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.
Due to how the US Presidential election works, however, many articles with a partisan tilt will necessarily be in favor of one person and against another person. So think you should also factor frequency into this.
Does someone post one progressive, anti-Trump news article a week? Or a conservative anti-Biden article? Particularly from reputable sources? I would say that should be allowed, even if they don’t give equal time to the other side.
OTOH, someone who posts several anti-Trump (or anti-Biden) articles every day is likely digging down to some questionable sites to find the content. Such a person should be given a temp ban, and advised to go touch some grass. Someone who manages to give a balanced approach to news, though, while using reputable news sources, might possibly get a pass for the lack of a social life.
I think your last paragraph is pretty much the goal. It makes sense to me. Just don’t post partisan articles from partisan sources.
That’s exactly what was happening and why this rule had to be implemented.
Right, but in that case the problem isn’t posting one-sided content, or content that favors one person over another, but posting poorly sourced content.
I find it dangerous to say “we’ll ban people who mainly post about one person” because the US presidential race, for better or worse, is about two people. Expressing any opinion at all advocates one of those people above the other. Put the rules in terms of quality of sources, though, and you will find that you can solve the same problem without the same baggage.
This is a News forum, it seems reasonable to vet sources.