Derpibooru, the largest My Little Pony image sharing site in the fandom, has just changed its policies to disallow images that they "believe promote racism or attempt to downplay the Black Lives Matter movement".
I'm going to talk about what brought us to this point.
I'm going to talk about what brought us to this point.
Recently in response to the George Floyd protests a rash of racist imagery has been uploaded to the site for the express purpose of promoting bigotry against PoC utilizing zebras.
This includes ponified racist memes created to insult the protests.
This includes ponified racist memes created to insult the protests.
These images were created and spread on the My Little Pony board on 4chan, or /mlp/. In these threads you can see that the main intent behind posting them to derpibooru is to reap reactions and to legitimize the racism that forms the core of fascist ideology.
One poster even praises the "subtle messaging", which refers to the idea of dogwhistling. Dogwhistling means sending messages that only those with adequate knowledge can understand.
In this case the knowledge is zebras=blacks, and black people = bad. (Genius stuff I know)
In this case the knowledge is zebras=blacks, and black people = bad. (Genius stuff I know)
Up until now Derpibooru has taken a MOSTLY hands-off approach to moderating the content that was uploaded to the site, citing "art archival" as one reason.
Of course this doesn't really hold up as depi has a slew of features that make it comparable to a standard art community.
Of course this doesn't really hold up as depi has a slew of features that make it comparable to a standard art community.
What this hands-off approach meant is that for years bigots could essentially utilize the site as a means to legitimize their bigotry. And because it was cloaked in memes or humor the usual "I don't like politics!" crowd ignored it and gave it a pass.
This allowed to right-wing influence on the site and the fandom to grow for years until now one of the site admins has stated that there is a literal "downvote ring" of a thousand users that target any left-leaning artwork.
Debating and ignoring the problem solved nothing.
Debating and ignoring the problem solved nothing.
As a result of all this Derpibooru has issued the INCREDIBLY mild decision of disallowing art that "incites controversy and is created to antagonize others in relation to current events". They're not deleting all right-wing content or even nazi content from the site.
Now more than ever it should be clear that when you attempt to staunchly disavow politics or refuse to take a side, you open up your community and fandom for infiltration by political extremism.
And sooner or later, the pot boils over and you HAVE to deal with it.
And sooner or later, the pot boils over and you HAVE to deal with it.
And if you're a centrist or an "apolitical" brony who hates this decision because you think its "authoritarian"...
You did this to yourself. For years you said NOTHING while nazis infiltrated and spread their ideology. You can't whine now that the BARE MINIMUM is being done.
You did this to yourself. For years you said NOTHING while nazis infiltrated and spread their ideology. You can't whine now that the BARE MINIMUM is being done.
You didn't speak out and you let bigotry run rampant because it didn't effect you. You could just filter out everything you didn't like and pretend everything was just fine. You didn't use your voice when you had the chance so now you don't get to whine when others step up.
The fact of the matter is that in order to ensure your fandom actually IS a bastion of love and tolerance their MUST BE LIMITS to what you're willing to tolerate. Our fandom is inextricably linked to politics and if you don't dare to stand up the other side will.
Derpibooru is now in a struggle with the fascists, right-wingers, racists, and edgy channers that depend on the site to spread hate.
The owners have had enough. The pot has boiled over.
The owners have had enough. The pot has boiled over.
The worst thing about deciding to take a stand only now is that the longer you wait to make a decision on it, the worse the blowback becomes. The fandom's fascists are in full meltdown, downvote-bombing ever positive BLM pic and having multiple thread shitfests on /mlp/
Again I fully support Derpibooru's decision and I only wish this stance had been taken sooner before the infestation of the My Little Pony community with actual nazis wasn't so overwhelming. The lesson from this is clear.
Don't fucking love and tolerate racists in your fandom.
Don't fucking love and tolerate racists in your fandom.
Kick them out fast and kick them out EARLY. Don't let them become so entrenched that you have to literally lockdown half of your site because fascists are used to treating your My Little Pony image sharing website as their personal playground.
