I’m looking for answers from instance admins, if you’re a regular user, you can still answer but it’s more helpful for me to get answers directly from admins.
If a user on [instance A] asked another instance (Instance B) to remove their federated account and federated content copies from instance B (likely also banning it so content doesn’t continue to flow) would the user on Instance A be in trouble with their instance admin for asking for such a thing.
Obviously it depends on the instance’s rules but that’s part of why I’m asking the question, to get answers from instance admins on this.
On one hand I can see how it would since, since it hurts interoperability and can create tension between instances, but on the other hand a user has the right to be in specific places or not be in those places, that probably extends to not wanting to be federated into an instance they find objectionable (assuming it is for good reasons).
I personally would if User didn’t post anything to communities on my (bookwormstory.social) or similar (ani.social) instance.
I saw that link rot on lemmy is real. Missing poop post. Hijacked links in posts from over a year ago. Images deleted. I don’t want to contribute to it.
I’m more into just educating the users to not post shit they don’t want out in the public in the first place. No matter how good the efforts of the server administrators are in removing the content, there’s still the possibility of users, be it actual humans or bots, collecting that content and continuing to spread it elsewhere or otherwise use it.
I mean, go ahead and follow their request if they do ask, but also explain to them to maybe think a little harder about what they are posting because you cannot guarantee someone outside your sphere of influence doesn’t have the same content saved somewhere.
I have a Mastodon, Friendica, Peertube, and a PieFed instance. I’m an Admin.
Let me make sure I understand. You are asking whether I would care if you were using my server, and you asked a different server Admin to remove your data from their server (and probably ban you on that server)?
If this is what you are asking, I personally wouldn’t give it any thought. It’s your data. If you don’t want it on some other server, then you certainly have that right. I frankly don’t think any Admin would have a problem with this. Even the opposite would be fine. If someone asked me to remove their data that came in remotely.
I might even be impressed that you are enforcing and thinking about your rights to privacy and your right to control your own data.
Not an admin, but from a legal perspective, users in the EU have the right to request deletion of their data under the GDPR, which the consequences of violation are up to €10m or 2% of annual turnover (not profit), whichever is higher
Frankly, if a user asks a service owner to delete their personal data, the service owner should do it as promptly as possible.
Except that only applies to federated servers that exist in the EU. If your data gets federated out to a country outside of the EU, they don’t have to listen to your whines of GDPR as it’s not enforceable. And given that you could be federated with hundreds of instances across the world, good luck.
I said the same thing with AI scraping. All someone needs is to add their own instance that federates with everyone else and they can scrape data for AI training till their heart’s content.
First, if you process the personal data of EU citizens or residents, or you offer goods or services to such people, then the GDPR applies to you even if you’re not in the EU. We talk more about this in another article.
Cool cool, now realistically, do you have the time, resources and know how to find and contact every owner of every federated instance these comments have made to? Would you be able to deal with the legal resources of any number of jurisdictions to truly test whether that is actually enforceable?
My point basically is that it’s functionally impossible regardless of what the law says, and you should treat your comments and personal information as such that they won’t ever be able to be deleted or scrubbed.
A user from instance A requesting instance B to remove their federated content could cause issues with their admin, depending on the instance’s rules. While it may harm interoperability and create tension between instances, a user also has the right to control where their content appears, especially if they find an instance objectionable. Admin reactions will likely vary based on these factors. szc
