Steps towards a safer fediverse (DRAFT)
Steps towards a safer fediverse (DRAFT)
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/7992691
There are some straightforward opportunities for short-term safety improvements, but this is only the start of what's needed to change the dynamic more completely.
This is a draft, so feedback welcome!
As an instance admin, I would be all in favor of some sort of group blocklist I could subscribe and unsubscribe to. Maintained lists of things like csa, loli, or other things would be extremely helpful, and would encourage more people to run their own servers.
While I get that individuals want free and open and a choice, fact is is that they aren't the ones running these servers. It's admins who have to risk things to host for other users - and giving admins an easy safety net out of the gate would really help.
I've imagined something like an API through fediseer that my instance could hook into, then select specific lists that I want to block
Imagining for a second that I had the technical ability to do so. The thought of running a lemmy server and letting random people make accounts sounds scary to me. Especially a "general purpose" one. I would feel responsible for the crappy stuff posted by users. How do people cope with that.
Also would not be able to conduct the "investigations" required to determine if an instance was csam etc. Because that means you have to go and check it out! we can't have a system where every admin is basically required to view CSAM. that's crazy.
Not just "feel responsible", but under the law us admins are in fact legally responsible. I never thought I'd be a mandatory reporter and have contacts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - but here I am.
People love to say the fediverse should be completely anonymous and open to free speech - but I only a very tiny percentage of them are willing to actually spin up an instance to prove it.
Fediblockhole does something along those lines for on Mastodon ... not sure if there's an equivlaent in the Lemmy world.
We have crossposts now?
Yes, at least on Lemmy. It's the icon with two boxes.
Make it easy for admins setting up new instances to start out with an instance blocklist
This goes against everything the Fediverse stands for.
If you want to create blocklists and make them available to users, that's fine. Creating global blocklists will just destroy interoperability. Who is the judge of these blocklists? Is there any appeals process for a community that is wrongfully-added?
From previous interactions with the author, I am convinced he is not really interested in the growth of the fediverse and is more than willing to sacrifice anything if it keeps it small and on the fringes. As much as I try to steelman his arguments, I can not find a good reasoning. At best, it is just a reactionary attempt to keep the fediverse exclusive to some minority. At worst, it becomes a way to submit everyone into a ESG-compliance racket. "Nice instance you have over there, it would be a shame if it was marked as the home of nazis..."
Who is the judge of these blocklists?
The Ministry of Truth, of course.
You can immediately see who is an admin and who is not.
If you have an open instance and someone puts csam on it and reports you, you’re toast. Thats what blocklists are for and they arent new. Mastodon instances already have blocklists which every sane admin uses. They even come in different flavors.
The way this works is that certain instances „vote“ on blocks by applying blocks to certain instances and if one, multiple or all „trusted“ insrances block an address, it „federates“ through these updated lists.
global blocklists
good thing nobody suggested that..... And if they did it would be completely unenforceable.
Yep. But, even though I didn't suggest it, I didn't explicitly say that it didn't mean global blocklists. So I clarified it, and added a footnote with more detial.
As Instance-level federation decisions reflect norms, policies, interpretations, and (sometimes) strategy discusses, opinions differ on the definition of "bad actor." So the best approach is probably going to present the admin of a new instance with a range of recommendations to choose between based on their preference. Software platforms should provide an initial vetted list (along with enough information for a new admin to do something sensible), and hosting companies and third-party recommenders should also be able provide alternatives.
Nonsense. Instance blocklists are used across the fediverse today. They're certainly not a perfect solution but they have the advantage of actually existing. See Blocklists in the fediverse for a lot more discussion.
I never implied they didn't exist...