this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2023
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This is my concern. That being said, I don't think that's quite as likely to happen because the reason for Voat's creation was fundamentally different. The Lemmy exodus is because of API changes and the treatment of Apollo's creator, while Voat was created as a result of a crackdown on hate subreddit (/r/fatpeoplehate was the big one, but this was years ago so I might be misremembering things).
That being said, I do specifically remember that the driving force behind the Voat push was "free speech." I'm pretty sure we know who screams the loudest about free speech at the expense of all else, and it looks like Beehaw at least was created with the core idea of being against that crowd. So, while I can't speak for Lemmy as a whole, I'm trying to at least be optimistic about Beehaw, since the reason for the exodus is completely different from the Voat exodus,meaning the migrants will have a different composition.
I too am optimistic however I think it'd be rather easy to push fringe views as mainstream ideas as things currently stand on Lemmy etc, just like on Voat. But you gotta start somewhere and I'm glad somebody is trying.
I think the federated approach Lemmy is taking can both help with that and exacerbate it. While it's easy to push fringe views, it's also easy to quarantine/block off servers that are going in that direction. I'm not sure what tools are available for doing that in Lemmy, but I don't imagine it would be hard to block users from a Voat-like server if push comes to shove. It winds up coming down to the culture and values of the server you're on, and if those go in a direction you don't like you can also go elsewhere. Sort of like how there were bots that would pre-emptively block people that post in specific subreddit, but more granular control so you don't wind up with situations like where someone would post in /r/conservative to argue against misinformation, then find themselves blocked from leftist subreddits. Here, if you're a member of a leftist Lemmy server, that's part of your identity so it'd be easier to see situations like that and prevent collateral damage from blocking members of the alt-right server from brigading. The only issue there is that it also becomes easier to set up echo chambers, so there's a fine line to walk. I'm rambling a bit, but hopefully I'm making sense.
True, but the same is inversely possible too, particularly if they heavily infect some of the more popular servers in the federation.