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Why are there so many Germans on Lemmy?
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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Asklemmy
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I would guess because simply historically, we always were very private people. This was generally increased with the experiences during the second world war and after in East Germany, where there was widespread government spying and people spying on each other. Thus, we have lots of groups that are engaged with activism regarding privacy, and it's present in the collective consciousness.
Reddit is an advertising shithole and Lemmy is the more private/free alternative, so it's more likely more Germans come here.
Also in general, the internet lends itself for less social people, which I'd also characterize Germans to have a tendency for.
I lived in germany for a while and I loved this aspect from germans. It really bothers me when people are like "what do you need privacy for, what are you hiding" like the government always has the best intentions
I have heard the same sentiment about privacy, and from what I've seen in privacy tool communities (e.g. meshnets, where the densest networks I saw in the world were Germany and Catalonia, or Tor network where it's common to find German nodes) this matches up.