Apparently, Furaffinity moderators want to censor me for speaking against discrimination.

Some of you already know that one of my artworks has caused quite a flame war and earned me some enemies. Eventually FA mods removed the artwork and suspended me for a week under false accusation of "supporting Russia's aggression against Ukraine". I believe this decision was unjust.

Here's the artwork that was labeled as "pro-Kremlin": https://twitter.com/I_hurl_NEET/sta.....79243974266883

As you can clearly see, there's nothing that connects this picture to the ongoing war. There's no imagery associated with modern Russia's military or paramilitaries. Modern-day Russian Federation is built on different foundations than those of Soviet Union; it doesn't use Soviet imagery or rhetorics, and its leaders have never made claims that they seek to "restore USSR" or anything like that.

Soviet Union and Russian Federation are not the same. SovietFurs are not a "hate group". Motto "Motherland needs you" is not encouraging viewers to participate in any ongoing real-world conflict. It was a half-parody, half-homage to posters from long since nonexistent state, and should be viewed as such.

Furthermore, the description I posted under the artwork unambiguously shows my condemnation of the invasion and desire for peace between nations. To (mis)interpret it as "supporting an invasion", one has to completely turn it inside out, or make accusations based not on what I actually say but on what their flawed logic tells them I "would" say. Luckily, someone has taken a screenshot so I can prove my claim: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrxLqCx.....amp;name=large

There was another important message in the artwork description: that we must not discriminate against users from Russia (or any other state) for decisions of their government, which they have no control over and which they're just as likely to condemn as we do. This statement has infuriated certain kind of users even more than the red banner in the artwork. More on that later.

A number of my comments was also labeled as "pro-Kremlin" and added to the charge. Here, take a look: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrxLrT9.....p;name=900x900

To interpret these as "supporting Russia's aggression" one has to completely twist my words into what I never said. I wrote a detailed appeal to FA appeals email, to explain what exactly I meant and leave no room for misinterpretation: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrxLsdJ.....amp;name=large

...and it all fell on deaf ears. Despite sending reminders daily, I only received one response from FA staff member well after my suspension term was over. The response itself? "After careful consideration, I have decided that the content warranted removal; however, it is entirely possible that it was not your intention to promote propaganda concerning the invasion. Because of this, I will have clemency on the offense, but the content may not be reuploaded." My next message to them went unanswered.
The day my suspension term ended, I tried to contact FA admins via trouble ticket. It went unanswered for more than a month, until I started sending daily reminders again. After which admins just closed the ticket, claiming that "this dispute was handled via our Appeals email address". In other words, FA staff decided to ignore my reasoning.

It's hard not to think that whoever handles these matters is heavily biased against users from Russia, and those seen as "pro-Russian".

Since my artwork got taken down, I learned about several similar cases when users were suspended for expressing support for their country (exactly country and not the war its leaders have dragged it into). One of them was punished for a picture that she didn't even post on Furaffinity, even though Code of Conduct explicitly states that "we neither accept third-party reports nor act upon incidents occurring outside Fur Affinity unless a substantial and direct correlation can be made to an incident that is imminent or occurring on Fur Affinity", in the very first paragraph. That's justice for you. Does that mean I'm going to get banned on FA for posting Soviet-themed artworks (which I plan to continue drawing) anywhere, not just this site, on demand of some spiteful user?

On the other tip of the scales we have a number of users who see themselves as "pro-Ukrainian", while in reality they're just petty and hate-filled individuals who think that their country's miseries give them moral and legal right to be openly chauvinistic and repeatedly violate site's rules when they feel like harassing some user from Russia.
(I believe that genuine love for one's country and its people is incompatible with hatred towards any other nation. I have said it before and I'm repeating this: Ukraine is beautiful and deserves peace just like any other country, so please don't associate it with bunch of self-righteous Internet bullies.)
Sadly, Furaffinity administration seems to agree with them on what they are allowed to do, and apparently gives them "special treatment" aka "positive discrimination".

Now, due to FA terms of service, I can't point directly at the biggest offenders, because that is considered "harassment" (oh irony). Chances are that you've seen them somewhere: under my deleted artwork, under journal entry with helpful info for Russian artists (who got affected by indiscriminate sanctions), under basically any submission that features Russia or Russians in non-demonizing way - everywhere you'll see same self-proclaimed "patriots" bullying people. Hate speech, insults, victim blaming, occasionally even threats of violence - at most they get their comments hidden by admininstration. One would assume that systematic violations would grant them a more serious penalty, but no.

Part of me desperately wants to believe it's just some sort of misunderstanding and problem I described isn't really there, but evidence is hard to ignore. And if you agree with points I make, please share this journal and raise public awareness. This is one thing we can do at this point.

I have to warn you: given the apparent tendencies, it won't be surprising if this journal gets taken down under another false accusation, I get banned, and you who decided to help me get punished as well. However, this is precisely why it's important to spread the message.
Furaffinity is the largest online community of people sharing common interest in furries, which goes beyond any state borders. It's supposed to be a safe haven to escape from hatred that plagues way too many real-world societies, and we mustn't let a clique of hateful narrow-minded people usurp it.

Let's raise our voices for equal and just treatment of everyone. Let's stand against discrimination, hypocrisy and double standards. Justice for all!

The journal will be updated if I have any important info to share, and if I'm able to do so.

- Edit 1: the previous version of the journal was taken down, because calling out users for repeated violations is punishable. I had to edit all mentions of particular people out, then resubmitted the journal.