Comment on Meet UpScrolled, the anti-censorship TikTok alternative

jaennaet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• alyaza@beehaw.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s so common for “anti-censorship” to be code for “Nazi-friendly” that I’m immediately suspicious of any platform that uses that as a selling point.

  i don’t know if it’s a function of the ideological bent or just because the gigantic influx of users has totally swamped their moderation, but yes it does have problems with fascists as of writing

  source

  • jaennaet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Gee whiz, imagine my surprise

    source
  • Sharksonaplane@mastodon.sandwich.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    @alyaza @jaennaet It was having problems with this within a week of launch (source: I downloaded it within a week of launch and saw/reported more than one Holocaust denialism post/commenter in that time before I closed the app). So they may be being overloaded again, but from what I heard they hadn't even implemented basic username filtering before this next wave. I didn't say anything at the time bc it was new and I wanted to believe they meant well, but it's been 6 months…

    source
  • stressballs@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    A year ago this comment would have gotten deleted from nearly any subreddit. Today it’s recognized as fact.

    source
  • tropicflite@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Same thing with Rumble, the supposedly censor free YouTube alternative that’s actually a maga cesspool.

    source
• mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yeah, I tried to give it an honest shot. Made an account and opened the Discover page. The very first post was an antisemitic “the Jews are secretly running the world” conspiracy theory post. Whatever, it’s inevitable on an anti-censorship app. Not a great first impression, but I’m willing to shrug it off as a fluke.

  Then three or four posts later, there was a blatant “Hitler was right about the Jews and the holocaust wasn’t enough” post, made by an account that was dedicated to glorifying Hitler. Again, this is on the Discover page for a brand new account. Meaning it’s what the algorithm is serving to users by default.

  I made another comment about it (with screenshots) a day or two ago. I’ll see if I can dig it up and link it here.

  source

  • jaennaet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That’s… that’s terrible. Like I replied to that just a while ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to further radicalisation of Americans if they do actually end up using UpScrolled.

    Putting my tinfoil hat on, this actually feels like a reich-wing ploy

    source

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, my linked comment was actually in response to an earlier comment I made, basically saying “this app’s explosive rise in popularity feels astroturfed.” I caught a couple of downvotes for that original comment. But the more I tried using it, the worse it got. It will 100% contribute to the normalization of Nazi viewpoints.

      source
• reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In this case it seems quite reasonable for their stance to stem from the censorship of posts about palestine on popular social media platforms. Agreed we shouldn’t settle for any more privately owned social media regardless though.

  source

  • jaennaet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Building a Nazi bar to make sure pro-Palestinian voices are heard seems like a suboptimal solution, though

    source

    • reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      For sure, Nazis (or their speech patterns anyway) do seem to be specifically against the policy as well though

      source
• irotsoma@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Some censorship is good. Just like some regulation is good in any industry. Otherwise, the worst of the worst will destroy it with propaganda and hate. Censorship of things that are meant solely to hurt others or to spread misinformation are needed.

  source

  • jaennaet@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Exactly. It’s been proven time and time again that if you have absolutely zero moderation except for blatantly illegal content, you’ll eventually be running a Nazi bar.

    Although in UpScrolled’s case, I’m not sure if they weren’t explicitly out to build a Nazi bar since they do seem to have a huge Nazi and antisemitism problem (well, problem for anyone who’s not a Nazi anyhow) and they’ve apparently mass-banned trans people. So this profusion of Nazis might be a “it’s a feature and not a bug” scenario, even though their TOS seemingly disallows hate speech.

    Also, for an “anti-censorship” platform it’s funny that they ban any kind of “adult” content.

    source
• excel@lemming.megumin.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In this case, the Nazis are the ones doing the censoring on TikTok in the first place

  source