, he knew this was his agenda. He then delisted us as a direct result of that Nazi's campaign, therefore,he satisfied the Nazi and appeased his agenda.

I'd say that makes it quite literally true.

@Elephantidae I am an example of someone who recently found Qoto from the join site. I think that the issue seems to speak to a serious question as to whether or not Mastodon is a decentralized federation or if from a practical standpoint, it has access determined by one person. And of course, I joined this instance because I felt it best met my interests, but also so I could interact with others in different instances.

Succumbing to the strategy of an attack by nefarious agents doesn't make Mastodon a safe or a welcoming place. All instances ought to see that as a vulnerability that needs to be combated.

@cooplogic ill have to look into that, thanks.

also, is there information on how to use the feature to put someone on your feed without following them?

@cooplogic its next to the follow button, its called subscribe.

@oligneisti

Feel free to offer any specific objections that are inaccurate or confusing and ill be happy to help clean up the article.

One sided, absolutely.. no way to really not make it one sided if I'm the author and Eugen refuses to comment despite tons of requests of him from many people for comments.

That said, thats also why I provided links and photo evidence where possible.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

How many links in the post point to anything other than your own site?

@freemo@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@oligneisti

three, assuming we count screenshots of dead links (wince most of the ancient history is now dead). 2 for snow, one for his attempt to get us on fediblock... I am happy to add a few more if you feel that would be helpful. Im sure I could dig up some more links if i search through history enough.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

The screenshots in question don't actually have anything to do with the claim you make in the subject of your post.

@freemo@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@oligneisti

Sure it does, it is part of a long chain of events.. Snow created a campaign of misinformation, Eugen knew about it and despite this caved to said campaign because it worked and was popular.. they are directly related.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

Yes, these are links in a chain but they don't connect to the the claim in subject.

@freemo@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@oligneisti

Im not sure i follow... The links seem clear to me, please let me know how i might carify

snow engaged in disinformation to get us delisted/defederated -> instances bought the ruse -> Eugen knew of Snows agenda -> since the agenda was working eugen caved to the intended agenda to remain popular.

what am I missing?

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

The chain metaphor is apt because you are showing me one link but only telling me about the others.

@freemo@oligneisti@social.linux.pizza@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@oligneisti

Not sure what you mean by that.. which link am I showing you vs ones I'm telling you?

@oligneisti@Gargron@trinsec@khird

The "link" you are showing me is composed of the screenshots. You are not showing me anything else. The missing links are actual hyperlinks to the rest of your claims.

@freemo

@troed

That could be... I wanted a headline that was true, but also draw in peoples attention.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@troed
Having read all these comments, it looks like OP is attempting a smear operation on the person who runs the BEST and mostly uncensored social media site without a complete grasp of the facts. Which press outlet/ other social media site are you working for? ALL of us are comfortable being ourselves here......maybe you should embrace your "shady moron" persona and just be yourself instead of attempting to "take down" the CEO of Mastodon.

@Sioctan

I think ive covered that on many of my public posts lately.

@Gargron@khird@trinsec

@ohuu

The irony is, us being the "good guys" has us hated by all the racist/no rules part of the fediverse... We literally would have been better off and more popular if we had sided with the racists rather than the LGBTQ community... that said, I dont regret my decision.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@ohuu Being a Twitter refugee, all of this history happened before I ever heard of Mastodon. I want to both applaud and thank you for giving your marginalized community members something that even the “good guys” are reluctant to give them — agency. Sure, everybody wants to be safe and deny hate a platform, but people who are vulnerable to these kinds of attacks have a right to decide what “safe” looks like. I think you struck the best balance you could under the circumstances. As a member of a couple of marginalized demographics, thank you for offering respect in lieu of a savior complex.

For my part, I really enjoy QOTO’s unique features and the fact that, compared to some of the big instances, it runs so smoothly and so fast. Sure, that’s just growing pains, but I appreciate this instance’s ability to handle the influx as well as it has. I like that my local timeline is full of science instead of drivel. I’m grateful that there’s a STEM-focused instance accessible to industrial scientists, who are mostly barred from the scholarly science instances due to our lack of current academic credentials. So, thanks for doing a good thing, @freemo. We’re grateful for you and the mod team.

The connection is pretty straightfoward.. The troll spread disinformation in an attempt to get us delisted and defederated. This worked and caused some people to get angry beleiving the disinformation, Eugene knew about the disinformation and that this misinformation campaign was succeeding and delisted us out of fear of being unpopular as a result.

He knew it was the Nazi's agenda, and appeased it.

@Gargron@khird@trinsec

@AaronTheGuy

Good question, he is a friend of mine, I always welcome his input.

@stux

@acjay

I updated the title just now.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

Yeah, I think “caves” seems more congruent to the rest of the piece

@acjay

Thanks, its important I convey this honestly.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@realcaseyrollins

He didnt openly admit it, or even say it in so many words... A bunch of people who bought the nazi's misinformation petitioned him to remove us from the list, he did, even though he knew they were responding to said nazi's disinformation... he only responded to me in email and refused to respond to anyone else.

His email however made it clear he was responding out of popular demand.

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

Yep. It seemed more direct in your article though, I was referring to this portion in particular

@realcaseyrollins

Yea in that sense it is somewhat direct

@Gargron@trinsec@khird

The plot thickens when you realize that he is from #Germany 👀 😂

@modrobert Make a new join site that competes with joinmastodon dot org

@rbe_expert

Alternatives exist. But as the official directory this one does have the most impact.

@modrobert@Gargron@trinsec@khird

@modrobert What are the alternatives?

@rbe_expert

i need to look them up for you, but I recall seeing handful of instance lists and directories before.

@modrobert@Gargron@trinsec@khird