I’m sorry but the start a new instance argument people throw around to dismiss moderation issues is a stupid one. Why? Because on federated systems like Lemmy, the instance that has the bigger slice of the pie (most users, most active communities) has the most control and power. Meaning the biggest platforms have the ability to kill your Fediverse experience almost completely, and starting a new server or joining another one won’t help you if you’re banned (I’m assuming you’re not going for intentional ban evasion) and if you’re being censored, it also won’t help you because they’ll still censor you from the majority of the fediverse. If they’re big and powerful enough they may even get others to join them in defederating your instance, making the impact that much bigger.

So while it is technecally true to say that Fediverse platforms are decentralized, I think it is dishonest and disingenuous to try and frame moderation issues like the ones with Lemmy.world or lemmy.ml as ones that can be solved by starting your own server, or migrating to another server. They can’t, because those servers control a larger portion of the pie, as in the communities and the userbase available.