Canada

Literally had a self-professed white nationalist on the mod team and as far as I know still does.

Yup, getting reported for saying anything remotely left-leaning or calling out far-right hate speech pretty much results in a permanent ban.

and this is the problem with reddit (and sites like it, including this one): Create a sub / community, add your mod crew and wait for people to show up. Years later, the original mod team might not have the best interests of the current population at heart. Or you get “overton window creep” where overtime, the moderators shift in political stance from the original intent.

How can a site ostensibly representing a nation the size of Canada have a limited mod team appointed by who knows who? There is no moderation oversight on reddit. Or lemmy.ml. I think Beehaw has some of that, but not sure how far that goes.

Back in the day when stormfront was relavent, they had organized attacks on location subreddits. They tend to be easier to take over than general interest subs and have an outsized influence on politics. /r/canada was the crown jewel of this strategy.

decades I think