PieFed has done it once again, this time adding 'warning' labels for opposing ideological perspectives, well at least one; Can't find any warnings for fascism or capitalism πŸ€”

This can be demonstrated here: https://piefed.social/c/globalnews/p/1697164/sudan-civil-war-spills-over-into-neighboring-chad-peoples-dispatch

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[+] -11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (59 children)

I'm happy to explain. You could have just asked, though.

During initial installation PieFed downloads a big list of 3000 right-wing domains from https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon and blocks them all. Admins can unblock them if they want but they would need to do them individually so I bet none do.

The list includes things like fox news, breitbart, etc. Before starting work on PieFed I spent 3? years studying right wing disinformation - qanon, antivax, all that and that blocklist is an output from that. Every site on that list was reviewed personally.

So.

Additionally, I have manually added these warnings (not blocks) onto some domains, for piefed.social only. You can download a list of those warnings from https://join.piefed.social/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/warnings.ods

Most of them are tabloids, AI slop farms and a handful are authoritarian government mouthpieces.

So there's 3000 right wing sites that simply can't be linked to and 47 sites with warnings, about 10% of which are left wing. There's no need to warn for fascism because posts that link to them are not displayed in the first place.

There's an ideological slant to PieFed for sure, and it's very much in favor of the left. That could be why maga.place and lemmychan.org use Lemmy and not PieFed.

I'll take another look at peoplesdispatch and see if there's a less triggering warnings I can put on it.

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  • [–] 34 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Apparently piefed smuggles in domains from a completely different repo that clearly isn't just "right-wing domains"^[https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/blob/master/sources/Fake%20news/README.md] and it requires an admin to unblock them all individually.

    Every site on that list was reviewed personally.

    so it is a personal semi-hardcoded blocklist, that requires an admin to go through and re-vet every site individually to see if they agree with your assessment or not.

    There’s an ideological slant to PieFed for sure, and it’s very much in favor of the left.

    lol. lmao even, you put a warning on electronicintifada.net like come on now

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  • [–] 32 points 6 months ago*

    If I saw this, I would not assume that Gawker, WikiLeaks, or FOX Weather would be included in a blocklist called "No-QAnon". The list itself might not be smuggled, but it's not accurately representing itself either. If it has simply evolved over time, then it needs to be renamed or split into separate blocklists.

    Additionally, if someone installing this changes their mind or realizes that what they received is not what they expected, then requiring them to either directly modify the database or click "remove" over 3000 times is arguably a dark pattern.

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  • [–] 23 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (10 children)

    Here is the (piefed.social only) warnlist in readable format

    | aa.com.tr                   | Turkish state media                                                                                                                                                              |
    | adele.pages.casa            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | bild.de                     | A tabloid that has been unfavourably compared to The Sun, and is considered generally unreliable.                                                                                |
    | browsergate.eu              | AI slop                                                                                                                                                                          |
    | caixinglobal.com            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | chainalysis.com             | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | coindesk.com                | Crypto boosters                                                                                                                                                                  |
    | counterpunch.org            | Not always reliable.                                                                                                                                                             |
    | dailysabah.com              | Turkey govt properganda                                                                                                                                                          |
    | dailystar.co.uk             | Tabloid                                                                                                                                                                          |
    | electronicintifada.net      | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | english.news.cn             | Ok except about anything to do with China                                                                                                                                        |
    | eurasiantimes.com           | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | forbes.com                  | Anyone can write a forbes article. Check the byline to determine whether an article is written by a "Forbes Staff" member, "Contributor", "Senior Contributor", or "Subscriber". |
    | fullstackpm.tech            | slop                                                                                                                                                                             |
    | gbnews.com                  | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | hispantv.com                | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | houseofsaud.com             | AI-written posts                                                                                                                                                                 |
    | journal-neo.su              | Russian propaganda outlet                                                                                                                                                        |
    | marathonhandbook.com        | AI                                                                                                                                                                               |
    | metro.co.uk                 | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | ndtv.com                    | Modi propaganda. Check MBFC                                                                                                                                                      |
    | nerds.xyz                   | AI-written articles                                                                                                                                                              |
    | news.cgtn.com               | Chinese govt propaganda source                                                                                                                                                   |
    | newsus.cgtn.com             | Chinese govt propaganda source                                                                                                                                                   |
    | nycjournals.com             | fake news                                                                                                                                                                        |
    | nypost.com                  | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | peoplesdispatch.org         | Promotes Marxist-Leninist perspectives                                                                                                                                           |
    | plenglish.com               | Cuba state media                                                                                                                                                                 |
    | presstv.ir                  | Iranian state tv                                                                                                                                                                 |
    | rawstory.com                | Often inflammitory and kinda biased                                                                                                                                              |
    | republicworld.com           | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | sixthtone.com               | Singapore govt source                                                                                                                                                            |
    | tasnimnews.com              | Iranian state tv                                                                                                                                                                 |
    | techtimes.com               | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | techtrenches.dev            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | telesurenglish.net          | Propaganda news channel directly sponsored by the governments of Venezuela and Cuba                                                                                              |
    | telesurtv.net               | Bolivarian propaganda outlet                                                                                                                                                     |
    | thatprivacyguy.com          | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    | theamericanconservative.com | A self-identified "opinionated source" whose factual accuracy has been questioned                                                                                                |
    | theintercept.com            |                                                                                                                                                                                  |
    | the-sun.com                 | Trash tabloid                                                                                                                                                                    |
    | united24media.com           | Factual, but still state-aligned advocacy journalism                                                                                                                             |
    | vgchartz.com                | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
    | wheresyoured.at             | The author of this blog works for AI companies https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2025/use-the-tools-of-the-job-youve-chosen/#the-unguarded-flank                                   |
    | writings.hongminhee.org     | LLM generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
    

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  • [–] 39 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Why isn't BBC listed as "British propaganda?" Same with many other western propaganda outlets. It seems like when leftists do it, it's propaganda, but when the west does it it's mostly fine for Rimu.

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  • [–] 23 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    Reformated it as a table

    url reason
    aa.com.tr Turkish state media
    adele.pages.casa LLM-generated posts
    bild.de A tabloid that has been unfavourably compared to The Sun, and is considered generally unreliable.
    browsergate.eu AI slop
    caixinglobal.com LLM-generated posts
    chainalysis.com LLM-generated posts
    coindesk.com Crypto boosters
    counterpunch.org Not always reliable.
    dailysabah.com Turkey govt properganda
    dailystar.co.uk Tabloid
    electronicintifada.net Unreliable source
    english.news.cn Ok except about anything to do with China
    eurasiantimes.com Unreliable source
    forbes.com Anyone can write a forbes article. Check the byline to determine whether an article is written by a "Forbes Staff" member, "Contributor", "Senior Contributor", or "Subscriber".
    fullstackpm.tech slop
    gbnews.com Unreliable source
    hispantv.com Unreliable source
    houseofsaud.com AI-written posts
    journal-neo.su Russian propaganda outlet
    marathonhandbook.com AI
    metro.co.uk Unreliable source
    ndtv.com Modi propaganda. Check MBFC
    nerds.xyz AI-written articles
    news.cgtn.com Chinese govt propaganda source
    newsus.cgtn.com Chinese govt propaganda source
    nycjournals.com fake news
    nypost.com Unreliable source
    peoplesdispatch.org Promotes Marxist-Leninist perspectives
    plenglish.com Cuba state media
    presstv.ir Iranian state tv
    rawstory.com Often inflammitory and kinda biased
    republicworld.com Unreliable source
    sixthtone.com Singapore govt source
    tasnimnews.com Iranian state tv
    techtimes.com LLM-generated posts
    techtrenches.dev LLM-generated posts
    telesurenglish.net Propaganda news channel directly sponsored by the governments of Venezuela and Cuba
    telesurtv.net Bolivarian propaganda outlet
    thatprivacyguy.com LLM-generated posts
    theamericanconservative.com A self-identified "opinionated source" whose factual accuracy has been questioned
    theintercept.com
    the-sun.com Trash tabloid
    united24media.com Factual, but still state-aligned advocacy journalism
    vgchartz.com Unreliable source
    wheresyoured.at The author of this blog works for AI companies https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2025/use-the-tools-of-the-job-youve-chosen/#the-unguarded-flank
    writings.hongminhee.org LLM generated posts
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  • [–] 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Before starting work on PieFed I spent 3? years studying right wing disinformation - qanon, antivax, all that and that blocklist is an output from that. Every site on that list was reviewed personally. - Rimu

    🀦🏽

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    That seems to be about the other list. The noqanon one.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago

    I'm not sure. The post was about this list and the warning about a supposed Marxist-Leninist web. How an antifascist list has been created is unrelated, then, the logical conclusion is that was created at the same time or that was a bad faith and manipulative answer.

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  • [–] 20 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Why is the intercept on there??

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  • [–] 55 points 6 months ago (10 children)

    You could have just asked, though.

    Oh they could have asked, could they? Like you asked before spreading disinfo about our instance using GenAI for moderation?

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  • [–] 56 points 6 months ago* (1 child)

    Also:

    I think it's pointless to try to count points and see who was wrong when by how much. From my perspective, there were issues from all sides during that whole story.

    We have bent over backwards to de-escalate the situation, both with L.W. and with Rimu. Our admins have stepped down. People changed their usernames. Our admins overruled our mods. Literally creating tension within our instance to maintain relations with the larger fediverse. On the other hand, rimu's deliberate disinfo is still up to this day, without any statements from our team, or correction to their blatant lies. They've even blocked people calling them out, so piefed users can't see this criticism. So don't try to "both sides" me.

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  • [–] 41 points 6 months ago*

    Are we supposed to bring back the whole history every time Rimu comments anywhere?

    When he's being hypocritical AF about people "could have just asked", then yes I think I will.

    Rimu discovers that a dbzer0 mod has been using a LLM for moderation. That mod has been somehow pretending to use OpenAI to upset the !fuckai crowd, actually it was a local freeware model. He posts about it.

    Talk about underplaying the situation...

    Rimu spread purposeful disinfo. He never "just asked". He ignored comments from our admins explicitly telling him he's wrong, because it went against his narrative. Was purposefully uncharitable so he could spin it as badly as possible. Crossposted to Mastodon in an attempt to initiate a pile-on. I could go on...

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  • If you're going for the whole history don't forget the nazi smear by some german troll and rimu trying to paint db0 as uniquely ban-happy. Like this has been a busy 10 days or so with shots fired on the FAF day-after-day, this is not history yet but an ongoing barrage from their POV. Also

    Rimu discovers that a dbzer0 mod has been using a LLM for moderation

    there was no LLM moderation, and rimu knew this before making his post^[https://lem.lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/42212552/20361800]

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  • [–] 25 points 6 months ago

    The omissions in this timeline about brigading sockpuppets and falsified nazi smears...

    But to list that timeline and act as though this is out of context or unrelated to an ongoing crashout... we are reaching some Hasan's dog collar level of bullshit.

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  • [–] 59 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

    There’s an ideological slant to PieFed for sure, and it’s very much in favor of the left. That could be why maga.place and lemmychan.org use Lemmy and not PieFed.

    PieFed bakes in preferences against left wing groups, and you've been launching a crusade against anarchist instances lately. As much as you believe yourself to be left, you've done your best to left-punch wherever you can, and have unilaterally made decisions greatly impacting the functionality of PieFed to suit your overwhelmingly liberal views. This isn't even getting into how you agree with racist conspiracy theories like the idea that China is kidnapping people for organ harvesting.

    Also, it's nice that you admit that PieFed has an ideological slant and that you do develop PieFed with that in mind, socsa swore up and down that that wasn't the case for some reason.

    Also, since Rimu permabanned me from Piefed.social at PugJesus' behest after I critiqued PJ's views from the left, they won't see my comment, sadly.

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  • [–] 29 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    It's also very telling they named it noqanon.

    While sounds great weird that would trigger ml warnings as no one would consider qanon that

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  • [–] 22 points 6 months ago

    This gets back to how poorly designed piefed is and rimus explanations.

    The domain block list having more than qanon and being part of the install while not saying anything about what it actually brings in is poor design choice. Along with it apparently only being disabled by individually checking the list in the ui.

    The domain warning sign mentioned in OP is a separate list only manually added to the piefed.social flagship instance

    Rimu made it sound like they were connected in the qanon repo

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  • [–] 26 points 6 months ago (16 children)

    But why? I don't understand why you want to make your software politically charged. I'm left leaning, but I believe in free speech for all. This makes piefed a censored platform by default. You are manufacturing an echo chamber.

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  • [–] 26 points 6 months ago (13 children)

    Heh, this puts Piefed in the same basket as Reddit, Facebook etc. for the same reasons you dislike them.

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  • [–] 16 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    You can't fork Reddit

    There's an archive of an old version of Reddit's code available on Github, so theoretically you can fork it, just not the latest version.

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  • [–] 22 points 6 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 32 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    I've rarely seen a crashout so spectacular. Piefed going from the new darling to pariah software in the blink of an eye.

    Can you imagine the shitstorm MOG would have raised if the same blocklist was hardcoded in lemmy?

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  • [–] 24 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    MOG was upset that Lemmy had a slur filter for a time, they absolutely would crash out if Lemmy devs did anything near this.

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  • [–] 31 points 6 months ago (7 children)

    To clarify: you say that by default all PieFed instances don't even allow to link resources considered "right-wing", without an easy way to disable such anti-feature?

    If so, it's basically a centralized point for censorship in a decentralized system, which is very antithetical to the spirit of the Fediverse and is something even the very left Lemmy devs prefer to avoid. I see it being very detrimental in its own right.

    Shouldn't it be an offered setting instead? Like, "if you want your instance to avoid certain topics, here are filter lists to freely enable or disable"?

    Much can be said about the definition of left and the way Marxists you are addressing don't see "liberal" as "left" to begin with.

    What matters, though, is that you end up projecting a certain personal, even if somewhat educated, bias onto both PieFed as a project (banning right-wing outlets from even being linked to, globally), and the flagship instance (making warnings about Marxist-inclined outlets). This is very unwelcome for many, myself included, and, as previously mentioned, antithetical to what Fediverse is and what it stands for.

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  • [–] 30 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    Easy as in "there is a UI button/switch during initial setup". Essentially, not banning all these domains should be equally as easy as banning them.

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  • [–] 33 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

    Interesting how this thread started out about me being too right wing and now for other people it’s about me being too left wing. Heh.

    It's not about that, really. You'll always be too left for some and too right for others. The problem is a single person, regardless of their views, policing what others get to see or not to see, on all instances, globally.

    Decentralization of power is the name of the game for the Fediverse - that's why most people are here in the first place. They escaped Reddit, with its sweeping bans over the "wrong" opinions. They escaped Xitter, with a megalomaniac policing what everyone can say. They are tired of this, they don't need this, they despise this.

    You are the developer of a leading Threadiverse software. You contribute heavily to this world, and your decisions affect not only your project - they ripple through the whole thing. With an open heart, I call you to be open with the community you serve, and to give them what they need - open choice. Stripping them of that undermines trust in Threadiverse, tramples the spirit of freedom and tinkering, and brings drama and division instead.

    If you are genuinely concerned about right-wing folks stepping in to destroy the Threadiverse - look around. Lemmy, Mbin have no guardrails, they are open to everyone - and yet, the whole right wing is like two obscure instances, barely known or accessible. Instance admins take great care to curate their instances and purge such spaces, and users double this. The very nature of Threadiverse - a place for the people - makes the very people you align with gravitate towards it. And they know full well what worth there is in each choice.

    The reason the decisions of yours got so much resonance is exactly because people care. They care about PieFed, and, at the same time, they care about Threadiverse. They enjoy your work, and it brings unique developments not seen elsewhere. But if it keeps on these rails, as an ideological and opinionated project, it risks falling out of favor and into obscurity. None of us want that, and so, we call again: please, open PieFed for choice. You may suggest blocklists, even offer them as default - just don't bake them in and make a clear option for opt-out. Recognize some people need to make this choice. Hopefully, you trust your very own community to do what's right.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 months ago

    Cute, but not enough, not by a mile. Calling Piefed "left-leaning" is a LARP at best.

    You’re treating these neoliberal interpretations of bias as some sort of intellectual debate to "inform" folks, instead of the existential threat it is to the nature of online discourse.

    Sure, left-wing discussions are "allowed" as long as they wear their scarlet letter and stay in the ghetto where we put them.

    I spent 3? years studying right wing disinformation

    Guess some of it rubbed off.

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