Sorry for the short post, I'm not able to make it nice with full context at the moment, but I want to quickly get this announcement out to prevent confusion:
Unfortunately, people are uploading child sexual abuse images on some instances (apparently as a form of attack against Lemmy). I am taking some steps to prevent such content from making it onto lemm.ee servers. As one preventative measure, I am disabling all image uploads on lemm.ee until further notice - this is to ensure that lemm.ee can not be used as gateway to spread CSAM into the network.
It will not possible to upload any new avatars or banners while this limit is in effect.
I'm really sorry for the disruption, it's a necessary trade-off for now until we figure out the way forward.
I'm genuinely confused on why it's even happening in the first place but I can't say conspiracies aren't spinning in my head. Stuff like Russia having troll attacks to try and stifle a new Internet trend. Or companies like Facebook and Twitter paying people to do this to instill a boogeyman like fear of federated Internet.
I'm not suggesting they're true, but they're one of many confused thoughts as to what's goin on.
It is an old 4chan thing. They have it around and they know it freaks out the normies so why not have some fun with it? So any kinda shit head chud or skrpit kiddie can do it for a little hit of fun vandalism. Being kicked off reddit for being too comunist does make us a likely target for all this.
There’s no need to invoke conspiracy. This is entirely possible for a single person to do, and motivations for single people may be very pity even if the consequences are widely visible.
One misguided teenager on a power trip who enjoys how much disruption he can cause is enough for such an effect.