IFTAS Blog

2024-12-23 17:50:12

Fortifying the Fediverse: Decentralised Trust and Safety 2024

As 2024 comes to a close, it’s a fitting moment to reflect on a year of collaboration and innovation in trust and safety within the decentralised social web. This year has been one of growth for IFTAS and the fediverse community, marked by new initiatives, partnerships, and tools that strengthen the resilience and inclusivity of federated platforms.

IFTAS Milestones

We began the year with the release of our DSA Guide for Decentralised Services, offering practical insights to help decentralised platforms navigate the EU Digital Services Act. This resource has become essential for community leaders adapting to the latest regulatory requirements. In March, we introduced a suite of Personal Digital Safety Tools from Tall Poppy, designed to help community leaders safeguard themselves against doxing, harassment, and other online threats. This initiative supports the well-being of those at the forefront of creating safe spaces.

In May, we proudly launched IFTAS Connect, a collaborative platform for moderators, administrators, and trust & safety teams. By fostering community-building and sharing resources, IFTAS Connect has become a key tool for improving moderation efforts across the Fediverse. We also introduced FediCheck, a transparency tool that helps users evaluate the policies and safety measures of various Fediverse servers. By making this information accessible, FediCheck empowers service administrators to make informed choices about the platforms they engage with.

In October, our community demonstrated exceptional resilience during a large-scale spam attack on the Fediverse. This collective effort showcased the strength of our network and our ability to address challenges collaboratively.

We welcomed three amazing contributors, Ted Han, Erin Kissane, and Andrés Monroy-Hernández, to our Advisory Board. Their expertise in open-source technology and digital governance strengthens our mission to build safer, more equitable online spaces.

We stress tested our Content Classification Service, starting with tools to detect and combat child sexual abuse material. This marks a significant step forward in equipping moderators with resources to enhance community safety.

We ended the year with the release of our annual Needs Assessment Report, gathering insights from 180+ services hosting over 4.3 million accounts across the open social web. The report highlights key challenges and opportunities, offering actionable recommendations to support moderators and administrators, and will guide our work in the coming year.

The Ecosystem Expands

2024 saw a range of non-profit organisational growth including the launch of the Social Web Foundation, dedicated to enhancing interoperability, safety, and governance across decentralised networks.

As decentralised platforms grapple with the challenges of misinformation and disinformation, Newsmast emerged as a key player in combating these threats. The platform’s proactive approach to content verification and user education has set new standards for maintaining the integrity of information shared on federated networks. Their collaborative efforts with community moderators have been instrumental in promoting accurate and reliable discourse.

Emelia Smith proposed and led the creation of the ActivityPub Trust and Safety Taskforce, whose first task will be an overview of current state of trust and safety on the Fediverse, followed by work on flags, blocks, and content labelling.

Juliet Shen announced the creation of the Open Source Tooling Consortium at TrustCon, which can both contribute to, and learn from, the open source community building federated social networks.

A New Social was launched to liberate people’s networks from their platforms, leveling the playing field across the open social web – with it’s first project to adopt and expand BridgyFed.

We look forward to collaborating with these and other organisations as the network grows, seeking to reduce duplicative effort and leveraging the energy and commitment all these amazing people are bringing to the table.

Platform Developers

Two FediForum events highlighted a ton of new work in federated platforms.

The Mastodon team is spearheading the Federated Auxiliary Service Provider specification, which is focussed on search and discovery for now but can open up a world of possibilities for trust and safety tooling. Mastodon 4.3 saw improvements in dealing with unwanted content, and Bonfire Networks undertook a range of activities to explore governance and moderation tooling as a foundation of their platform development.

Fediseer continues to be a growing resource for Lemmy and Mastodon administrators, and fedi-safety is a novel tool that can classify genAI CSAM on Lemmy and potentially other services. Pixelfed introduced comment controls and enhanced spam classifiers.

BlueSky introduced Ozone, an innovative moderation tool designed to support moderators in managing their communities. Ozone’s integration of advanced filtering systems makes it a standout contribution to the trust and safety ecosystem, powering several “composable moderation” projects on the Bluesky “ATmosphere” with the notable success of Blacksky, an AT Protocol implementation prioritising the community building efforts of marginalized groups; especially Bluesky’s community of Black users after which the project is named.

Spritely is working on the next generation of decentralised tech, building on co-founders’ Jessica Tallon and Christine Lemmer-Webber’s experience co-authoring ActivityPub.

Research and Writings

Yoel Roth and Samantha Lai published “Securing Federated Platforms: Collective Risks and Responses“, which has become an essential resource for administrators and moderators. The report explores the shared vulnerabilities of decentralised networks and provides actionable recommendations for mitigating risks collaboratively. Its release has sparked important conversations about collective accountability and the role of communities in safeguarding the social web.

Darius Kazemi and Erin Kissane published “Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers” – answering the question “What are the most effective governance and administration models in place on medium-to-large sized Fediverse servers?”

Looking Ahead to 2025

As we celebrate the progress made this year, we are energised by the opportunities that lie ahead. Reviewing the 2024 Needs Assessment we see our work expanding moderation tooling and providing new and enhanced resources to further strengthen and scale trust and safety in federated social networks. Wherever possible, we will endeavour to align with projects and participants that are similarly working to create #BetterSocialMedia

We are committed to advancing trust and safety in the federated web. Together, with the continued support of our community and partners, we will build on the foundations laid in 2024 to create safer, more inclusive online spaces.

To support our global community, we are translating our shared labels and definitions into multiple languages. We welcome any and all input in this collaborative effort, submit a few translations today!

Recognising the emotional toll of moderation, we will adopt and adapt resources to support moderators dealing with traumatic content. We aim to offer comprehensive guidance on various regulatory frameworks, including the UK Online Safety Act, to assist administrators and moderators in building toward compliance.

Our comprehensive Moderator Handbook is in the final stages of editing and will soon be available as a valuable resource for both new and experienced moderators. We plan to introduce hash and match services to identify and manage non-consensual intimate imagery and terrorist and violent extremist content, using platforms like StopNCII and GIFCT.

You can track our in-progress and planned activities on our Activity Tracker page.

We thank everyone involved and engaged in strengthening and scaling trust and safety in this exciting landscape, and look forward to achieving even greater milestones together in the coming year.

Support the Social Web

Almost everyone and everything mentioned above is supported by donations. If you believe in an open web that is safe and inclusive (not to mention ad-free and not in the habit of selling your data to the highest bidder) consider signing up for a subscription, or making a donation to any of these institutions and individuals who are working to ensure an open, democratic web for everyone in the world to enjoy. This is just a list of links for people and projects listed above, but there are hundreds more worthy of your support.

#TogetherStronger

• Blacksky
• Bonfire Networks
• Darius Kazemi
• db0
• Emelia Smith (@ThisIsMissEm)
• Erin Kissane
• Fediseer
• Independent Federated Trust and Safety (IFTAS)
• Lemmy
• Mastodon
• Newsmast Foundation
• Pixelfed
• Social Web Foundation
• Spritely Institute

#BetterSocialMedia #TogetherStronger

Into the wreck

What even are these systems in which we live and work and—stripping away the ideologies of what corporations or technologies cannot possibly be expected to do—how should they function?

^{Erin Kissane (wreckage/salvage)}