PieFedeology - Ideological Purity in PieFed : fediverse

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 58 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think Rimu has tied this warning to the peoplesdispatch.org domain. I think this is a custom thing he did to his instance, because I didn’t find it in the PieFed codebase. ~~[ETA: it is in the codebase, in a separate repo].~~ [ETA: I’m told that no specific site warnings are baked into the code, just the feature is. For site blocks, there is an optional default list of domains, which I’m told contains only far-right/fascist sites.]

I don’t think People’s Dispatch is even Marxist-Leninist. I think it’s an international anti-imperialist media site. But I wouldn’t assume Rimu could explain the difference or care that there is one. Maybe all anti-imperialists are tankies to him.

[-] mathemachristian 19 points 1 month ago

it is in the codebase, in a separate repo

The blocked domains are, the ones with a warning like in the screenshot are configured on a per-instance basis

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[-] mrdown@lemmy.world 45 points 1 month ago

Will they have a warning label for Zionist outlets?

[-] mathemachristian 31 points 1 month ago

Nah but they have some for theintercept and electronicintifada ...

[-] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 23 points 1 month ago

Unsurprisingly not currently. Based on current behavior and responses doubtful in future

https://lemmy.ml/comment/25577925

[-] mrdown@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Yeah. My question was not a serious one. I knew the answer.

[-] AzuraTheSpellkissed 42 points 1 month ago

Are you sure this is a "warning"? /s

Sounds like an indicator of quality, instead. Even the icon is in red, the color of hope.

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[-] rimu@piefed.social 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm happy to explain. You could have just asked, though.

During initial installation PieFed downloads a big list of 3000 right-wing domains from https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon and blocks them all. Admins can unblock them if they want but they would need to do them individually so I bet none do.

The list includes things like fox news, breitbart, etc. Before starting work on PieFed I spent 3? years studying right wing disinformation - qanon, antivax, all that and that blocklist is an output from that. Every site on that list was reviewed personally.

So.

Additionally, I have manually added these warnings (not blocks) onto some domains, for piefed.social only. You can download a list of those warnings from https://join.piefed.social/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/warnings.ods

Most of them are tabloids, AI slop farms and a handful are authoritarian government mouthpieces.

So there's 3000 right wing sites that simply can't be linked to and 47 sites with warnings, about 10% of which are left wing. There's no need to warn for fascism because posts that link to them are not displayed in the first place.

There's an ideological slant to PieFed for sure, and it's very much in favor of the left. That could be why maga.place and lemmychan.org use Lemmy and not PieFed.

I'll take another look at peoplesdispatch and see if there's a less triggering warnings I can put on it.

[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 56 points 1 month ago

You could have just asked, though.

Oh they could have asked, could they? Like you asked before spreading disinfo about our instance using GenAI for moderation?

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[-] mathemachristian 33 points 1 month ago

Apparently piefed smuggles in domains from a completely different repo that clearly isn't just "right-wing domains"^[https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/blob/master/sources/Fake%20news/README.md] and it requires an admin to unblock them all individually.

Every site on that list was reviewed personally.

so it is a personal semi-hardcoded blocklist, that requires an admin to go through and re-vet every site individually to see if they agree with your assessment or not.

There’s an ideological slant to PieFed for sure, and it’s very much in favor of the left.

lol. lmao even, you put a warning on electronicintifada.net like come on now

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[-] Allero@lemmy.today 32 points 1 month ago

To clarify: you say that by default all PieFed instances don't even allow to link resources considered "right-wing", without an easy way to disable such anti-feature?

If so, it's basically a centralized point for censorship in a decentralized system, which is very antithetical to the spirit of the Fediverse and is something even the very left Lemmy devs prefer to avoid. I see it being very detrimental in its own right.

Shouldn't it be an offered setting instead? Like, "if you want your instance to avoid certain topics, here are filter lists to freely enable or disable"?

Much can be said about the definition of left and the way Marxists you are addressing don't see "liberal" as "left" to begin with.

What matters, though, is that you end up projecting a certain personal, even if somewhat educated, bias onto both PieFed as a project (banning right-wing outlets from even being linked to, globally), and the flagship instance (making warnings about Marxist-inclined outlets). This is very unwelcome for many, myself included, and, as previously mentioned, antithetical to what Fediverse is and what it stands for.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You're the single biggest troll in the fediverse. Congrats on the dedication to the bit you're doing.

[-] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 24 points 1 month ago

But why? I don't understand why you want to make your software politically charged. I'm left leaning, but I believe in free speech for all. This makes piefed a censored platform by default. You are manufacturing an echo chamber.

[-] rimu@piefed.social 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I don't want fascists to benefit from my work. But it's FOSS, so anyone can download and install it, so I made it extremely unattractive to fascists.

There are plenty of other places where people can have "free speech".

Facebook, or reddit, for example. /s

[-] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 32 points 1 month ago

Heh, this puts Piefed in the same basket as Reddit, Facebook etc. for the same reasons you dislike them.

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[-] mathemachristian 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Here is the (piefed.social only) warnlist in readable format

| aa.com.tr                   | Turkish state media                                                                                                                                                              |
| adele.pages.casa            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| bild.de                     | A tabloid that has been unfavourably compared to The Sun, and is considered generally unreliable.                                                                                |
| browsergate.eu              | AI slop                                                                                                                                                                          |
| caixinglobal.com            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| chainalysis.com             | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| coindesk.com                | Crypto boosters                                                                                                                                                                  |
| counterpunch.org            | Not always reliable.                                                                                                                                                             |
| dailysabah.com              | Turkey govt properganda                                                                                                                                                          |
| dailystar.co.uk             | Tabloid                                                                                                                                                                          |
| electronicintifada.net      | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| english.news.cn             | Ok except about anything to do with China                                                                                                                                        |
| eurasiantimes.com           | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| forbes.com                  | Anyone can write a forbes article. Check the byline to determine whether an article is written by a "Forbes Staff" member, "Contributor", "Senior Contributor", or "Subscriber". |
| fullstackpm.tech            | slop                                                                                                                                                                             |
| gbnews.com                  | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| hispantv.com                | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| houseofsaud.com             | AI-written posts                                                                                                                                                                 |
| journal-neo.su              | Russian propaganda outlet                                                                                                                                                        |
| marathonhandbook.com        | AI                                                                                                                                                                               |
| metro.co.uk                 | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| ndtv.com                    | Modi propaganda. Check MBFC                                                                                                                                                      |
| nerds.xyz                   | AI-written articles                                                                                                                                                              |
| news.cgtn.com               | Chinese govt propaganda source                                                                                                                                                   |
| newsus.cgtn.com             | Chinese govt propaganda source                                                                                                                                                   |
| nycjournals.com             | fake news                                                                                                                                                                        |
| nypost.com                  | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| peoplesdispatch.org         | Promotes Marxist-Leninist perspectives                                                                                                                                           |
| plenglish.com               | Cuba state media                                                                                                                                                                 |
| presstv.ir                  | Iranian state tv                                                                                                                                                                 |
| rawstory.com                | Often inflammitory and kinda biased                                                                                                                                              |
| republicworld.com           | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| sixthtone.com               | Singapore govt source                                                                                                                                                            |
| tasnimnews.com              | Iranian state tv                                                                                                                                                                 |
| techtimes.com               | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| techtrenches.dev            | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| telesurenglish.net          | Propaganda news channel directly sponsored by the governments of Venezuela and Cuba                                                                                              |
| telesurtv.net               | Bolivarian propaganda outlet                                                                                                                                                     |
| thatprivacyguy.com          | LLM-generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |
| theamericanconservative.com | A self-identified "opinionated source" whose factual accuracy has been questioned                                                                                                |
| theintercept.com            |                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| the-sun.com                 | Trash tabloid                                                                                                                                                                    |
| united24media.com           | Factual, but still state-aligned advocacy journalism                                                                                                                             |
| vgchartz.com                | Unreliable source                                                                                                                                                                |
| wheresyoured.at             | The author of this blog works for AI companies https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2025/use-the-tools-of-the-job-youve-chosen/#the-unguarded-flank                                   |
| writings.hongminhee.org     | LLM generated posts                                                                                                                                                              |

[-] Edie@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago

Reformated it as a table

url	reason
aa.com.tr	Turkish state media
adele.pages.casa	LLM-generated posts
bild.de	A tabloid that has been unfavourably compared to The Sun, and is considered generally unreliable.
browsergate.eu	AI slop
caixinglobal.com	LLM-generated posts
chainalysis.com	LLM-generated posts
coindesk.com	Crypto boosters
counterpunch.org	Not always reliable.
dailysabah.com	Turkey govt properganda
dailystar.co.uk	Tabloid
electronicintifada.net	Unreliable source
english.news.cn	Ok except about anything to do with China
eurasiantimes.com	Unreliable source
forbes.com	Anyone can write a forbes article. Check the byline to determine whether an article is written by a "Forbes Staff" member, "Contributor", "Senior Contributor", or "Subscriber".
fullstackpm.tech	slop
gbnews.com	Unreliable source
hispantv.com	Unreliable source
houseofsaud.com	AI-written posts
journal-neo.su	Russian propaganda outlet
marathonhandbook.com	AI
metro.co.uk	Unreliable source
ndtv.com	Modi propaganda. Check MBFC
nerds.xyz	AI-written articles
news.cgtn.com	Chinese govt propaganda source
newsus.cgtn.com	Chinese govt propaganda source
nycjournals.com	fake news
nypost.com	Unreliable source
peoplesdispatch.org	Promotes Marxist-Leninist perspectives
plenglish.com	Cuba state media
presstv.ir	Iranian state tv
rawstory.com	Often inflammitory and kinda biased
republicworld.com	Unreliable source
sixthtone.com	Singapore govt source
tasnimnews.com	Iranian state tv
techtimes.com	LLM-generated posts
techtrenches.dev	LLM-generated posts
telesurenglish.net	Propaganda news channel directly sponsored by the governments of Venezuela and Cuba
telesurtv.net	Bolivarian propaganda outlet
thatprivacyguy.com	LLM-generated posts
theamericanconservative.com	A self-identified "opinionated source" whose factual accuracy has been questioned
theintercept.com
the-sun.com	Trash tabloid
united24media.com	Factual, but still state-aligned advocacy journalism
vgchartz.com	Unreliable source
wheresyoured.at	The author of this blog works for AI companies https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2025/use-the-tools-of-the-job-youve-chosen/#the-unguarded-flank
writings.hongminhee.org	LLM generated posts

[-] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago

Before starting work on PieFed I spent 3? years studying right wing disinformation - qanon, antivax, all that and that blocklist is an output from that. Every site on that list was reviewed personally. - Rimu

🤦🏽

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 month ago

I love how it's basically a list of all the mainstream non western outlets.

[-] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 20 points 1 month ago

Why is the intercept on there??

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Who knows? Only Rimu. Maybe because they blew up the Paper of Record’s disinformation piece that manufactured consent for genocide.

Edit to add (and mentioned recently):
Disputing genocide accusations that the imperial core flings on its enemies, though, that’s his “red line.”

[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

Just log off, please. Nobody likes this shit

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 month ago

The whole piefed thing has to be a bit right?

[-] iByteABit@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 month ago

All the bullshit they say about silencing and 1984 is as always, a classic case of projection.

Please enlighten us on where we should be getting the full objective unbiased reality from, the New York Times maybe? God forbid a media takes a pro working class / global south bias instead of the usual neoliberal status quo ideology. Call them out on it and they'll deny they even follow any ideology, they're just being Objective™.

[-] Five@slrpnk.net 35 points 1 month ago

Two years ago, Lemmy.world tried a similar move with their MediaBiasFactCheck bot. It was soundly rejected by the community, and they finally relented after weeks of outcry. Why is @Rimu putting us through this again?

[-] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 19 points 1 month ago

The take away was make it embedded everywhere rather than a bot addition

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[-] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 month ago

It's right in the name. Fed.

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[-] iso@lemy.lol 26 points 1 month ago

If I hadn't given the instance to someone else, I would have considered leaving a community note on Rimu's user page with a red exclamation mark saying "this user is a complete idiot".

[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago

I wish lemmy admins could take the code away from these dorks.