Hello fellow Lemmys. The mod team here at [email protected] has been in discussions about the best approach to ensure we stay unbiased with news during the U.S. Election Cycle.

While we can’t say “don’t point out flaws in candidates” - nor would we want to - we do believe that when you excessively post/comment/reply negative things in News about one person, instead of, say mixing it up about topics, this feels like you are using [email protected] as a propaganda machine.

While propaganda is a normal part of elections, by posting only one topic, about one person, you are abusing the NEWS community for politics, and this could even be seen as election interference. There are other communities that this would fit better.

Doing this will result in posts/comments being deleted (with the option to appeal, of course). Repeat offenders may see temporary bans. Keep doing after that, and you may reach our perma-ban list.

As of right now, this only apples to politics. We don’t plan to extend this to other areas, but that will change as needed.

  • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    I get the underlying sentiment in a perfect world, but it isn’t like both candidates say and do horrible things multiple times per day and trying to strike some kind of balance seems like trying to ‘both sides’ the news.

    If one person is posted aboit far more frequently, but by multiple people instead of just one, or two is that going to be ok?

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      We understand your concerns. Our goal is not to direct or manipulate the dialogue at all. In fact, this policy is specifically to prevent any individual user from manipulating the conversation. We understand that there will almost certainly be more newsworthy material about one candidate or issue.

      • thoro@lemmy.ml
        1·
        5 months ago

        How is one individual possibly manipulating the community if we’re all reading it, agreeing, and upvoting?

        Just shelve the paternalism and focus on spam and other areas of rightful moderation.

      • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        It might help to clarify that ‘you’ is referring to a singular poster and if comments (frequently called posting) count. Both terms are pretty vague and could lead to stifling discussion.

        Something like ‘when individuals start many posts’ and ‘excessively commenting about only one candidate’ would make it clearer that you are looking for more balanced participation among the members of the community, which I am understanding your goal to be.