I recently learned that voting on lemmy is not anonymous. Anyone can get information about who has upvoted and downvoted a post or comment.

In combination with your IP, this is a massive privacy (maybe even physical security) risk. Also, people can target you for your votes.

Sadly, this is something where I would prefer Reddit over Lemmy. Big tech scrapes data from both places anyways, at least Reddit is safe.

  • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.au
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    2 days ago

    I mean it is kind of a dick move to spy on downvotes and then demand that someone respond to you. The dude is wrong as hell, but I do agree with the overall principle that not every vote needs to be subject to someone getting interrogated as to why they voted that way.

    Their shock at finding out that it works that way is, of course, why the currently Lemmy UI is badly designed because it creates the illusion for people that their votes are private. They definitely should not do that.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s not something I usually do, but I’m tired of not calling out people on shitty opinions in regards to fascism. especially when it comes to a simple perspective of “this bad thing is bad”.

      it’s like someone downvoting because a comment said “fuck cancer”. like…why? my mind can’t even fathom why anyone would dislike that kind of message unless they themselves are cancer or advocate for the advancement of cancer.

      typically I don’t give a shit about downvotes, but it just really rubbed me the wrong way.

      • npdean@lemmy.todayOP
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        1 day ago

        People are free to their opinions. Not everyone will fit into your concept of ethics. If you are calling out someone for their non-conventional opinion, you are against free speech.

        • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I feel like you misunderstand what free speech is.

          Calling someone out for any opinion is part of free speech.

            • Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              To elaborate, the ability to call someone out is literally “free speech”. The backlash you may get for said call out, in speech form, is also part of free speech.

              If the government locks you up for what you said, that is not free speech.

              • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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                3 hours ago

                Arguably it’s also not free speech if a community allows targeted harassment campaigns but that certainly doesn’t apply to random single comments and moderators exist to hopefully prevent or minimize that.

        • If you are calling out someone for their non-conventional opinion, you are against free speech.

          Nope, that’s not what that means. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences of your speech and it doesn’t mean guaranteed anonymous speech. And as far as the constitution is concerned, the right to freedom of speech only means the government can’t stop you from expressing your opinion.

          So you have the right to say what you want without government interference, but other people can tell you that what you said is shitty, your employer can fire you because you opinion isn’t consistent with their values, the forum/venue where you expressed your opinion can ban you, etc.

        • voracitude@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Free speech just means the government isn’t allowed to punish you for only saying things (and even that had a whole constellation of big fuckin asterisks on it). Free speech does not mean freedom from consequences.

    • npdean@lemmy.todayOP
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      1 day ago

      Exactly my point. It is a form of witch-hunt. People are too focused on my views on the Russia-Ukraine than the actual topic.