Derpibooru Is Banning Nazis — Sometimes

turning a big dial taht says “Racism” on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right — Dril

Hey kids, its story time: Once upon a time a brony image board called Derpibooru tried to ban down votes. Everyone made fun of them and the policy was quickly reversed, but in an attempt to double down on creating a “nicer culture,” Derpibooru added a “rule #0” which basically came down to “don’t be a dick.”

The current proposed version of their new rule zero, after a massive backlash against a handful of Nazis posting on their website (no mention of the much more rampant child pornography issue, because of course) is:

- Do not post content whose only apparent purpose is inciting anger.
- Do not call for harming others.
- Do not harass others. This can include namecalling, slanderous speech, or other forms of abusive language.
- Do not discriminate or advocate for discrimination on personal characteristics like race, sex, or cultural group (such as using a mouthpiece to say racism is good).
- Criticism is welcome and encouraged when done so in a constructive and helpful manner. However, using baseless, unconstructive criticism as a veil for the purpose of insulting or attacking an image and/or an artist is not allowed.
- This rule applies to all images, comments, forum posts, and private messages, along with all other interactions you may make on this website.

I say drafted because on 7/12/2020 website admin Princess Luna posted this as a possible new version on a thread, looking for community response. The message also stated the following:

This is to centralize feedback on our current policy refinement. This thread is not for arguing who is and is not a Nazi, the validity of any DNPs, etc., but only on whether you think the policy is good or bad, and why. We will not hesitate to delete posts trying to get into political arguments with others.

The team went ahead and decided to adapt the new rule, and held internal polling to determine what did and did not qualify under this new standard. I’m not going to get into everything that did qualify here, but some of the images in question are so gleefully fascist they look like they were made by Joseph Gobbles.

I should also note a good chunk of what Derpiboour said was okay feels completely arbitrary. Here are some examples:

• A picture of Applejack driving a car blurting out that she hates African-Americans is okay, a picture of an anonymous pony saying “ziggers bad,” (a joke slur combining “zebra” with a famous n-word) is not.
• Another image allowed is one of Twilight with a belt that contains the letter “z” on it and an anonymous man saying “You got it set to z for zigger,” before turning it into an “n” and going “when it should be — “.
• Three images making a joke about the gas chambers used in the Holocaust were seen as against the rules, however, an image that reads “me:*walks out of the shower and gets dressed*/my Auschwitz guard:” before showing a surprised Nazi pony is considered okay.
• The third poll — I honestly cannot tell the difference truth be told. Some images of a Nazi pony with swastikas in the background are not okay, but some images with the same pony, the same symbols, and even these characters doing the Roman salute are okay.
• Sometimes, swastikas are bad, however, an image of Starlight being seen as “telling the truth” for giving a ponified version of the fourteen words (“We must secure the existence for our race and future for unicorn foals.”) is seen as okay.

I should note, none of the results for what should and shouldn’t be allowed used in the poll came back unanimous. The image with the highest percent of staff members viewing it as against the rules was an image of a Nazi pony putting up a sign that says “No Jews Allowed!” and saying to herself “you are a Jew?!” with 84% of the staff saying it’s unacceptable. Only 83% of the staff said the same of an image where Pinkie Pie and a Nazi pony dab while turning on a gas chamber.

The image with the lowest amount of the staff saying it was against the rules, in fact, with no staff saying it was against the rules, was one of Twilight Sparkle on an assembly line doing the Roman salute next to many pictures of Princess Celestia. The image in question, by the way, is a reference to an old Disney cartoon where Donald Duck was a Nazi.

I’m seeing people saying this website is “only doing the bare minimum” or “only going after obvious content,” and yet a quite obvious example got no votes? Not one? Nobody said an image referencing a cartoon where the main character is a Nazi might be a little on the pro-Nazi side?

The only reason this is even getting a post is the obvious nonsense standard at play here. If Derpibooru said they did not want to moderate Nazi content, that’s one thing — in fact, I would personally have a respect for that. However, it’s the fact that they not only clearly don’t want to, but are pretending they do through only going after obvious images — some of the time!

Here is all I’m asking: If Derpiboour wants to say that sometimes racial slurs are okay, or that Nazi symbols are fine, or that salutes commonly attributed to the Nazis are allowed — I want a clear answer as to when and where they are allowed. What kind of racial slurs? How many Nazi symbols and phrases will be allowed from this point forward?

As it stands, these rules are so vague they could either be overly strict or overly relaxed.