Today I noticed a huge wall of spam from UniversalMonk from 2 different accounts and didn’t initially think much of it and blocked their communities but more spam came from different communities.

At this point I checked and saw that they had created several communities which then led me down the rabbit hole to discover that their posts had almost entirely covered the new posts page of both sh.itjust.works and lemm.ee. Later on I discovered that they’re posting right-wing propaganda and misinformation from breitbart, foxnews you name it.


He’s already caused and stirred shit 2 months ago and clearly I can see why now.

At this point it’s difficult to believe that UniversalMonk will learn proper netiquette in: not post spamming, being considerate to others, and not sharing right-wing extremist content that no one wants.

  • Lemminary
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    405 months ago

    In that case I also nominate @[email protected] who pretends to be left but posts an incredible amount of conservative propaganda and misinformation in all his little communities.

    • recursive_recursion they/themOP
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      5 months ago

      So u want to silence someone for their beliefs.

      Allowing people to spout whatever nonsense and cause harm to others is reckless at best, ignorant and insane at worst. I’m old but not old enough to have dementia.

      Free speach does not mean u have a right to not be offended.

      The argument of free speech so hollow, I’ve seen it used by right-wingers as a rallying cry when in reality free speech is free yes but simutaneously it does not mean free of consequences.

      He’s in violation of our TOS and probably several others which reminds me @[email protected] you’ll want to see the last image with dumbass Zuck at the top

      • Allowing people to spout whatever nonsense and cause harm to others is reckless at best, ignorant and insane at worst. I’m old but not old enough to have dementia.

        What words has he said that are cuasing harm. Because if it isnt calling for actionable violence then it isnt causing harm.

        The argument of free speech so hollow, I’ve seen it used by right-wingers as a rallying cry

        I didnt realise free speach was a right wing idea. I though free speach was a basic liberty of free independent people.

        when in reality free speech is free yes but simutaneously it does not mean free of consequences.

        Free to say as he pleases and get downvoted, judged, resonded to negatively.

        He’s in violation of our TOS and probably several others

        What tos violations has he made? Im gonna assume innocent until proven guilty.

    • @[email protected]
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      445 months ago

      Sure, I’ll take the bait. It’s not at all an issue of his beliefs. Plenty of people on Lemmy think that we should vote for third parties, plenty of people on Lemmy think that… I don’t know, I blocked UM so long ago that I can’t even really remember what his beliefs were. I think he thought Biden was doing a bad job. I don’t think that is some weird heretic belief on Lemmy that will get you banned. Nothing he had to say was ever the issue.

      If every time someone gets on the bus, they sit down next to random other passengers and start pestering them about Jesus, loudly and without fail, no matter how much the person clearly doesn’t want it, and then when multiple people tell them to stop, they start crying about religious discrimination, yell at the whole bus, say they won’t be silenced, show up the next day with a whole backpack full of pamphlets about the first amendment, concoct elaborate disguises to be able to sneak back on the bus once one bus driver finally has had enough and bans them, all the while setting up this incredibly loud consistent whining sound about how they’re being persecuted because of their Christianity, it was never about the Christianity.

      You can be Christian on the bus. You can also be Jewish or Muslim. You can wear a headscarf, you can talk to your friends about Jesus, together on the bus. Likewise, you can be anti-Biden, or pro-Biden, or pro-socialist, or whatever you want to be, on Lemmy. When you become so incredibly obnoxious about your style of interaction that the entire community has agreed that you’re causing a problem, and then instead of being open to feedback and continuing to say what you think, but in a fashion that is productive and respectful of everyone else, you instead double down and say you won’t be silenced and send threatening DMs to your critics and start making a whole bunch of new accounts when you are banned from multiple places, it is time for you to go. Because you had your opportunity to tone it down and integrate within the social contract that makes the place function, and you explicitly and proudly chose not to.

      • Sure, I’ll take the bait. It’s not at all an issue of his beliefs…Nothing he had to say was ever the issue.

        Ok so what is the issue cos op hasnt seemed to have addressed it.

        If every time someone gets on the bus, they sit down next to random other passengers and start pestering them about Jesus, loudly and without fail, no matter how much the person clearly doesn’t want it, and then when multiple people tell them to stop, they start crying about religious discrimination, yell at the whole bus, say they won’t be silenced, show up the next day with a whole backpack full of pamphlets about the first amendment, concoct elaborate disguises to be able to sneak back on the bus once one bus driver finally has had enough and bans them, all the while setting up this incredibly loud consistent whining sound about how they’re being persecuted because of their Christianity, it was never about the Christianity.

        I like ur metaphor it presents a very visceral image of a particular behaviour. Ur forgetting just 1 things lemmy has that a bus doesnt a magic button to make them disapear (the block button). Also nothing wrong with talking to anyone u want about anything u want thats how free speach works.

        You can be Christian on the bus. You can also be Jewish or Muslim. You can wear a headscarf, you can talk to your friends about Jesus, together on the bus. Likewise, you can be anti-Biden, or pro-Biden, or pro-socialist, or whatever you want to be, on Lemmy.

        U can also talk to anyone else u please about anything on this list or not on this list, it doesnt havr to be your friends.

        When you become so incredibly obnoxious about your style of interaction that the entire community has agreed that you’re causing a problem,

        Free speach requires that u allow people to be obnoxious, as long as ur not calling for actionable violence i say let em speak.

        and then instead of being open to feedback and continuing to say what you think, but in a fashion that is productive and respectful of everyone else, you instead double down and say you won’t be silenced

        Why should anyone be forced to change how they choose to express their beliefs. What if everyone in a neighbourhood decided that rainbow flags where obnoxious, that does not grant them the right to deny the gays there right to express their beliefs however the fuck they want. (So long as its not violent or callibg for actionable violence etc etc).

        and send threatening DMs to your critics

        If this is true which it quite probably could be then op should have started with this. Ill be in full support of instance bans if i can be shown verifyable proof this is true.

        and start making a whole bunch of new accounts when you are banned from multiple places, it is time for you to go.

        Thats how an open platform works good luck stopping it. Ie the technology of Activpub has made the capability to deny any individual their free speach impossible.

        Because you had your opportunity to tone it down and integrate within the social contract that makes the place function, and you explicitly and proudly chose not to.

        I hate the concept of the social contract. I was forced to sign it under duress (i didnt concent to being born etc etc). The politicians, the billionares, the dictators of the world, the thieves stealing food to survive, etc etc etc they have not integrated within the social contract. If there is no enforcement then why follow the rules?

        I believe in a far simpler system that perfectly describes every system far better than the social contract. Darwinian evolution. Given that i would say its pretty arrogant to assert that following the social contract 100% of the time is always the most advantagious.

        • @[email protected]
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          95 months ago

          If this is true which it quite probably could be then op should have started with this. Ill be in full support of instance bans if i can be shown verifyable proof this is true.

          Talk to the lemmy.world admins, they’re the ones who know the details.

          https://lemmy.world/modlog?page=1&userId=9454261 and search for “harassing”.

            • @[email protected]
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              125 months ago

              Mods from lemmy.world and lemmy.ca have been in these comments saying that yes, it happened and was a TOS violation.

              You’re free not to believe them. I don’t think asking them to expose someone else’s private DMs to you to prove it to you is realistic.

              • Mods from lemmy.world and lemmy.ca have been in these comments saying that yes, it happened and was a TOS violation.

                Which ones and can i get comment links?

                You’re free not to believe them.

                I dont trust anything i verify

                I don’t think asking them to expose someone else’s private DMs to you to prove it to you is realistic.

                I think its pretry sus if ur willing to claim someone has sent abusive messages but not reveal what said abusive messages where. Thats a bit like claiming u have proof of someone stealing your car but will not be providing said proof as u just have to “trust me bro”

                • @[email protected]
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                  65 months ago

                  Which ones and can i get comment links?

                  https://lemmy.world/comment/14444086

                  https://lemmy.ca/comment/13865167

                  I think its pretry sus if ur willing to claim someone has sent abusive messages but not reveal what said abusive messages where. Thats a bit like claiming u have proof of someone stealing your car but will not be providing said proof as u just have to “trust me bro”

                  What part of “not publishing other people’s private communications” doesn’t make sense?

                  This is, in fact, exactly the same way stolen cars work. Someone steals your car, you get the police report, you show it to the insurance company. If you don’t have a police report, then they definitely will have questions.

                  https://ponder.cat/comment/1480007

                  That’s the police report. The insurance company doesn’t say, “Well, I won’t know it was stolen until I see it for myself. Yes, I know you explained there’s a specific reason you can’t show it to me, but I just don’t trust anything, I verify. The report from the person who investigated it using the extra abilities of their position, and then wrote formally that yes, it was stolen, isn’t good enough.”

    • @[email protected]
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      105 months ago

      Don’t pretend to be surprised, this is Lemmy we’re talking about. It’s how they roll! Inclusion through exclusion or something.

        • Skeezix
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          65 months ago

          Thats where you continually fail to understand. This issue is about behavior, not opinions.

          • Thats right for some of the reasons op gave

            At this point it’s difficult to believe that UniversalMonk will learn proper netiquette in: not post spamming, being considerate to others, and not sharing right-wing extremist content that no one wants.

            But op is trying to use the fact he posts right-wing content as a reason to get him banned.

            • Skeezix
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              25 months ago

              I think its safe to say people are mostly concerned with extremist content. The poster qualified it with “right wing” simply because the right wing is exhibits more extremist tendencies. You picked out those qualifiers on purpose to shore up your argument .

  • @[email protected]
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    285 months ago

    Seems like he does get banned frequently by mods, given he has like 10 accounts created on a number of servers in the past few months

  • @[email protected]
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    95 months ago

    This is harassment directed towards one specific user.

    If you find direct offense to their posts, you should let the instance admins manage that through reports. If there is many instances, do that many reports.

    But this is basically fascist harassment. A witch hunt.

    What, no one can dissent from your ideology? Is it that weak that it cannot and will not handle criticism?

    The reverse applies as well. If you want, open your own instance echo chamber and talk to yourself.

  • @[email protected]
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    445 months ago

    Everyone wanted to know how it would go for the “I just want people to support a 3rd party” folks after the election… Well, now you know!

      • @[email protected]
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        545 months ago

        He was banned on lemmy.world for excessive Jill Stiein/3rd party spam prior to the election and the discussion at the time was “What will they do after the election?” Well, now you know. Right Wing all along.

    • @[email protected]
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      85 months ago

      I want to push back on this just a little. Clearly UM isn’t the bastion of consistent good thought, but others that were maligned like return2ozma have been pretty consistent in what they post.

      This is to say, “Great, one person is a fuckup. Why are we attributing this to the whole group?”

      • sunzu2
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        55 months ago

        Becuase 3p vote is the threat to neo libaral regimes… They requires polarization and two choices to lock us into endless cultures warz lesser of two evils, trust me bro vote for my guy…

        They DNC would rather you vote for Trump than 3p lol

  • @[email protected]
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    755 months ago

    Here’s the thing: without this thread, I might never have become aware of this user or their activities. Are you sure that what you’re doing isn’t counterproductive and giving them more undeserved attention?

    • recursive_recursion they/themOP
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      5 months ago

      I can see what you mean by that although for this case in an odd manner you actually want to highlight this problem.

      This is another parallel system that was shown in this crazy GDC talk: 1,500 Slot Machines Walk into a Bar: Adventures in Quantity Over Quality


      For background context Alex Schwartz and Ziba Scott launched premium mobile games to the Google Play Store in 2013 which unfortunately didn’t “help in making our money back and being able to make enough money to make the next game”. After having explored the storefront and finding nefarious apps and junk reskined clones everywhere they decided to intentionally flood the Google Play Store with junk slot machine games as a joke/experiment.

      "There was a point in here that I don’t think was drilled home as hard as it could have been which was… if people are sneaking by with garbage the thing that we did was to put a huge neon sign with an arrow pointing at ourselves and the garbage next to us; illuminating the entire underbelly of dark weird App Store shit and so the idea that if you do it at scale clearly they’re(Google’s) going to notice and clearly they’re(Google’s) going to change the terms of service slowly to ice you out.

      Hopefully others went down with us in the wake of that. Like we provided the perfect targeted spot to drop the missile uh so hopefully, hopefully that helped get rid of duplicate apps that were also in the area."

      • ThePowerOfGeek
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        175 months ago

        I agree with you. In this case it’s time to bring this up. I quietly blocked monk months ago because I was tired of seeing his shit in my feed, but I didn’t want to bring attention to his inflammatory posts. But that clearly hasn’t worked on a wider level. He’s still posting sketchy stuff and annoying other people here. Sometimes you have to call people out and the wider community has to act, even at the risk of drawing attention to the problem users.

    • @[email protected]
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      65 months ago

      I’ve come across him before, I think he moderates a right wing Lemmy community I’m a member of.

  • @[email protected]
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    425 months ago

    It blows my mind that the admins of UniversalMonk-affected servers don’t just ban him on sight.

    Guys: You’re being too nice. I get it, you want to be inclusive. But you have to draw lines. Someone doesn’t have to be telling racist jokes or something, in order to be clearly and unapologetically a net negative to the community in every possible sense. And, showing them firmly to the door doesn’t have to be a complex or “objective” process when that happens.

    • Encephalotrocity
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      135 months ago

      Nah, this whole trend to censor anything and everything that isn’t exactly what you want to see is worse for the community.

      I say leave him alone. I don’t have him blocked. I don’t ever see his content unless I actually do search to see what he’s been up to (spoiler: he was a far right nutbag all along the end). Even IF he is spamming articles, that behaviour can be modded by communities he isn’t modding for, and those he is modding for can be blocked. Hell if he pisses you off specifically you can block him yourself already! This isn’t a community needs to step in issue.

        • @[email protected]
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          95 months ago

          Yeah man I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, I literally haven’t seen a single thing this dude has posted in months and all these people chiming in like he’s flooding their feeds. Like why the fuck are they subscribed to his communities in the first place???

      • @[email protected]
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        225 months ago

        How many of this comment do I need to respond to?

        You guys aren’t even trying to make it make sense. Moderators blocked him, so he made new communities of his own. Then people blocked him and instances banned him, so he made new accounts. Now he’s showing up again for people who have taken the steps you describe. He is actively evading people’s attempts to not have to listen to him. He talks about how proud he is of himself for doing it.

        • Encephalotrocity
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          105 months ago

          How many of this comment do I need to respond to?

          As many as it takes to get you to understand censorship is a worse means. UM can ‘evade’ all he wants but he can’t take away your unsubscribe and block buttons. Did you know they aren’t single use? Amazing!

          • @[email protected]
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            195 months ago

            Did you know you can’t take away my “asking the admins to ban an obvious and incredibly energetic troll” buttons, either?

  • JaggedRobotPubes
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    295 months ago

    Posting lying terrorist dens like breitbart or fox as news is ban-worthy on its own.

  • @[email protected]
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    155 months ago

    100% if he is breaking the ToS on multiple instances (and I would argue that spamming most likely is, not to mention the substance of the content)

    He can always create his own instance and anyone who wants to see his content can join it as well. Instance admins shouldn’t feel obligated to give anyone a platform (ahem, .world), the fediverse is decentralized and democratic.

  • @[email protected]
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    545 months ago

    I wouldn’t care so much if he wasn’t such a bitch about it. You want to post that stuff than own up and admit it. Fucking cryptofascist.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    from 2 different accounts

    So … block the all of the entire two accounts and be done with it?

  • @[email protected]M
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    305 months ago

    I agree with the sentiment but this here is not a complaints forum.

    Please report that user and his communities to the admins of the instances he’s registered at. A quick look at the sidebars of both sh.itjust.works and lemm.ee would suggest that their admins banning him is a slam dunk.

    Maybe ask at [email protected] and [email protected] what to do?

    On the grounds of !fediverse not being a complaints forum, I’m going to lock this post.

  • Coelacanth
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    465 months ago

    This fucker is still around eh? I remember him single-handedly sowing discord in c/politics around the time of the election with incessant pro 3rd party spam and insane tirades of sealioning - also report abuse if I remember right. Or at least taunting people into breaking rules and subsequently reporting them. I was amazed at the time that he was allowed to remain unbanned for ages in that sub when it was very clear what he was doing.

    • sunzu2
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      75 months ago

      What’s wrong with advocating for 3p vote?

      Did the party komissars prohibit these discussions in DNC controlled subs?