I'm getting a lot of "please use the Mastodon report function to tell us about the Russian disinformation accounts we are hosting".
With all due respect, if you have three or more, I'm not sitting here and clicking through each and every account to create a report, you're going to get a DM or an email.
Today I've spent five hours identifying, tracking, verifying, documenting, and reporting accounts.
Five hours.
If you take five minutes to review new accounts, I don't need to do this.
Poliverso - notizie dal Fediverso ⁂ likes this.
reshared this
Admin Jerry
in reply to IFTAS • • •I try to keep on top of new accounts, but these accounts sit idle for a month, it seems, and suddenly start posting propaganda. It takes a while before I notice sometimes.
I sincerely appreciate what you do, and a DM or email is absolutely fine for me. Whatever takes the least effort and time for you.
IFTAS
in reply to Admin Jerry • • •Admin Jerry
in reply to IFTAS • • •julian
in reply to IFTAS • • •Re: I'm getting a lot of "please use the Mastodon report function to tell us about the Russian disinformation accounts we are hosting".
iftas@mastodon.iftas.org admin@hear-me.social we get that crap a lot too, but we have a post queue that catches the first post for any account. (NodeBB, not Mastodon)
It does unfortunately increase workload, and spammers are starting to use AI to craft innocuous messages to get past manual detection, but it might be the next needed step.
Admin Jerry
in reply to julian • • •It's good idea!
IFTAS
in reply to julian • • •Admin Jerry
in reply to IFTAS • • •@julian
I don't. I just took a bunch of email addresses of spam accounts that I recently suspended and none of them are hits.
I can't use IP addresses. I don't collect them. A promise I make to those who sign up.
Have you found these services helpful?
IFTAS
in reply to Admin Jerry • • •@admin @julian roughly half my spam shows up on SFS, we are a common target for SEO spam that also targets forums. Nothing's perfect, but it's a decent signal for a chunk of the issue.
Now, imagine if we automatically submitted data to to SFS when we suspend for spam, and other instances auto-checked SFS on new account signup...
Poliverso - notizie dal Fediverso ⁂
in reply to julian • •@julian since these bots follow a fixed pattern (silence for a few days, temporary IP addresses, email domains, etc.), I tend to suspend them on Mastodon as a precaution. Mastodon's advantage is its appeal mechanism, which works very well.
On Friendica, the situation is less straightforward, because there's no appeal: the suspension can't be revoked, and while it's possible to block an account without suspending it, there's no communication channel between the user and the administrator.
On Lemmy, things are even stranger: lately, we've had several users register but don't post anything. I believe these are manual registrations by actors trying to manage their accounts with the Mastodon APIs... In any case, even though Lemmy lacks a post-ban communication channel, the measures are revocable.
On NodeBB, however, I'm not prepared. Our citiverse.it is still small and in six months we haven't had any moderation problems, but honestly I don't even know if there is a system for appeals and ban revocation.
@Admin Jerry @IFTAS
Da_Gut likes this.
reshared this
Moderation & Server Administration e Da_Gut reshared this.
The Socel Director
in reply to IFTAS • • •