cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/27970929
Recently the server staff received an e-mail telling them to moderate the Discord server and the server chat on what they deem to be “appropriate.”
Below is a message from owner of the server.
Free Speech Under Attack
Dear friends, I don’t often post announcements of this sort, but I feel it’s very important for you all to know what’s currently going on.
From the very start, over 15 years ago, one of the key founding principles of MinecraftOnline has been free speech. What started out as an uncontroversal, common sense policy, has proved to be a cornerstone of this increasingly unique community. As time has passed and Western society has wavered back and forth in its political leanings, free speech has repeatedly come under attack for political reasons. It has now become common to see arrests for posts on social media in countries such as Britain and Germany, in the name of political control, which have overtaken the numbers even of traditionally totalitarian countries such as China and Russia - a truly dystopian nightmare for freedom of expression and personal liberty.
Throughout this decade and a half of change, MinecraftOnline has held steadfast to its libertarian principles, and remained an oasis of freedom and openness in an increasingly closed and controlled internet. That is, until now.
Microsoft, through their subsidiary Mojang, have issued an ultimatum to MinecraftOnline. We have been told to do away with our free speech policy (which long pre-dates Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang), within 7 days, or face a a permanent block. If that happens, nobody will be able to play on MinecraftOnline again, and the 15-year history of this beloved server will come to a sudden and bitter end. The full email we have received today, signed facelessly only as “Mojang Enforcement”, is included below.
The email makes extremely vague claims about “harmful interactions” and “harmful comments”, and we are asking Microsoft to clarify what specific interactions and comments they consider harmful. In the meantime, please spread the word, share this info on social media. Defend free speech.
-SlowRiot
I get why people are having trouble defending them but it’s really not cool that Mojang is pushing to enforce their own personal requirements on self-hosted servers. It’s one thing if it was an official server or hosted on realms or something, but this is just a bit too far in my opinion.
And given the recent pivots by tech companies in the US there’s very little reason to think this same set of rules couldn’t be applied to groups like trans people in the future.
It’s better to push back on this sort of stuff early, instead of waiting for it to personally impact you once it’s already built up momentum.
We can push back on it once it effects an innocent server, which this isn’t.
They can still run the server cracked if they really wanted. They just won’t be allowed to use Mojang’s authentication servers.
But at the end of the day, it’s still their IP, they can do what they want and we can choose to play Minecraft or not when that happens.
ah yes, the “Lets not fight for our rights until we have a perfect victim” method of letting awful things happen.
I’m not going to fight for a bigoted server. That was made clear. I’m happy for Mojang to take that shit down.
And thats why you’re a fool.
You’re not fighting FOR them.
You’re fighting against Microsofts bullshit attempts to exert control over things they have no right to control.
But you’re too smugly full of yourself to even notice that. And in a year or or three, when microsofts attempts at control get worse and eventually does come to affect you… You’ll cry, and whine, about the injustice of it all, and yell at the universe over how could anyone ever allow such things to happen… and, of course, be completely oblivious to your hand in defending and enabling this.
Its such a tiresome, boring, utterly predictable trope at this point.
You guys are defending bigots using “Microsoft control” as a fucking excuse to. Get off your phantom high horse.
They already got push back from trying to control chat with their reporting player system, they will get it again if or when they try unjustified takedowns.
Which even if they do, without changing the entire game and how it functions, they can’t stop us hosting our own servers anyway. They can only stop us connecting to their servers. It’s also their IP and game, they have the “right” to control who hosts authenticated servers, if you like that or not, that’s the fact of the matter. If they do something you don’t like, you can play one of the other thousands upon thousands of games out there.
At the end of the day, it’s fucking Minecraft, a video game. Stop getting your panties in a twist over it, pretending it’s some big government censorship of speech (that’s actually happening btw across the world, focus your enthusiasm there).
I just know history, and I know bad things always set precedent and get rolling by focusing on the “Acceptable targets”.
Which is why blind fools like you are always such a danger to the good of society. Because you allow vile things to become rampant, and acceptable, and only cry foul when it finally comes home to affect you.
History is full of people like you. some of the worst aspects of our history only happened because of people like you.
You hateful fascists are fucking insane, there’s no place for you in society.
And theres the projection. Of course. True to course and trope.
Try not to choke on the boot.
Ah yes, just regurgitate phrases you have heard.
I couldn’t give a shit about Microsoft at all, I hope the company folds. I also couldn’t give a shit about a hate harboring Minecraft server, so I’m not going to defend it, even remotely.
So I was just laying out the facts of the situation, they can legally do what they want in this regard, the server owner agreed to this when starting the server in the first place.
Don’t just dismiss facts because they don’t immediately align with your point of view, that’s very dangerous.
Its an .ml user.
The fact they’re using bootlickkng as an insult is just fucking hilariously lacking in self awareness in it’s own right.
Another free speech hater. Lemmy loves authority: the boot remark fits.
Only cowards fear words.