July 2020 diplomatic incident

From The League Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
July 2020 diplomatic incident
DateJuly 2020
Location
Caused byLax server moderation policies
StatusPartially resolved
  • Action taken by the LCN to resolve moderation issues.
  • Embassies restored with TGW and reestablishment of relations with TEP and the FNR.
  • Relations with the UDS and RtL remain severed.
Parties to the civil conflict
Lead figures
The Noble Thatcherites
United Massachusetts
Tim
Libertanny
Heatheria
The League of Conservative Nations Quebecshire
The League of Conservative Nations San Carlos Islands

The July 2020 diplomatic incident, also known as the Summer 2020 diplomatic incident, was a diplomatic incident between The League of Conservative Nations (LCN) and several other regions that began on 4 July 2020 when officials from The Union of Democratic States (UDS) took issue with the LCN's moderation policies regarding offensive language on their Discord server and withdrew embassies. The Order of the Grey Wardens (TGW), The East Pacific (TEP), and The Free Nations Region (FNR) also subsequently withdrew embassies, citing concerns about out-of-character moderation. Right to Life (RtL) also severed ties with the LCN, however mainly due to their opposition of World Assembly Delegate and Director of Foreign Affairs San Carlos Islands' decision to vote in favor of a General Assembly resolution guaranteeing the right to abortion.

Following the incident, the Consulate of the Republic began reforming the LCN's Discord server moderation policies. The server rules were changed to prohibit usage of slurs and other offensive language, and the Server Moderation Team increased its strictness in enforcing the rules. In February of 2021, six months after the incident, the Consulate decided that their reforms had been sufficient enough to revitalize the region's diplomatic outreach and begin reestablishing ties with certain regions.

Background

Right to Life incidents

Prior to the July 2020 incident, a number of issues arose from Right to Life delegate United Massachusetts attempting to recruit LCNers. That, alongside shifting political leanings in the LCN, led to increased friction- In a 29th of July 2016 poll, only 11% of LCNers believed that abortion should be unconditionally legalization, and about 64% believed it should be available to victims of rape or in cases of potential serious harm. By 18th of July, 2020, almost exactly four years later, the region voted 40% for the WAGA bill Access to Abortion, signifying the political changes. This primed the two regions for conflict.

Moderation deficiencies

Specific slurs were permitted to be used on the server. The specific slurs in question will not be put here as it would violate wiki policy. The guiding philosophy of moderation at the time of the incident was that, in general, usage of slurs was permitted if it was not part of harassment or bullying of another server member (as per rule six). There was also an unhealthy comingling of governmental (generally understood as IC on NSGP), and administrative (generally understood as OOC on NSGP) function, set as server precedent in both Doge Republics v. Administration and Gagium v. Administration.

The exact number of slurs is impossible to know due to Salisford's first and second deletions of public, but it was excessive.

Severance of diplomatic ties

The Union of Democratic States

On 4 July 2020, Glaciosia, a government official of The Union of Democratic States (UDS), took issue with Director of Foreign Affairs San Carlos Islands' Discord status, which referenced a meme about stock investments that used a slur. Glaciosia and The Noble Thatcherites then raised their concerns with the LCN allowing jokes that contained offensive language on its server. The LCN responded that although such jokes were allowed, the League Police Force did not tolerate harassment or hate speech. The UDS stated such a stance was still problematic and withdrew embassies that day. The embassy closure was finalized on the 8 July. The UDS government later labeled Quebecshire persona non grata with a complimentary Discord role and banned him from their Minecraft server.

The Noble Thatcherites made a post on the LCN's forum thread on 18 July 2020 which criticized the LCN's moderation policies.[1] Several LCNers responded to defend the region, and members of other regions gave their opinions as well.

Right to Life

In July, a resolution called "Access to Abortion" was submitted to the General Assembly. Right to Life (RtL), a pro-life region, conducted quorum raids in an attempt to prevent the resolution from enterring quorum. The resolution enterred quorum regardless. On 10 July, San Carlos Islands, as the LCN's World Assembly Delegate, recommended the region vote in favor of the resolution and further condemned quorum raiding, calling such actions "undemocratic and degenerate".[2][3]

RtL opposed San Carlos Islands' decision. United Massachusetts responded to San Carlos Islands' statement on the RMB with a post advertising RtL's position on the resolution. Quebecshire suppressed his post and asked him to delete it because it violated the LCN's rules on foreign advertising.[4] United Massachusetts deleted his post.

On 15 July 2020, United Massachusetts posted a message on the LCN's RMB, calling the GA resolution "evil" and accusing San Carlos Islands of slandering RtL. United Massachusetts took issue with Quebecshire suppressing his post advertising RtL's stance on the resolution, which violated the LCN constitution's clause against foreign advertisements. United Massachusetts also expressed his opposition to memes created by the LCN about the resolution[5], to San Carlos Islands political opinions, and to the LCN's server moderation practices. He demanded that San Carlos Islands be removed from his position.[6]

The Consulate stated that it would not be removing San Carlos Islands for his World Assembly decisions. It clarified that United Massachusetts' advertisement was indeed illegal according to LCN law. The LCN also found RtL's concerns about moderation disingenous, seeing that their main concern was the GA resolution rather than out-of-character issues.[7][8]

RtL made a post on their forum thread to express the same concerns, to which several LCNers responded. Nations from other regions also made comments on the thread and the topic shifted to discussing moderation concerns that the UDS had raised.[9]

RtL withdrew embassies with the LCN, which closed on 19 July.

The Order of the Grey Wardens

The criticisms of the LCN from both the UDS and RtL on the NationStates Gameplay (NSGP) forums prompted responses from other nations and regions. Tim-Opolis (also known as First Warden Tim of The Order of the Grey Wardens) expressed his dislike of both RtL and the LCN.[10] He claimed that the LCN was irrelevant, constantly made fun, and isolated from the larger NSGP community.[11] TGW withdrew embassies that day and closure finalized on 19 July.

The East Pacific

The Free Nations Region

Aftermath

New comprehensive ruleset

Rule six, which defines harassments, was expanded to more proactively handle cases. Rule seven, which served as a catch-all for racist and other gross conduct, was expanded to better cover usage of "hateful or discriminatory" language. Rule five, which defines spam, was also changed. Additionally, applying the rules to VC was phased in for both R6 and R7.

Moderation bot and transparency

On the 14th of November, server moderation went from using Mee6 Premium to using Augustin Android. All warns given using the Augustin Android bot have been recorded for proactive moderation. Members breaking the rules can be placed on special protocols, which are unique moderation plans to discourage rule-breaking behavior.

League Police Force disbanded

In order to better distinguish what is governmental (IC), and what is administrative (OOC), the League Police Force was disbanded, with the Server Moderation Team.

Slurs and date of ban

  • Any variation of the slur starting with F, associated with homophobia - 13th of November, 2020
  • Any variation of the slur starting with N, associated with racism - 23rd of November, 2020
  • Racial slurs that purportedly aim 'up' at majority racial/ethnic groups - 21st of March, 2021 (through precedent)
  • Any variation of the slur starting with R, associated with ableism - 30th of March, 2021 (officially, de facto the case for several months prior)

Dates of ban may be misleading, list is known to be incomplete. The N-slur when combined with a hard R was considered worse then double ggs or double bbs, and thusly was banned since the server's creation in 2016. In the 3-4 years before the rule changes generally began, there were a total of 3000 slurs. This number is likely undercounted due to the general chat being deleted twice. This gives an archival rate of between 62.5 to 84 slurs/month.

Since the five months following the rule changes, there have been 119 warnings for R7. While R7 applies to slurs, it is not exclusive to slurs. This provides a modern rate of approximately 23.8 (slurs & etc)/month.

Reestablishment of certain relations

References

Citations

  1. The Noble Thatcherites (18 July 2020). "TNT's post on the LCN's forum thread". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  2. San Carlos Islands (10 July 2020). "WA update". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  3. San Carlos Islands (10 July 2020). "Vote FOR Access To Abortion". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  4. Quebecshire (5 July 2020). "Quebec requests UM delete advertisement". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  5. Spode Humbled Minionss (5 July 2020). "Abortion Doctor Goose Memes (sorry not sorry RtL)". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. United Massachusetts (10 July 2020). "A Diplomatic Message from Right to Life". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  7. Quebecshire (10 July 2020). "Consulate response to RtL controversy". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  8. Terranihil (10 July 2020). "Terranihil responds to RtL controversy". NationStates.net. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  9. "RtL thread on relations with the LCN". NationStates.net. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  10. Tim-Opolis (16 July 2020). "Tim-Opolis post about LCN-RtL dispute". NationStates.net. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  11. Tim-Opolis (16 July 2020). "Tim-Opolis post about LCN's status in NSGP". NationStates.net. Retrieved 21 February 2021.

Bibliography