Bluesky's Game-Changing Community Moderation Proposal

Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter alternative backed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, has recently released a groundbreaking content moderation proposal. This proposal offers valuable insights for community platforms seeking to build better online environments. Let's delve into it.

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User Lists, Replygating, and Thread Moderation

First there are the User Lists to allow individuals to create lists of accounts they trust or prefer. Enabling them to filter their feed. Replygating then further allows users to control who can engage with or reply to their own posts. And thirdly, Bluesky's proposal includes Thread Moderation, which enables community members to collaboratively moderate discussions within a thread.

Goal: To promote constructive conversations & reduce the spread of harmful content
Risk: Risk of creating echo chambers, where users only engage with like-minded individuals

Learn more about "User Lists, Replygating, and Thread Moderation"

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Labeling and Moderation Controls

Bluesky plans on introducing Labels to provide context and additional information about user content. Examples of labels are: "nudity", "self-harm", "spam", or "impersonation". There is a whole concept of decentralized Labeling Services behind it. Users can choose which Labeling Services to subscribe to and even host their own. Moderation Controls then allow users to customize their experience by applying personalized filters to the labels.

Goal: Empower users with context and customization options, with many Labeling Services to choose from
Risk: The power the biggest Labeling Services might get over time.

Learn more about "Labeling and Moderation Controls"

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Hashtags for Context and Moderation

The proposals put forward aim to visually separate hashtags, allow spaces in tags, curate tag search results, enable muting of words and hashtags, and introduce opt-in hashtags for targeted audiences. Bluesky themselves say: "The proposals here aren’t exactly ground-breaking." and further state: "They boil down to two things: make the hashtags accessible, and then make them consistently useful."

Learn more about "Hashtags"

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Conclusion

Bluesky's content moderation proposal has the potential to represent a significant step forward in building better online communities. We will have to see how the proposed features, especially the User Lists, Replygating, and Thread Moderation, and Labeling and Moderation Controls, contribute to the overall goal of building inclusive and customizable online communities.

As social media continues to play a pivotal role in our lives, initiatives like Bluesky's content moderation proposal are essential for addressing the challenges associated with content moderation. Let's applaud those who dare to take the leap and explore new horizons!

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Sources and further reading:

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