YSK: Tesseract hides any post containing the phrase "censoring me"

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I wonder what his track record on open source is.

Libs love betrayal and being evil for no fucking reason.

It's a solo project by @AdmiralPatrick@dubvee.org who has currently taken their instance offline to hide.

Yep and this case is exactly the strength of the fediverse: transparency and choice for the users and the admins. And those developers tried to break both.

Here here. Freedom of speech online, combined with the ability to control what you see, is the absolute core of a free internet, and this fucker has violated that.

dubvee has insane ban policies. Like they find people to ban based on posts in coms that have nothing to do with them. It’s almost like SRS on reddit.

I'm somewhat disappointed that i am not on the list. But i rarely post even if i do comment on the regular, and i tend to be not attracting drama (deserved or not) while doing so.

Still, i would have found it great if a leftist chump like me made the list lol. I am in awe of your popularity mate ;-)

is the same user

Which user specifically

Ohhh that's why I have some community bans!

You are on that list, too 🏅

I originally read that as ACDC and I was wondering what they had done

He's a cop? Anyway ACAB.

Seems to dislike women who don't need men in their life. Par for the course.

Guy must hate girls having fun. :)

What did the first person in space do to deserve a ban?

What if we kissed inside of the blocklist 🥺👉👈

No bottoms allowed, only tops

This has me cackling like a hyena omg

genuinely who the fuck is juicypinkrose. they don't show up in search.

I don't know who you are but if you made it into their filters you're probably a very well-rounded person who should treat yourself to something nice.

I'm pretty sure he went by making the broad lists of banned shit, and then ran a query on all the users that came up with saying that stuff.

I'm also on there, so I feel significant.

Or, he hates modern heavy metal, Devin Townsend and Colin Marston in particular.

Put it in your bio text with a link to this thread!

I'm going to start putting it on my resume

Some high profile instances were added to the blocklist alongside unrelated changes and not mentioned in the git commit message… Also apparently the error you'd get when going to the blocked instance was a generic error…

Yeah, the combination of those two issues are exactly why the hidden blocklist was noticed in the first place. The site admin for db0 noticed that their frontend was broken after they updated their Lemmy stack. But the “incompatible” version of Lemmy they had just updated to was supported. So what was causing the incompatibility? Maybe an API issue? Nope, API is fine.

After some digging, they eventually realized that it was happening due to an instance block at the frontend’s level. But they didn’t have their own instance blocked in the frontend, so why was it being blocked? Turns out, it was because they were previously running an old version of Tesseract from before the blocklist was implemented. When they updated their stack (which also updated Tesseract), the new version suddenly included the hidden blocklist code. So when they tried to start their stack after updating, the new version of Tesseract quietly downloaded the hidden blocklist (which can’t be disabled) and blocked the instance it was currently running on. This effectively broke the frontend for db0, which is what led to the investigation and subsequent hidden blocklist discovery.

That Github is a fun read in general. Some of these variables and function names are sending me. They even seem to be blocking proton email addresses.

::: spoiler Tap for blacklists.ts https://github.com/asimons04/tesseract/blob/main/src/lib/blacklists.ts

My personal highlights:

// Domains that have been identified as frequent spam
export const SPAM_SITES = [
    'gofund.me',
    'gofundme.com',

// ...

const SHIT_KNOWN_BAD_LEMMY_ACTORS_SPAM

// ...

// Very non-comprehensive list of domains that host disposable/temporary/throwaway email aliases. Basically just the low-hanging fruit to aid in decision making.
export const THROWAWAY_EMAIL_DOMAINS = [
    'proton.me',
    
// ...

export const BLACKLISTED_INSTANCES: string[] = [
        "abolish.capital",
        "altmedia.house",
        "anarchist.nexus",
        "chapo.chat",
        "chatgptjailbreak.tech",
        "diggita.com",
        "hexbear.com",
		"hexbear.net",
        "ibbit.at",
        "test.hexbear.net",
        "www.hexbear.net",
        "hilariouschaos.com",
        "lemmy.bestiver.se",
        "lemmy.blahaj.zone",
        "lemmy.dbzer0.com",
        "lemmy.doesnotexist.club",
        "lemmy.durstig.online",
        "lemmy.ml",
        "lemmy.razbot.xyz",
        "lemmybefree.net",
        "lemmygrad.ml",
        "lemmyusa.com",
        "lemy.lol",
        "maga.place",
        "multiverse.soulism.net",
        "news.abolish.capital",
        "nnia.space",
        "noauthority.social",
        "r.nf",
        "realbitcoin.cash",
        "redlemmy.com",
        "welppp.com"
]

// ...

// Fake news sites that MBFC doesn't have on file or are known disinformation campaignss
export const FAKE_NEWS = [
    ...RUSSIAN_GRU_INFOROS,
    ...RUSSIAN_NEWS_DOPPLEGANGER,
    ...RUSSIAN_OPERATION_UNDERCUT,
    ...RUSSIAN_PORTAL_KOMBAT_PRAVDA_NETWORK,
    ...RT_ALIASES,
    ...STOP_NEWS,
    ...OTHER_RUSSIAN_CAMPAIGNS,
    ...JOHN_MARK_DOUGAN,
    ...SHIT_KNOWN_BAD_LEMMY_ACTORS_SPAM,
    ...MAGA_PROPAGANDA,

    // Admin-extended list from env vars
    ...BLACKLIST_CONFIG.FAKE_NEWS_BLACKLIST
]

// ...

export const isFakeNewsSite()

// ...

    if ( get(userSettings).enableToxicMode) return false
    

:::

::: spoiler Tap for filtering.ts

https://github.com/asimons04/tesseract/blob/main/src/lib/filtering.ts

They seem to be filtering out a lot of political keywords!

// Initialize a default blank policy
export const defaultFilterPolicy: FilterPolicy = {
    name: 'Default Policy',

    communityRegexes: [
        "^Ban ",
        "^Boycott",
        "(Elon|(Elon )?Musk)",
        "^Fuck",
        "Palestine",
        "Iran",
        "Israel",
        "Musk",
        "^News|News$",
        "^Politic(a|s|al)|^Politik",
        "Trump",
    ],
    communityInstances: [
        "ani.social",
        "pawb.social"
    ],

:::

::: spoiler Tap for data.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asimons04/tesseract/refs/heads/main/src/lib/MBFC/data/data.json

Some juicy comments in this one. It's a list of news sources with their "bias" (left/right/centre/etc). They didn't write this, they copied it from https://github.com/drmikecrowe/mbfcext/blob/main/docs/v5/data/combined.json

"Official Media Bias/Fact Check Extension"

Be informed as you read your Facebook feed. We are the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. There are currently 1100+ media sources listed in our database and growing every day. Don’t be fooled by Fake News sources. This extension is completely open source, and the source code is hosted here.

politico.com
bbc.com
cbsnews.com
front.moveon.org

These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes

:::

Lol. "Hide NSFW communities by default" and in the same commit totally blocks blahaj.

... well that's some damn fine blasphemy right there, if I do say so myself.

I'm apparently on the list.

Honestly, surprised the file is still up for me to pull, t+24 or t+48 hours on.

They bothered to end cap the regex with an $... can't have anything with 'sp3ctr4l' anywhere in the name... I don't have alts, so... I don't know what the point of that is...

Oh well.

Not my first time.

I got shadow banned and also just actually banned from half of reddit for calling out mods on their bullshit despite being one of the earliest/oldest users there. Obligatory fuck Spez.

I'm reasonably confident that the twitter account I created soley to scream insults and baseless threats at Elon, when he accidentally bought it, ... reasonably confident he personally banned me, as ... there weren't really any other actual support staff at that point time, Elon had revoked their credentials.

I like to think I contributed, at least in a small way, to his subsequent insane crashout telling advertisers to 'go fuck yourselves'.

... this?

This reminds me of literal petty children running Gmod servers, hardcoding steamid blocklists in hashed files... the hilarious part about that is that they actually bothered to properly encrypt them, so you couldn't read them without a valid server key.

So this? Actually laughable, I've literally seen 14 year olds do this in a more clever way.

Fuckin oi vei, man.

Edit: Just noticed I'm on the blocklist. What he said fuck me for?

Figuring this out has been interesting, but then again based on that user could have just said something they didn't like in a random thread so they put you on the list

It's just liberalism. The whole thing is just doing liberalism.

What comment on what thread

I think we just notice it more because we have less content, so you're more likely to hear about each bit of drama that comes up and you're more likely to know one of the parties involved. There was lots of drama on reddit too, but I didn't subscribe to the communities that talked about it and I often didn't know enough about each incident to judge anyone

It's still annoying though 🫤

In this case, I think it's part of a general effort by left-liberal refugees from Reddit, who genuinely believe that the fediverse will be the new future of Redditesque forums one day.

Unfortunately, they have learned the wrong(imo) lesson from spez becoming a Nazi and pushing his political agenda onto every Redditor. They want the politics of this new medium to be no further left than AOC, and no further right than Chuck Schumer, while seeming to be completely free and open and information must be free, etc.

You can see that in their choice of bans.

I am glad this particular effort was so incompletent. It will not be the only one.

Edit: Oh man, spelling "incompetent" incorrectly there and getting everything else right deserves to be preserved.

Right?? I expect this kind of crap on reddit, but Lemmy? Really?

Because we're contentious and get to recognizing each other

You done goofed. I've already backtraced your IP.

"(freedom|hamburger|murica) unit",

This goofy?

it's not my job to moderate the fediverse, you won't need to worry about seeing any of this in photon

There are a few solid ones there. Photon and Blorp are my personal favourites on desktop

https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/threadiverse/alternative-uis

They just blocked all of blahaj instead of dealing with us individually

Same. Apparently I don't say enough woke things that make the snowflake pissed off?

Should've tried harder, like one of the two people from my instance who were blocked that...idk...drew some Sonic characters a couple of times and posted them in relevant communities? Should've been a real rebel like them!

It gives you something to aim for next time!

tfw not in the cool kids club either

i mean, i expected as much, but still disappointing

@db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com

Isn't that the rub with the spooky off-site list, though? No documentation to point a definitive finger at who did precisely what. I suppose we could scapegoat the person who wrote the original call for the list, but if they aren't the only maintainer then the rest of the plotters get to slip through our fingers.

Very good point.

Never trust anything defiled by shitlib hands.

Was that related to the Risa community drama at all?

I barely even post and im on the list, WTF did I do wrong?!

Edit: Oh I guess we're too based for the dev to handle.

Give users their voices back (or at least choice in what they want to see and block)

This is why I think that dev is 100% in the wrong. They made it obscure, and default, for a reason: because they can't bear to read a political opinion online, or that they're happy someone responsible for untold number of people (Luigi's alleged victim) is dead (normal, empathetic human response to someone evil dying).

You're right, individuals should be able to choose who to block (which Lemmy already lets you do!)

I'm glad this dev has been exposed.

It’s a shame that everything has become so politicized that people feel the need to shove their religious political beliefs down everyone else’s throats. Yeah, we all know who the Bad Guys(TM) are; we don’t need to be constantly reminded.

A huge problem is widespread political disengagement. It's not a shame everything has gotten so politicised, it's a shame how much worse inequality and consolidation of power has become. And things are getting worse and worse. Sorry, the only solution to this is to build a movement of people to push back, and reverse this. It can't be achieved by a handful of people.

People do need to be reminded. People do need to get their message out there.

We don't need to talk about bad things all day every day, but honestly, the amount of people who talk politics and are geting organised to do something is way, way, way too low.

Well this is also what the offending dev accuses some mods. I would love to join your stone throwing, but i also think there are some truths. Libs and Commies and Queers all can react overly hostile and not seldomly react disproportionate (all 3 of them, not every last queer person). Aaand i think the dev is butt hurt, but if he chooses an unreasonable way to react we can be glad to leverage FOSS.

db0 already did

Here's the list!

https://copyparty.adrian.place/u/?doc=policy.json

You are not. Sorry.

Yeah it's the trans people who simply want to exist who are toxic

Edit: no indication any of that post was LLM, but would love to hear why you think that.

Though I suspect that's just a tactic to get people to shift their ire.

shame that piefed has similar block lists.

I wish developers would try not to play fedi-police

You know you've lost when even Rimu thinks it's too prescriptive

This looks almost like a personal block list that got added to the full production codebase. To be clear: I do not think this was an accident. But I had plenty of interaction with this dev on the 30 Rock community, and they were clear about personally wanting to use Lemmy as a means of escapism and to ignore politics of all sort. They clearly want to ignore all remotely political discussions, but that shouldn't extend to a hard-coded block list in a frontend they create for other people to use. Creating the tools to allow each user to set up custom block lists for themselves is great. It just shouldn't be a preestablished list that affects literally every user of that frontend.

Then run an instance, Beehaw style.

Dishonestly.