Bluesky addresses trust and security issues related to abuse, spam and more

Social media startup Bluesky, which is constructing a decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), provided an update Wednesday on the way it’s approaching various trust and security issues on its platform. The company is in various stages of developing and piloting a variety of initiatives focused on coping with bad actors, harassment, spam, fake accounts, video security and more.

To address malicious users or those that harass others, Bluesky says it’s developing recent tools that can have the option to detect when multiple recent accounts are created and managed by the identical person. This could help curb harassment when a foul actor creates several different personas to attack their victims.

Another recent experiment will help detect “rude” replies and forward them to server moderators. Like Mastodon, Bluesky will support a network where self-hosters and other developers can run their very own servers that connect to Bluesky’s server and others on the network. This federation capability is still in early access. But in the long term, server moderators will have the option to resolve how they need to take care of individuals who post rude responses. In the meantime, Bluesky will eventually reduce the visibility of those responses on its app. Repeated rude labels on content will even lead to account-level labels and suspensions, it says.

To curb using lists to harass others, Bluesky will remove individual users from the list in the event that they block the list creator. Similar functionality was recently introduced to Starter Packs, a sort of shared list that will help recent users find people to follow on the platform (check TechCrunch Starter Pack).

Bluesky will even scan lists with offensive names or descriptions to limit the potential of harassing others by adding them to a public list with a toxic or offensive name or description. Those who violate Bluesky’s Community Guidelines might be hidden from the app until the list owner makes changes that align with Bluesky’s policies. Users who proceed to create offensive lists will even face further motion, though the corporate didn’t provide details, adding that the lists are still an area of ​​energetic discussion and development.

In the approaching months, Bluesky also intends to move to handling moderation reports through its app, using notifications relatively than counting on email reports.

To combat spam and other fake accounts, Bluesky is launching a pilot that can attempt to routinely detect when an account is fake, scamming or sending spam to users. Combined with moderation, the goal is to have the option to take motion on accounts inside “seconds of receiving a report,” the corporate said.

One of the more interesting developments is how Bluesky will comply with local laws while still allowing free speech. It will use geotags that allow it to hide some content from users in a particular area to comply with the law.

“This allows Bluesky’s moderation service to maintain flexibility in creating spaces for free expression while also ensuring legal compliance so that Bluesky can continue to operate as a service in these geographic regions,” the corporate shared in a blog post. “This feature will be rolled out on a country-by-country basis, and we will endeavor to inform users of the source of legal requests when legally possible.”

To address potential trust and safety issues with videos which have recently been added, the team is adding features like the flexibility to disable autoplay, ensuring videos are labeled, and providing the flexibility to report videos. They are still evaluating what else might need to be added, which might be prioritized based on user feedback.

When it comes to abuse, the corporate says its general framework is “a question of how often something happens versus how harmful it is.” The company focuses on addressing high-impact, high-frequency issues, in addition to “tracking edge cases that could result in significant harm to a few users.” The latter, while only affecting a small number of individuals, causes enough “ongoing harm” that Bluesky will take motion to prevent abuse, it says.

User concerns will be reported via reports, emails and mentions @safety.bsky.app account.