Regarding Mid-East-related Comments on !europe - feddit.org
feddit.org
Hi. In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post. While the servers of feddit.org [http://feddit.org] are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic [https://feddit.org/post/12529640]. And with that, let’s go: In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called “Reason of State” introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as “Israel-related antisemitism”. Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it’s not that fun. There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules. If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community: * Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular. * Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like. * Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism. * The slogan “from the river…” * Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany. * … and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis Comments will not be removed for the following: * Denouncing genocide. * Denouncing Israeli war crimes. * Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement. * Referring to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” “expansionist,” or “far-right”. If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I’d also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @[email protected] [/u/[email protected]] account (which all mods have access to). :::spoiler To help you understand why, I’ll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL). * A news report [https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/antisemitismus-216.html]: > Berlin in mid-May [2024] around 6 o’clock in the morning. A loud, continuous “banging” against the apartment door wakes student Alina T. from her sleep. […] When her husband opens the door, several LKA officers, two employees of the district office and the SEK “storm” past him into the apartment. Puzzled, he looks at the search warrant. […] The background to this was a Facebook entry in the student’s profile: "From the river […] * A legal treatise [https://kripoz.de/2025/01/31/antisemitische-aeusserungen-als-gegenstand-des-strafrechts/]: > In November 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs also issued a prohibition order against Hamas.[60] According to the order, “the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ (in German or other languages)” is a distinguishing mark of Hamas[61]. > […] the current legal situation [regarding “Denial of Israel’s right to exist”] is - contrary to what the statements of the Federal Ministry of Justice suggest[63] - anything but clear. Whether incitements to eliminate the State of Israel are prosecuted depends on the respective legal opinion and the prosecution will of the respective public prosecutor’s office. * Press release from the previous government [https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/service/archiv/antisemitismus-und-fake-news-im-netz-2234984]: > In this context, Section 111 StGB, which covers public incitement to commit crimes, may also be relevant. Incitement to extinguish Israel’s existence by force may be punishable under this provision. The same applies to calls to publicly display the Hamas flag. If Hamas attacks are publicly cheered and celebrated, this may also be punishable. > This means that people who cheer on Hamas’s actions or publicly express their sympathy with the attacks may constitute the criminal offence of “approval of criminal acts” under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code (StGB). * Another news report [https://www.spiegel.de/a-841b249d-d91d-474c-9894-857bef888973] > In connection with the controversial Palestine Congress in Berlin, the German authorities have also imposed an entry ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “In order to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda at the event”, several entry bans have been issued, the news agency AFP learned from security sources on Sunday. One of these concerned Varoufakis. (Notably, Varoufakis would have spoken about one-state solutions …) * Overview Germany in 2024 by Amnesty International [https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/western-central-and-south-eastern-europe/germany/report-germany/] * Overview Germany in 2024 by Human Rights Watch [https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/germany] ::: federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)

Feddit.org announced today that they are changing their rules to match German law despite their server not being hosted in Germany.

Feddit.org now bans

  • The sentence “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”

  • Comparing Israel to the Nazis

  • Calls to end Zionism

  • Calling for the dissolution of Israel

And much more. The full original post can be found here, or

Click here for full text of original post:

Hi.

In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post.

While the servers of feddit.org are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic.

And with that, let’s go:

In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called “Reason of State” introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as “Israel-related antisemitism”.

Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it’s not that fun.

There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules.

If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community:

  • Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.
  • Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like.
  • Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism.
  • The slogan “from the river…”
  • Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany.
  • … and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis

Comments will not be removed for the following:

  • Denouncing genocide.
  • Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
  • Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
  • Referring to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” “expansionist,” or “far-right”.

If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I’d also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @[email protected] account (which all mods have access to).

To help you understand why, I'll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL).

  • A news report:

    Berlin in mid-May [2024] around 6 o’clock in the morning. A loud, continuous “banging” against the apartment door wakes student Alina T. from her sleep. […] When her husband opens the door, several LKA officers, two employees of the district office and the SEK “storm” past him into the apartment. Puzzled, he looks at the search warrant. […] The background to this was a Facebook entry in the student’s profile: "From the river […]

  • A legal treatise:

    In November 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs also issued a prohibition order against Hamas.[60] According to the order, “the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ (in German or other languages)” is a distinguishing mark of Hamas[61]. […] the current legal situation [regarding “Denial of Israel’s right to exist”] is - contrary to what the statements of the Federal Ministry of Justice suggest[63] - anything but clear. Whether incitements to eliminate the State of Israel are prosecuted depends on the respective legal opinion and the prosecution will of the respective public prosecutor’s office.

  • Press release from the previous government:

    In this context, Section 111 StGB, which covers public incitement to commit crimes, may also be relevant. Incitement to extinguish Israel’s existence by force may be punishable under this provision. The same applies to calls to publicly display the Hamas flag. If Hamas attacks are publicly cheered and celebrated, this may also be punishable. This means that people who cheer on Hamas’s actions or publicly express their sympathy with the attacks may constitute the criminal offence of “approval of criminal acts” under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).

  • Another news report

    In connection with the controversial Palestine Congress in Berlin, the German authorities have also imposed an entry ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “In order to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda at the event”, several entry bans have been issued, the news agency AFP learned from security sources on Sunday. One of these concerned Varoufakis. (Notably, Varoufakis would have spoken about one-state solutions …)

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Amnesty International

  • Overview Germany in 2024 by Human Rights Watch

federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
    66•1 month ago

    Time to defederate Feddit.org.

    To bad. They weren’t that bad, IME. But denying criticism of a state actively carrying out a globally recognized genocide… that’s a strict rule I’ve adopted.

    If midwest.social won’t defederate, I’ll have to block the whole instance.

    • poVoq
      13•1 month ago

      The post literally says that you can critizise that 🤦

      Please understand that there can be some nuance on the topic and that people in Germany are understandably extra careful on the topic.

  • comfy
    41•1 month ago

    The write-up they link is also insightful. Notably, they “explicitly reject these accusations” of being Zionists and insist it’s a legal precaution required by their countries.

    I’ve bought servers for hosting some small communities and I sometimes thought maybe I was paranoid for retaining anonymity and carefully picking the country and company to allow muh freedoms as far as speech goes, but it’s interesting seeing .world and feddit pull out the “just following legislation” card (which is understandable, given that staff imprisonment is obviously bad for their community, but also irresponsible and complicit to simply accept the situation instead of resolving it, and because this is an internet community there are safe ways to resolve it).

          • @[email protected]English
            4•1 month ago

            It is however illegal for them to allow such material to remain on their servers once they’re made aware of it.

              • poVoq
                5•1 month ago

                This is false. The German police will contact the Austrian one, who will share the contact details of the persons legally responsible for publication, and if those happen to be residents of Germany, the Austrian laws are irrelevant to what the German police does.

            • @[email protected]English
              13•1 month ago

              Their server isn’t located within Germany, from what I’m reading.

              From what I understand, the situation they are worried about is a german authority gaining access to their personal devices or somehow de-anonymizing their accounts and associating them with their actual identity while living in/traveling through germany, and seeing the type of content they are posting/allowing to be posted on a community they moderate.

              The actual risk of exposure to them is incredibly small.

    • poVoq
      8•1 month ago

      Feddit.org was not started as an law-skirting activist space with specific op-sec requirements.

      My impression when talking with the admins is that they are quite sympethatic to such efforts, but simply ask that to be done somewhere else where it is safer for everyone involved.

    • @[email protected]English
      21•1 month ago

      Germans and being complicit because they are “just following laws/orders”. Name a better duo.

  • @[email protected]
    21•1 month ago

    Germany has a very binary view on class supremacism. It’s not supremacism is good vs bad. It’s a pendulum of who is above criticism. Russophobic nazi supremacism still kosher though.

    • @[email protected]
      3•1 month ago

      Russophobic nazi supremacism still kosher though.

      I’ve noticed that pro-Israel Germans are usually not that much against Russia.

      • @[email protected]
        15•1 month ago

        Not from what I’ve seen at all. The people who insist on calling Palestinians (and any Arab people who oppose Zionism) “terrorists” are often the same people frothing at the mouth about how we have to smash the Russian “orcs.” Granted, this isn’t limited only to Germans, but I’ve definitely seen it specifically from them as well.

        • @[email protected]
          1•1 month ago

          Worse is better. You need to have all sorts of delusions existent in the society, for the immunity to be preserved.

          Honestly I’ve had different experience, too much Russia-sympathy from Germans. But maybe that just came out of fashion.

    • @[email protected]English
      6•1 month ago

      Not for nothing but Russia kinda deserves the current ire.

      Edit: love the moderation! Very “fair and balanced”. I’m screenshoting all this. Screw tankies!

        • sunzu2
          2•1 month ago

          Well to a tankie Ukrainians are not real people snd deservt it

          Palestine is a good talking point to highlight the westoid genocide tendencies.

          This the results you get when you shilling ideological shite instead of common sense

      • @[email protected]English
        10•1 month ago

        Trust a dronie to start whining about Russia and “tankies” in a thread about the genocide of Gaza.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•1 month ago

          Trust a “dronie” to protect their homeland!

          Edit to add: your boos mean nothing. You can’t support Russia and Palestine. You’re obviously paid by someone, and/or misguided.

          Edit to add: I’m not deleting shit but have a group coming at me. 😉

          Edit #2: every negative number I get from you pricks is a positive in my book! Keep bringing it on you lonely pieces of shit!

          • @[email protected]English
            2•1 month ago

            You can’t support Russia and Palestine

            Indeed, russia is israel’s ally. The russian state is ultranationalist because the US decided so. I don’t want Germany to borrow 1000 billions euroz to subsidize their weapon industry while they send ukrainians to die. Especially after what they did to greece during the debt crisis.

          • @[email protected]English
            8•1 month ago

            “Protecting your homeland” by whining about Russia and “tankies” in a thread about the genocide of Gaza.

            • @[email protected]English
              1•1 month ago

              You’re the one protecting an eastern equivalent to Israel.

              Edit: love that I got under your skin asshole. Have fun with the cognitive dissonance you experience daily.

              Edit 2: it feels validating every time you ass holes down doot me! Please keep it coming!

              • @[email protected]
                2•1 month ago

                Edit: love that I got under your skin asshole.

                I love that you’re banned for your comments, let me carry that feeling forward by user blocking you. bu-bye now.

      • Eugene V. Debs' GhostEnglish
        13•1 month ago

        Yep if you have Russian blood in you you’re guilty of all crimes of its government, even if you’re against Putin.

        It’s so cool and not at all xenophobic.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•1 month ago

          I want you to take notice and how I said “Russia” not “Russians”. The state aren’t the individual people. But good job with following the hive mind. So proud of you.

          • Eugene V. Debs' GhostEnglish
            11•1 month ago

            The hivemind of “I don’t think everyone in Russia is inherently guilty of all crimes by Putin?”

            Alright let’s just arrest everyone in Russia. They’re all guilty.

            • sunzu2
              2•1 month ago

              You are making shit up lol

              Also, many Russians support what Russia is doing in Ukraine the same way majority of Israeli Jews support the genocide…

              But have you thought about the population doing he oppression mate

              🤡

              • Eugene V. Debs' GhostEnglish
                4•1 month ago

                I’m sure a non-zero amount support it, but it’s like thinking that everyone in America is guilty of the invasion of Iraq.

                If there is a Israel citizen who is against the Genocide, I don’t want them considered guilty. I think they should be doing as much as they can against it, and being neutral to it is complicity. But if they’re against the genocide, they aren’t guilty.

                I’m also unsure of the rates of support for the War on Ukraine in Russia, but I doubt it’s 100%. Even if it’s 99%, that 1% can’t be considered guilty as charged for.

                I don’t consider think that being a citizen of a nation instantly makes you guilty. But I also acknowledge that they can benefit from how their nation acts on the world stage.

                My nation benefited from the Iraq invasion, but I was 6 years old when we did it. I didn’t even know what war really was then.

                • @[email protected]English
                  2•1 month ago

                  Thank you one sane, non-kneejerk response. I appreciate you.

                  And for the late hivemind, I got a comment history full of not being a prick like the dude that responded to me.

              • @[email protected]English
                2•1 month ago

                Bro, again. You’re acting like the person insulting me, assumed I was. Please grab some nuance. The individual citizens are not as a whole responsible for state actions. Despite it the majority of the populace is in favor, you cannot blame them as a whole.

  • @[email protected]English
    97•1 month ago

    Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular

    This part floored me. As if it wasnt Israel that was currently denying equal rights to Palestinians and not the other way around… this is just the zionist version of ‘all lives matter’ bullshit.

    • sunzu2
      17•1 month ago

      But have you thought but the guy doing the genocide asshole?!?!

  • @[email protected]
    13•1 month ago

    Germany tried to create laws to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust. It’s a laudable effort but they’re failing at it.

    The problem is that they were so specific about preventing “The Holocaust” that they ignored many other kinds of bigotry and racism. They thought that if they forbid a few key phrases and symbols, hatred would wither on the vine. Instead they just cleared the way for other aspects of racism to flourish.

  • @[email protected]
    27•1 month ago

    Comments will not be removed for the following:

    • Denouncing genocide.
    • Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
    • Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
    • Referring to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” “expansionist,” or “far-right”.

    Y’all grabbed your pitchforks before you even got to that part, didn’t you?

    • @[email protected]
      47•1 month ago

      • You can criticize Zionism as an ideology, but you can’t call for its end.

      • You can refer to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” but you can’t call for the dissolution of the state of Israel as it currently exists.

      You see the problem, surely?

          • @[email protected]
            9•1 month ago

            Germany is doing plenty of extra-judicial repression of pro-Palestine activism. Jurisdiction doesn’t matter.

          • poVoq
            5•1 month ago

            These laws are AFAIK in Austria similar to those in Germany, and Austrian police will share the contact details of those responsible for publication who happen to be people living in Germany. The server location alone is not the only criteria.

    • @[email protected]English
      13•1 month ago

      You can’t call for the end of israel, a state started by ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and stealing their land. You don’t realize why thats a problem?

    • @[email protected]
      3•1 month ago

      What, you’re scared of getting harrassed by your government for wrongthink on your hobby project? You sir are the actual fascist! We’ll defederate! Can’t let any of those instance users access ours. 🤡

  • Highlybaked
    24•1 month ago

    Why does the country that gassed people think they have any moral authority to tell others right from wrong

  • @[email protected]
    24•1 month ago

    Such a pain you can’t block an entite instance (at least not that I’ve found on Sync) and have to block the individual communities one by one. I blocked the ones with over 500 subscribers and i suppose the others will get blocked as they show up in my Everything feed.

    There’s no way i want to be a part of German genocide whitewashing.

    • @[email protected]English
      4•1 month ago

      you should be able to do that from the web interface, and it will apply to any apps because your server does the filtering.

      fyi, some are already blocking lemmy.ml too. I’m not yet sure if I want to go that far, but I’m getting tired of their china apologism. and this community is also on ml, soo…

      • @[email protected]
        19•1 month ago

        China apologism 😂 fucking hell I swear most of y’all would slot right in during jim crow or the yellow peril. If white society says you’re an animal it’s up to PoC to prove we’re not (and if we do it’s apologia)

    • @[email protected]
      10•1 month ago

      Sounds like you need to use a different app then. Cuz I’m pretty sure you can block instances on most other ones. I use connect and I blocked a number of instances.

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 month ago

    I was banned today from !Europe on feddit, a community I’ve never posted in, because apparently reporting a disinformation spam account posting uyghur genocide fake news rubs the mods the wrong way. I had no idea that instance was this much of a dumpster fire. Am I officially a communist now? Seems like a rite of passage has occurred

    • Omega
      15•1 month ago

      I find it more disgusting than .ml and even hexbear, Chinese Human rights violations lean towards cultural genocide, Israel is killing, starving, dislocating and destroying their culture, ethnicity, community and land, it is as bad as it can get, any defence of Israel is disgusting for me, and criticism of Palestine on that front is very ill timed in that manner, you can’t worry about ‘terrorism’ when the alternative is extermination

      • mathemachristian[he]
        14•1 month ago

        CuLtUrAl GeNoCiDe

        Go to xiaohongshu right now and look at all the uyghurs sharing their music, food, language, stories, spreading their culture freely on a predominantly chinese app!

        Whole ass street festivals in the main streets going on in xinjiang of uyghurs celebrating community

        easiest fake news to dispel but god forbid (redd/lemm)itors step out of their bubble

        • @[email protected]
          2•1 month ago

          Bro I just got banned for pointing this out today. Like seriously talk to one chinese person in your life feddit mods

          • mathemachristian[he]
            2•29 days ago

            samesies!! they will need you to be careful with how you criticize the occupation regime of west palestine for their genocide but bash china for a completely imagined one and ban anyone who disigrees.

        • Omega
          2•1 month ago

          has boy boy made a video on Xinjiang I can watch yet?

            • Sleepless OneEnglish
              8•1 month ago

              They’re a youtube channel run by a pair of leftist Australian rascals. They even have a video where they try to enter a CIA base in Australia.

          • Eugene V. Debs' GhostEnglish
            18•1 month ago

            Freeze peach is when you advocate for murder of brown people, otherwise it’s white genocide to not advocate for murder.

            • @[email protected]
              2•1 month ago

              yes, it took a while, but the western world order is all but over. There is no justice, honor, decency, or dignity here. Its just pariah states with hollow shells of what used to be democracy. US, Germany, Britain, France-- all failed states playing pretend.

        • @[email protected]
          6•1 month ago

          I posted several threads asking for that and got REAMED.

          The devs are tankies, the largest instances indirectly support fascism (and the tankies), and the biggest European instance is explicitly choosing to support neonazis.

          Lemmy is dead.

        • Omega
          7•1 month ago

          betting 100 dollars (not going to you of course) that feddit will remain federated for .world, sh.itjust.works and my home instance, discuss.online

    • @[email protected]
      1•1 month ago

      Sometimes joining the bad side is the only way not to die. I wish you strength to do the right thing (and a family in a far away safe place) when you’re in such situation.

      • @[email protected]English
        10•1 month ago

        I promise you, the feddit mods are not going to die if they don’t ban criticism of Israel. Seriously, have some perspective.

      • @[email protected]English
        5•1 month ago

        You know, the bad part of nazism is the genociding. Not really the specific of their racial hierarchy. If Bolsanero or whatever his name is decide that the state must take care of the True Brazilian and mass murder everybody else, he’d be a nazi

      • mathemachristian[he]
        23•1 month ago

        no they supported israel since they promised to help with “the jewish question” by resettling them.

        The nazis hate jews and israel took advantage of that to get more bodies to settle their frontier. Notably they even helped the nazis circumvent a boycott going on at the time to achieve this.

      • divergingEnglish
        19•1 month ago

        No, Christians were against the Jews. The nazis just took advantage of that hate. If you think that the nazis somehow had legitimate complaints against Jews or that those complaints were required to be in anyway accurate, then you have completely misunderstood the history of the last 100 years.

    • sunzu2
      34•1 month ago

      Caught a perma ban there for calling german oligarchs being heavy on Nazi nepo babies

      That server has censorship that’s more clown than lemmy.world.

      German regime front on Lemmy… Lol

      People should vote with their feet.

      These clowns should not host pan EU communities, let them circle jerk Zionism in an echo chamber 🤡