#fediversesafety — Public Fediverse posts

🔎 Fediverse Safety & Accountability

I’ve been reflecting on how different Fediverse instances are run, and how much power admins and moderators have over users. With that power comes responsibility.

From now on, I intend to scrutinize and document harmful or unsafe moderation practices across the Fediverse. This is not about targeting individuals, but about protecting community members and raising awareness.

Every instance should be accountable for how it treats its users. Cyberbullying, abuse of authority, and dismissive behavior must not be ignored.

Transparency and accountability are not optional — they are essential for a healthier and safer Fediverse.

#Fediverse #Accountability #DigitalSafety #ModerationMatters #AdminPower #TransparencyNow #SafeCommunities #UserRights #EthicalModeration #OnlineAccountability #FediverseSafety #StopAbuse #CommunityHealth #OpenWebEthics #DigitalResponsibility #ProtectUsers #SaferFediverse #EthicalWeb

About point 4

• who can see your posts
• who can send you their posts
• who can see your profile
• who can see your connections
• who can comment on or fave your posts
• who can send you DMs (yes, this is a separate setting)
• who can quote or boost your posts
• and many more

• only yourself
• only your own confirmed connections (yes, their logins will be recognised)
• only those of your connections whom you explicitly grant that permission by adding them to a privacy group which grants that permission

A brief overview of the streams repository.

@[email protected] It's weird how folks miss that it's literally one or two people doing most of the day-to-day on #Iceshrimp and #Sharkey. Folks keep wanting the feature set of something much bigger. Kind of sad to see how many folks keep wanting fedi bling but BIPOC efforts to increase fedi safety get silence from same kind of folks willing to silence Sharkey over their technical peeve.

Make it make sense.

#sharkey #misskey #FediverseSafety #fediadmins #fediverse

Good points made by Jon in linked thread.
Sad that the fediverse is both a generally safe platform for queer folk and a generally unsafe one for black folk.

Also sad that the fedi software has a lot of talented queer developers creating some great stuff, but technological solutions that might make fedi safety more a thing keep failing to get taken seriously and implemented. Our culture drives what we do & don't focus on. More uwu bling on your Misskey or whatever fork, yes; but ensuring that black folks can onboard without finding themselves on shitty instances, copping racist pile-ons from dark fedi AND queer fedi, and having software shipped with adequate user-level safety controls, uh not so much.

#FediverseSafety

RE: https://indieweb.social/users/jdp23/statuses/111841420211814156

Eugen, Evan, and the nominally liberal tech bros looking for pay day don't care about queers as much as they say they do.

It's time to decenter them and their control of the fediverse.

#BlockMeta #Transphobia #whitefediverse #FediverseSafety #Fediverse #Safety

If you want a history of anti-Blackness on the Fediverse take a read of Mastodon: a partial history. There's a section on the four years of harassment that #PlayVicious (Ro, Artist Marcia X et al) endured.

Then there's Black Twitter, quoting, and white views of toxicity on Mastodon about how the Fediverse embraced the arrival of Black Twitter, or didn't.

These two articles are by @jdp23 @[email protected]

Artist Marcia X wrote some initial thoughts about the Play Vicious experience in Ecosystems of Abuse & Ro started to write their early history of PV on their site. It's down atm so link to the first post is here on his Fedi account.

Please also check out the audio conversation & transcript of The Whiteness of Mastodon where Dr. Johnathan Flowers focuses on Mastodon's long history of whiteness and racism, and how the very positive contributions of queer people are used as a shield against critiques or discussions of the platform racism and overwhelming whiteness.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #FediverseSafety #Racism

One of the plusses of #fulltextsearch on an instance that federates broadly, is being able to see the amount of chatter by folks that want to hard fork #Mastodon, and folks who want to see more cross-pollination of features between existing forks, and new forks that take #FediverseSafety seriously, Folks who generally can't get a wider feel for what the vibe is like unless they stumble across a Discord channel or Reddit sub. #fediverse

I'm so fucking over the cis men who keep telling us that the #fediverse needs to mainstream. Same dudes who are fawned by the usual tech bro crying about instance blocks crowd. Same dudes who'll scream that any reticence is HOA racism. Same dudes who stan fediverse devs who can find ways to implement more bling here but can't go out of their fucking way to implement #FediverseSafety features so black folks can onboard and exist here without all the racist BS they cop and have few tools to combat it with.

I came here to escape the dogpiling, queer- and transphobia, chasers and bots, the gender crits & Nazis that brigade so many of us across all major platforms. So far, the only two relatively 'safe' platforms that remain useable for me are the actively moderated parts of the #fediverse, and #Bluesky with appropriate mutes and block lists enabled.

Threads is full of the same creepy follower bots that Instagram has. Unfortunately it is also much more unusable in private mode than Instagram is, so I have to fall back on obscurity as security. If I don't post much there it keeps the bots down, but like IG they build up and bulk delete needs to be a thing. Oh and Byron (thank goodness you're gone and can't reply-guy this post) IG was never coming here, Threads was, and I'd be way surprised if the Threads demographic was younger by much that your kids would have wanted to join so you could have followed them from here. My Threads crowd are basically all former bird site folk. The trolls are basically the same folk who follow us everywhere.

Please fellas, next time you tell us how amazing the fediverse is because queer and trans folk were once a bigger part of setting the vibe for this place, you take a look at how you keep eroding that vibe away - while you're getting moist at the thought of being kings of bigger kingdoms and can't even use your power and capital to make the changes folks here now absolutely need.

RE: https://mastodon.social/users/troll5/statuses/110885083470406867

@[email protected] I think copies of fedi posts generally are stored on federating servers. Cached at the very least, as I have seen folks find a post in the cache and share it after an OP dirty deleted it. I think this needs more thought cos it being seen and indexed via the federated timeline of a #microblogging software like Masto or Firefish and then generally hidden until browsed with keywords or hashtags seems like a different discoverability profile than being displayed in a #Threadiverse sub. Again, when folks join up to a microblogging instance do we ever explain that cos it's the #fediverse that their post might end up being displayed in a bunch of contexts they hadn't yet imagined or would be comfortable sharing it to? @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] #kbin #Lemmy #FediverseSafety #privacy

Yeah good point by @[email protected] about permissions (or lack thereabouts) for #kbin et al to scrape the #fediverse and put posts/toots into magazines. It feels like so many #Mastodon admins are blind to how the fediverse beyond Masto software & the Masto API actually works.

Seeing such folks write lengthy posts about defederating Masto instances running Vyr's search patch while the rest of the fedi has #FullTextSearch and the #Threadiverse scrapes it with next to no backlash. It's like folks don't know that there's a bigger problem with #ActivityPub re #privacy and #safety than Website Boy's latest antics, and we need to push for #FediverseSafety and privacy flags at a ActivityPub protocol level. Until then, everything is just a non-binding, non-enforceable agreement about cultural norms that there's seems no consensus on; and definitely no focus on minority safety, rather features some will claim are wanted by a majority.

#MastoDev #FediDev

RE: https://mefi.social/users/cendawanita/statuses/110863987878810727

It's interesting sitting here on an old version of #Calckey seeing someone on #Mastodon server telling their fellow user that posting to unlisted will opt-out of #search when I can see Unlisted posts in my antennas quite easily [though I believe this has been rightly rectified in the newest versions of #Firefish / #Iceshrimp but need to confirm]. Being hidden from the Explore tab on Mastodon is not the same as being unsearchable across the fediverse. Frankly, there's little understanding even among admins across the #fediverse about what's a Mastodon / Mastodon API function that is federated to other Mastodon servers but doesn't translate well outside of Mastodon on other #ActivityPub connected platforms like #Misskey and it's forks, #Hubzilla and #Friendica, or rapidly growing platforms like #Lemmy and #Kbin. Kbin also scrapes posts from across the fediverse and puts them into its own magazines.

Unfortunately simple, up-to-date documentation doesn't really exist to explain the realities of federation vs what your admin said was the reality. AP was not built with privacy in mind, and 'security through obscurity' was mostly a Mastodon thing from when folks thought either the Mastoverse was almost the dark web, or the whole fediverse [which has never been the case], and Google et al weren't interested in scraping it.

Unfortunately we have a cadre of devs across all fedi platforms who'll give glowing lip-service to both the fedi and ActivityPub histories of being built by queer or other minority identities but still won't work on giving folks the granular #privacy and #safety controls that weren't included in those protocols, and whose feature roadmaps now just look like bird site 2.0 funded by the milquetoast liberals in political tech who provide their seed money.

Beyond Mastodon and GoToSocial, every other fediverse project treats posting to public as opting in to search and indexing. Indeed, this is pretty much how the ActivityPub protocol handles such too.

#FediverseSafety #Mastodev #Fedidev

Tbh, I now think much of the Threadiverse can be characterised the same way. It's sad to think that there's plenty of Mastodon/*key server owners who allow and tolerate so much more bigoted nonsense on the #fediverse when it has #Lemmy on the tin they're using. The same fucks who haven't pushed for #FediverseSafety have onboarded thousands of more users on software fraught with even less moderation tools.

RE: https://blahaj.zone/notes/9gu8zho9ir

❤️‍🩹
'Ultimately, dear reader, what I want for you, is what I want for everyone in this world. I want you to know that you are right: “Anti-racist action is likely to result in further rejection, alienation and victimisation” and that this makes it all the more important to nurture in yourself a sense of ambition for dismantling racism.' #FediverseSafety

RE: https://mastodon.au/users/26pglt/statuses/110834481256165607

Tbh, I'm on a proactively moderated server that has preemptively kept a lot of the worst folks from being able to reach us queers here, and the feedback from a handful of black users here is that #blahajzone has also been generally been harassment free in comparison to other servers they've been on.

Imo, it's actually not to hard as a queer or trans person to find #servers on the #fediverse that will protect you from harassment, but that it is harder to find servers that will also protect indigenous, black, Asian users from racist harassment. And too many queer white folks get a free pass for ignorance tbh, a privilege that many of us have had for far too long.

It's much the same on #Bluesky where I haven't been harassed for being #queer and trans - again there's large communities and plenty of allies - but anti-black racism has been in the spotlight again recently and the devs called out for lagging behind on safety and moderation features that bigots exploit for harassment campaigns.

Far too many fediverse projects are led by men, mostly white men, who are lionised, promoted and financed by another layer of mostly white men. They ultimately get the veto on minority protections.

#Mastodon #Firefish #Iceshrimp #FindAServer #FediverseSafety

RE: https://firefish.social/notes/9hs7vrern5ptmu66

Statement by @supakaity regarding the future of the #Hajkey fork of #Calckey #Firefish . It's becoming a downstream fork of #Iceshrimp #fediverse #FediverseSafety

RE: https://blahaj.zone/notes/9hl866g89i

I hope #Hajkey keeps developing for blahaj.zone and similar communities, particularly the long sought after #FediverseSafety features that never seem to arrive on the #Fediverse and become more important as greater adoption occurs and user culture changes - like the amount of transphobic users that Lemmy has brought here and the dev bros think this is progress. #Firefish #Calckey #IceShrimp @[email protected]

RE: https://hachyderm.io/users/maegul/statuses/110767208159622462

ok at least one of the troll servers has a block bot? which auto-posts the public profile of anyone who blocks someone on that server so be aware of this possibility; worth checking their home server to get a feel of the vibes before you block or check the box to also report there. i got a handful of more trolls after blocking someone because they were clicking on the bot post and now i know! / #fediverse #fediversesafety

And now we're nearly at 1000 accounts and it still feels like an oasis from hate. I love that this place exists, our safety is paramount, and that won't change regardless of what other servers do. #trans #fediverse #fediversesafety #calckey #hajkey #findaserver

RE: https://blahaj.zone/notes/9b72q4atv4

Some thoughts about #fullsearch of federated-with instances. 🧵 1/2

1. Conflating any ill will you have with Supernovae at #Universeodon, with the issue of search indexing on the Fediverse to justify your fediblock won't help resolve the issues around search.

2. It isn't global search. While we shout, lock down, and don't participate in building the additions to our protocols that the #Fediverse needs, we've been letting #Google index the Fediverse. It's already searchable and Google's new Perspectives tab is going to make it even easier. Maybe we could fight that rather than keep thinking it doesn't exist and continuing to write ineffective Facebook-viral style "I do not give permission..." copypasta?

3. The #Fediverse does not respect your do-not-index-my-posts flag. It never has. It can't. It's not supported by the #Mastodon API, as @[email protected] explains, and nor is it supported at #ActivityPub level and will need to be added into a new AP protocol.

Every instance server from the #Misskey (#Calckey, #Foundkey), #Pleroma (#Akkoma), and #Friendica (#Hubzilla, #Streams) lineages has full search of federated-with instances as default. All these services actually pre-date the creation of Mastodon in 2016 you can read @[email protected] 's post for their commentary on such. Fediblock all of them to create your very own #Mastoverse or you could become part of building a better, safer, Fediverse? Perhaps through participating in the Fediverse Enhancement Proposals? #FEP


#FediblockMeta #meta #FediblockDiscussion #nosearch #fullTextSearch #FediverseSafety

@[email protected] I think whatever we become we'll really only have 'succeeded' if #Calckey leads the way with #FediverseSafety ahead of features and scale.

The Calckey I see would
- have a diverse team of folks that has the time to listen to the safety discourses, and the lived experience to know why safety matters, and informs their #development decisions.
- make importing #blocklists or integrating third party #moderation tools easypeasy, so no user finds themselves on an new server that's open to dogpiled by the worst elements of the #Fediverse.
- have robust #accessibility features that are as important to promote as #quoteposts and #MFM.
- have granular user controls for #safety - opt-in & opt-out; and features - like turning down/off MFM when it's overwhelming without a user needing to resort to CSS scripts.
- not really care to be a birdsite or #Mastodon alternative. Let's work to be a better secret third thing, or fourth, or fifth thing.

If we really have to duplicate the big influencer account thing, I'd like to see more non-White, autistic, disabled, queers, and women voices. They're here, but they're often forced to be critics of a newer hegemony. Let's be listening for how can Calckey become the main service of choice for Black, POC and Indigenous women to join, spin up servers, become developers, and have prominent voices on. The rest of the good stuff will follow that.

I think we can do that, but only if we prioritise, and promote minority voices, and do the structural work to support them coming to the service.

#FindAServer #Disability #DisabilityMastodon #Queer #structuralbarriers #structural

If you need to hear one thing about the future of the #Fediverse , this is it:

platforms prioritizing growth over safety are toxic to everyone else who doesn't present as white, straight, and a man.

the missing link to rehumanizing social media spaces is safety for the most marginalized people that have historically been ignored.

Really pissed to find out that a block means nothing on #calckey or #mastodon. Feeling ick being able to see the former partner of a friend who I have blocked, because someone on blahaj.zone has replied to them and there they are now sitting in the local timeline. They really fucked my friend up for years with their sociopathic manipulation.

Now I find out that she can see me if I'm not set to private. Why can't a block be an actual fucking block?

This is the basic shit many folks have been asking for while devs just fuck around with their basic bro stuff.

I really don't want to leave the #Fediverse, but how the fuck is this safe??? How can I feel safe knowing that she can potentially see me? I'd be safer back on the bird site.

This is not good.
#safety #fediversesafety #blocked