This question has been asked before and discussed before and I've always looked on from the sidelines, even though, as a conference organiser, I do in fact have fairly strong opinions about this.
Firstly there's the simple idea that a web event would be possibly "pure" tech. Certainly FFConf hasn't been 100% technical for over a decade, but the person giving talks always infuses their personality into their talks. Jokes, fun, passion, excitement, confusion - all of these add to talks, or certainly the ones we host at FFConf.
But perhaps views on politics is somehow different?
The web that I like to promote and support, and the one that many of my peer events support, is one of inclusivity and welcomeness. This means creating accessible environments. This means creating teams that are open minded. This means holding the door open for those who need it.
Nothing is free of politics in this era as it does indeed impact nearly everything we do. Even moreso today. American politics have a direct impact on UK politics and culture - there's no ignoring that. Equally the world climate affects how we're all operating.
Although my own politics stem primarily from the human side of things, recent activity in US politics, has spurred on many europeans to move our technology away from the US.
The European Alternatives web site has been doing the rounds lately and shares many good alternatives for us to move to, disconnecting our (read: my) dependency on the US for technology.
The web, and particularly the kind of web that we advocate at our events, is from a progressive point of view (talks on accessibility is an easy example of this), and so you'll find these particular kinds of events, those put together with love and care for others, will usually have strong political points of view that support the ideal web.
Politics is relevant to working on the web. It's relevant to how we progress the way we work and the ways we want to work.
Everything is political and if you're siding with the racist, fascist, homophobes, transphobes and those engaged in genocide, then I'm afraid you're in for a rough ride because that creates a closed, private, elite and corroded version of the web.
Discourse is fine. I was asked how I'd feel if I was at an event that was web based, and the speaker was very pro Trump and Trump agendas - then the MC agreed. How would I react? I'd feel like they were wrong, and I'd likely not want to attend again. Which is fine.
What isn't okay, is if I then start to harass the speaker or become violent towards them. It's obvious, but the code of conduct would (and should) eject me immediately (at a bare minimum). Infusing a web talk with your political leaning and ideals does not equate hate speech.
In an excellent talk I saw last week, the first slide, which had nothing to do with the talk itself and not even mentioned, simply read "protect trans kids". This is part of our web. The web where we hold the door open for others. Because we are the web.
