So earlier tonight, on discord, a trans friend shared a link to this gem, which I have screencapped, so as not to give the dude the benefit of a link, but which you can find easily enough as the username is viewable:
This is obvious hate speech. When you say a group has a "depopulation agenda," you are leveling an extremely hateful accusation. I commented.
I also considered downvoting. But as you can see in the screencap, the original poster has a higher reputation than I do.
What to do? I went on Steemcleaners and checked out the Abuse Guide. Here's the relevant bit:
If you can't read the screencap, here's what it says:
While we don’t intervene directly with the @steemcleaners account, please report any instances to #steemitabuse for help and advice from volunteers.
Great! A recourse! I signed up to and signed into steemit.chat and went straight to #steemitabuse. I shared the link, and... well...
I have redacted the person's name. They're a Witness with enough SP to downvote me into oblivion. If you can't read the screencap, here's what was said:
Me: So... this is hate speech: (link redacted)
Witness: You’re free to downvote it if you don’t approve of such words.
Me: And get into a potential flag war with a bigot with a higher reputation?
Witness: Then don’t downvote it and ignore them.
So this is "help and advice"? It's basically, "You're on your own, kid."
I'm still new here. A little more than a month on the platform. So I ask you, fellow Steemians: Is there no recourse for hate speech on this platform?