IFTAS<p>As we celebrate the progress made this year, we are energised by the opportunities that lie ahead. Reviewing the 2024 Needs Assessment (<a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/12/17/the-2024-iftas-needs-assessment-report-is-here/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/12/17/the</span><span class="invisible">-2024-iftas-needs-assessment-report-is-here/</span></a>) 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 <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a></p><p>1/5</p>
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IFTAS<p>2024 saw great things on the Fediverse. Growth, new projects, and lots of work on trust & safety.</p><p>We’ve shared an overview of the successes and amazing collaborations we’ve seen over the last year because it’s always good to celebrate the wins: <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/12/23/fortifying-the-fediverse-decentralised-trust-and-safety-2024/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/12/23/for</span><span class="invisible">tifying-the-fediverse-decentralised-trust-and-safety-2024/</span></a> .</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/TogetherStronger" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TogetherStronger</span></a><br><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/12/23/fortifying-the-fediverse-decentralised-trust-and-safety-2024/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/12/23/for</span><span class="invisible">tifying-the-fediverse-decentralised-trust-and-safety-2024/</span></a></p>
IFTAS<p>Respondents to our 2024 Needs Assessment host a collective 4,301,355 accounts - roughly one third of all known accounts (ActivityPub only).</p><p>42% of respondents host 100 accounts or fewer; 6 respondents host over 100,000 accounts.</p><p>Let’s hear it for the amazing people who area helping create <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> for us all - thank your admin today!</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/OpenSocialWeb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenSocialWeb</span></a></p>
IFTAS Blog<p><strong>Fortifying the Fediverse: Decentralised Trust and Safety 2024</strong></p><p>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.</p><p><strong>IFTAS Milestones</strong></p><p>We began the year with the release of our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/09/dsa-guide-for-the-fediverse/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DSA Guide for Decentralised Services</a>, 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 <a href="https://www.tallpoppy.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tall Poppy</a>, 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.</p> <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>In May, we proudly launched IFTAS Connect, a <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">collaborative platform for moderators, administrators, and trust & safety teams</a>. By fostering community-building and sharing resources, IFTAS Connect has become a key tool for improving moderation efforts across the Fediverse. We also introduced <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/fedicheck/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FediCheck</a>, 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.</p><p>In October, our community demonstrated exceptional resilience during a large-scale spam attack on the Fediverse. This <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/10/21/coordinated-community-response-mitigates-fediverse-spam-attack/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">collective effort</a> showcased the strength of our network and our ability to address challenges collaboratively.</p><p>We welcomed three amazing contributors, Ted Han, Erin Kissane, and Andrés Monroy-Hernández, to our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/about-us/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Advisory Board</a>. Their expertise in open-source technology and digital governance strengthens our mission to build safer, more equitable online spaces.</p><p>We stress tested our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/content-classification-service/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Content Classification Service</a>, 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.</p><p>We ended the year with the release of our annual <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/12/17/the-2024-iftas-needs-assessment-report-is-here/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Needs Assessment Report</a>, 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.</p><p><strong>The Ecosystem Expands</strong></p><p>2024 saw a range of non-profit organisational growth including the launch of the <a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Social Web Foundation</a>, dedicated to enhancing interoperability, safety, and governance across decentralised networks. </p><p>As decentralised platforms grapple with the challenges of misinformation and disinformation, <a href="https://www.newsmastfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsmast emerged</a> 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.</p> <p>Emelia Smith proposed and led the creation of the <a href="https://github.com/swicg/activitypub-trust-and-safety?tab=readme-ov-file" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ActivityPub Trust and Safety Taskforce</a>, 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.</p><p>Juliet Shen announced the creation of the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/julietshen_trustcon-trustandsafety-opensource-activity-7223686649807843329-GmbJ" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Open Source Tooling Consortium</a> at TrustCon, which can both contribute to, and learn from, the open source community building federated social networks.</p><p><a href="https://www.anew.social/mission/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A New Social was launched</a> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Platform Developers</strong></p><p>Two <a href="https://fediforum.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FediForum events</a> highlighted a ton of new work in federated platforms. </p><p>The Mastodon team is spearheading the <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/fediverse_auxiliary_service_provider_specifications" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Federated Auxiliary Service Provider</a> 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 <a href="https://bonfirenetworks.org/apps/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bonfire Networks</a> undertook a range of activities to explore governance and moderation tooling as a foundation of their platform development. </p><p><a href="https://fediseer.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fediseer</a> continues to be a growing resource for Lemmy and Mastodon administrators, and <a href="https://github.com/db0/fedi-safety" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fedi-safety</a> is a novel tool that can classify genAI CSAM on Lemmy and potentially other services. <a href="https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/112880378856733290" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pixelfed introduced comment controls</a> and enhanced spam classifiers.</p><p>BlueSky <a href="https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-12-2024-stackable-moderation" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">introduced Ozone</a>, 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 <a href="https://www.blackskyweb.xyz/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blacksky</a>, 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.</p><p><a href="https://spritely.institute/goblins/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spritely</a> is working on the next generation of decentralised tech, building on co-founders’ Jessica Tallon and Christine Lemmer-Webber’s experience co-authoring ActivityPub.</p><p><strong>Research and Writings</strong></p> <a href="https://www.tsjournal.org/index.php/jots/issue/view/8" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>Yoel Roth and Samantha Lai published “<a href="https://www.tsjournal.org/index.php/jots/article/view/171" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Securing Federated Platforms: Collective Risks and Responses</a>“, 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.</p><p>Darius Kazemi and Erin Kissane published “<a href="https://fediverse-governance.github.io/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers</a>” – answering the question “What are the most effective governance and administration models in place on medium-to-large sized Fediverse servers?”</p><p><strong>Looking Ahead to 2025</strong></p><p>As we celebrate the progress made this year, we are energised by the opportunities that lie ahead. Reviewing the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Fediverse-Trust-Safety-Needs-Assessment-Report-2024.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2024 Needs Assessment</a> 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 <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a></p> <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>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. </p><p>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, <a href="https://crowdin.com/project/dtsp" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">submit a few translations today</a>!</p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>You can track our in-progress and planned activities on our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/iftas-activity-board/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Activity Tracker page</a>.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>Support the Social Web</strong></p><p>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. </p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/togetherstronger/" target="_blank">#TogetherStronger</a> </p><ul><li><a href="https://opencollective.com/blacksky" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blacksky</a></li><li><a href="https://opencollective.com/bonfire-networks" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bonfire Networks</a></li><li><a href="https://www.patreon.com/tinysubversions" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Darius Kazemi</a></li><li><a href="https://ko-fi.com/db0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">db0</a></li><li><a href="https://support.thisismissem.social/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emelia Smith</a> (@ThisIsMissEm)</li><li><a href="https://www.wrecka.ge/into-the-wreck/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Erin Kissane</a></li><li><a href="https://liberapay.com/Fediseer/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fediseer</a></li><li><a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Independent Federated Trust and Safety</a> (IFTAS)</li><li><a href="https://join-lemmy.org/donate" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lemmy</a></li><li><a href="https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mastodon</a></li><li><a href="https://www.newsmastfoundation.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsmast Foundation</a></li><li><a href="https://pixelfed.org/support-our-project" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pixelfed</a></li><li><a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Social Web Foundation</a></li><li><a href="https://spritely.institute/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Spritely Institute</a></li></ul><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/togetherstronger/" target="_blank">#TogetherStronger</a></p>
IFTAS<p>To all our moderation heroes, tireless admins, community managers and everyone working to make <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> </p><p>As the year draws to a close, all of us at IFTAS want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the incredible work you do every day. Your commitment to fostering safe, inclusive, and thriving communities is the cornerstone of everything we stand for.</p>
IFTAS Blog<p><strong>The 2024 IFTAS Needs Assessment Report is Here!</strong></p><p>We are pleased to to announce the release of the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Fediverse-Trust-Safety-Needs-Assessment-Report-2024.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2024 Fediverse Trust & Safety Needs Assessment Report</a>. This annual report is a cornerstone of our mission to support the decentralised social web with evidence-based research and actionable recommendations for moderators, community managers, and administrators.</p><p>This year’s report reflects the insights of 183 services spanning platforms like Mastodon, Lemmy, and Peertube, collectively hosting over 4.3 million accounts. This year we also heard from volunteer independent moderators on Bluesky. By analysing the experiences and feedback of these moderators and admins across the Fediverse, the report highlights the challenges and opportunities within this rapidly evolving ecosystem.</p><p>We will follow up with an analysis of what we’ve seen change since last year’s report, as well as key resources we think can help solve some of the needs identified.</p><p><strong>Key Findings</strong></p><ul><li>Resource gaps – only 16% of communities have 24-hour moderator coverage, and nearly half of moderator teams lack formal guidance. That said, we see roughly one moderator for every 1,200 active accounts.</li><li>Top ranked priorities – moderators need tools for CSAM detection, spam prevention, and legal guidance for compliance with regulations like GDPR.</li><li>Burnout is a persistent issue – one in five moderators report experiencing trauma or burnout this year, underlining the need for wellness and resilience resources.</li><li>Financial struggles – most communities operate on donations, and overall our survey participants are not generating enough money to cover costs. Very few moderators are receiving any compensation for their labour.</li></ul><p><strong>IFTAS Initiatives</strong></p><p>Informed by last year’s findings, IFTAS has developed several solutions and programs, including a <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/content-classification-service/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fediverse CSAM scanner</a>, a comprehensive Moderator Handbook (coming soon), and the creation of <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/fedicheck/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FediCheck</a> for automated denylist management. Moving forward, we aim to expand resources for <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library-category/wellness/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">moderator wellness</a>, launch our CSAM scanner for broader use (<a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/SXiobzcxTRrpVsWMJDh+h+loLkAmsTQ-8-egNm+ihlo/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">please register your interest</a>), improve tooling for non-consensual image detection, and introduce new community guidelines templates.</p><p>We encourage everyone in the Fediverse community to read the full report for a deeper understanding of the challenges facing decentralised moderation and the innovative solutions underway.</p><p>➡️ <strong><a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Fediverse-Trust-Safety-Needs-Assessment-Report-2024.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read the Full Report Here</a></strong></p><p><strong>Get Involved</strong></p><p>IFTAS thrives on collaboration. Join our community of practice at <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a>, use our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">resources</a>, or <a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">support our mission</a> with a charitable donation to help make the Fediverse a safer, more inclusive space for all.</p><p>Let’s work together to empower moderators and create a stronger, safer social web!</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/togetherstronger/" target="_blank">#TogetherStronger</a> 💙</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/activitypub/" target="_blank">#ActivityPub</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bluesky/" target="_blank">#Bluesky</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/togetherstronger/" target="_blank">#TogetherStronger</a></p>
IFTAS<p>As we know, decentralisation is a challenge but a worthwhile one, which is why we work with a broad array of groups who can offer different things to our mission of creating <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a>.</p>
IFTAS Blog<p><strong>Welcoming Erin Kissane</strong></p><p>We are thrilled to announce that <a href="https://mas.to/@kissane" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Erin Kissane</a> has joined the IFTAS Advisory Board! Erin brings a unique and deeply informed perspective on trust, safety, and governance in decentralised online spaces, making her an invaluable addition to our mission of supporting independent social media communities.</p> <p>Erin’s recent work on <a href="https://erinkissane.com/fediverse-governance-drop" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fediverse Governance</a> underscores her dedication to understanding and addressing the nuanced challenges of managing decentralised networks. Her thoughtful exploration of governance models, trust-building, and community care on the Fediverse reflects her commitment to fostering equitable and inclusive online environments.</p><p>Other notable achievements include co-founding and leading the <a href="https://covidtracking.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">COVID Tracking Project</a> at The Atlantic, a significant public data initiative that provided comprehensive national data during a critical time. She also played a pivotal role in establishing <a href="https://opennews.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">OpenNews</a>, fostering collaboration among data journalists, designers, and reporters to enhance the quality of journalism through shared knowledge and resources.</p><p>Most recently, through her microstudio <a href="https://www.wrecka.ge/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wreckage/salvage</a>, Erin continues to investigate the history and future of online networks, exploring cultural protocols and innovative practices that can help sustain healthier digital spaces.</p><p>Erin’s extensive experience and her commitment to decentralised governance align perfectly with IFTAS’s values of transparency, fairness, and safety. We are honoured to welcome her to the Advisory Board and are excited to collaborate on shaping the future of independent, inclusive online communities.</p><p>Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Erin!</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a></p>
IFTAS<p>Jaz will be attending <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://accessnow.social/@rightscon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>rightscon</span></a></span> in February, as will the Social Web Foundation. Let us know if you're attending as we'd like to help SWF get the Fediverse represented to this important audience - and of course connect with more people who are passionate about trust and safety.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/Decentralization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Decentralization</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a></p>
IFTAS Blog<a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/content-classification-service/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>We are extremely proud to announce <strong>our Content Classification Service is up and running</strong>, with our first classifier active. We are starting with detecting child sexual abuse media for our opt-in connected servers, and our plan is to introduce additional classifiers over time, including non-consensual intimate imagery, terroristic and violent extremist content, malicious URLs, spam, and more. </p><p>For the time being we are operating in a closed test with a very small number of servers, and we have a slate of additional server admins ready to participate in our beta. You can learn more – and sign up to participate – on the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/content-classification-service/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CCS Web page</a>. </p> <a href="https://github.com/bonfire-networks/bonfire-app/issues/1030" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>In other news, we are kicking off an exciting collaborative with the <a href="https://bonfirenetworks.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bonfire Networks</a> developer team. </p><p>Bonfire is a <strong>governance-first</strong> community platform using ActivityPub, and the developer team are interested in reviewing proposals from the moderator community for rapid iteration of evidence-based, prosocial tooling and workflow in a co-design effort with the moderator community.</p><p>The Bonfire team have <a href="https://github.com/bonfire-networks/bonfire-app/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%22Abuse+Mitigation%22+" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">already rapidly adopted several proposals</a> including:</p><ul><li><strong>greyscaling and blurring media in reported content</strong> – this reduces trauma for moderators reviewing harmful content</li><li><strong>muting audio in media files</strong> – no sudden noises, loud volume or traumatic audio for the moderation workflow</li><li><strong>removing clickable links from reported content</strong> and suggesting URL investigation tools – this reduces the chance of moderators clicking through to phishing, malware, and other harmful web sites</li></ul><p>Our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a> community is working to provide additional feedback, and anyone is free to suggest additional feedback on the <a href="https://github.com/bonfire-networks/bonfire-app/issues" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bonfire GitHub</a>. </p><p>This is a <strong>fantastic opportunity</strong> for the Fediverse’s trust and safety community to interactively guide the development of modular tooling that we hope will not only benefit Bonfire communities but can benefit the ecosystem at large, through modular adoption of the tooling, Fediverse Enhancement Proposals, or other platforms incorporating the same evidence-based prosocial approaches to empowering community managers and moderators.</p><p>We urge all IFTAS Connect moderator members to <strong>join us in the <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/groups/moderation-tooling/forum/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Moderator Tooling Workgroup</a></strong> and tell us all the tools, features and functions you want to see added to keep you and your community safe!</p> <p>Lastly, a huge <strong>thank you</strong> to everyone who has responded to our community support drive, we’ve raised <strong>over $2,000</strong> this year in direct community support and our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/first-50/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS First 50</a> page is filling up! As we head into giving season, a quick reminder IFTAS is a 501c3, all donations are tax-deductible for US supporters, and we accept a wide range of support. If you can, <a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">donate today</a> to keep supporting our mission!</p><p><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/10/03/iftas-update-content-classification-moderation-tooling/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://about.iftas.org/2024/10/03/iftas-update-content-classification-moderation-tooling/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/activitypub/" target="_blank">#ActivityPub</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bonfire/" target="_blank">#Bonfire</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a></p>
IFTAS<p>IFTAS believes we can harness the power of the Fediverse for the greater good, reducing workload for all moderators, and demonstrating to the world what it looks like when mission-driven communities come together to create the next generation of social media.</p><p>To do that, we need funding from individuals and businesses who believe in <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a>. If that’s you, you can donate here: <a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">about.iftas.org/donate/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> .</p><p>If it’s not - boosts are free!</p>
IFTAS<p>We’ve just shared a must-read post for anyone passionate about digital safety and inclusivity on the social web.</p><p>In it we discuss our strategic initiatives, our upcoming projects, and how we envision the future of trust and safety in the Fediverse.</p><p>You can read it here: <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fediverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fed</span><span class="invisible">iverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/</span></a> .</p><p>When you have, we'd love to hear your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation about <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/DigitalSafety" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DigitalSafety</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a><br><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fediverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fed</span><span class="invisible">iverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/</span></a></p>
IFTAS Blog<p>In November of 2022 as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/10/1135243276/mastodon-twitter-elon-musk" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">millions of people sought alternatives to Twitter</a>, the Fediverse experienced tremendous growth – and with that growth came an increasing number of people asking “how do we scale and support volunteer trust and safety?”. IFTAS was born out of those conversations, beginning with a working group to identify the issues and propose possible solutions, followed by a community survey to gauge the interest and needs of service administrators and moderators, and finally securing funding to kickstart the activities.</p><p>As I reflect on a year of activity and plan for what’s next, I’d like to offer my vision for IFTAS, talk about what the broader impact of a federated social web means, examine a few fundamental challenges, and offer ways we can all help safeguard and sustain <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a>.</p><p>Over the past year I’ve personally counselled moderators on the front lines of conflict resolution, bigotry, and exposure to traumatic content, and I’ve seen time and again the abuse levelled at people working for free filling the under-appreciated role of moderating human interactions online.</p><p>On the other hand, I’ve also had the unmitigated joy of working with a growing number of amazing people who are incredibly energised and devoted to making our online world work better. People who are actively reducing harm, increasing safety, developing new technologies for new problems, authoring guidance for moderators, and watching them come together for the greater good.</p><p>At IFTAS we’ve spent the past year building a community of roughly 200 moderators and administrators who are actively sharing best practices and lessons learned. We’ve also built moderation tooling and services, worked with industry and subject matter experts to provide guidance and educational materials, and hopefully we’ve helped reduce harm for our moderators and their communities. </p><p>We’ve contracted or provided stipends to two dozen Fediverse supporters and moderators, and we’ve provided personal safety support for 20 at-risk moderators. As we head into year two for IFTAS I am hopeful we and others can continue to advance and elevate the conversation around user safety and moderation support.</p><p><strong>Fundamental Challenges</strong></p><p>Trust and safety at scale in volunteer-operated services is immediately observable as being underfunded and understaffed. Corporate social media services have the benefit of lawyers, money, and subject matter experts in the myriad harms perpetrated on the internet, from spam to disinformation to hate to copyright issues, <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/shared-vocabulary-labels/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the list is long</a>. </p><p>A small Fediverse instance operated by a lone admin/moderator cannot possibly be expected to acquire all the knowledge and experience required to mitigate all these issues. Even the largest teams still don’t have the time or resources necessary to manage every conceivable issue.</p><p>Here’s just one case in point. Did you know it’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/37/section/1" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">illegal to offer to sell or loan a hard non-flexible plate with three or more sharp radiating points, designed to be thrown</a> in the United Kingdom? What should a moderator do if a user offers such an item for sale or loan? How liable is the instance administrator? Are they even subject to UK jurisdiction? If so, what other items are prohibited in the UK? How about France? Tunisia? India? </p><p>IFTAS has a <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/iftas-activity-board/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">long list of action items</a> that our community has asked for, but I believe there are fundamental challenges that are of top priority and offer some easy wins to move the conversation forward.</p><p>While IFTAS can help and is working on each of these, the broader community can also impact each of these, and I will offer some ways we can gather our collective strengths to address these challenges. </p><p>In no particular order, let’s explore:</p><ul><li><strong>Federation Management</strong> – federation is on by default and highly permissive. New servers immediately connect with thousands of peers, irrespective of their authenticity and suitability, creating easy vectors for abuse and harassment. How can we reduce the opportunity for harm?</li><li><strong>Common Vocabulary</strong> – for interconnected moderators and administrators to work together, we need to agree on labels and definitions. What work has been done to create standard terminology, and how might we introduce this to the dozens of platforms and apps available?</li><li><strong>Regulatory Compliance</strong> – regulations like the Digital Services Act, age verification requirements, the UK’s Online Safety Act and others are impacting social media providers, and Fediverse instances are not immune. Legal support and protection from illicit content are our moderator’s highest concerns. What can we do to protect ourselves from liability?</li><li><strong>Shared Signals</strong> – we federate content, but we don’t federate information about that content. The current state of the art does not help administrators and moderators communicate with each other. Let’s fix that.</li></ul><p><strong>Domain Federation Management</strong></p><p>The Fediverse is an interconnected network of services federating content with each other, running on open source software, communicating using open protocols. As I write this, we are approaching 30,000 servers visible on the network, up from just under 8,000 in October of 2022 (<a href="https://fedidb.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FediDB</a>).</p> <p>30,000 servers, means at least 30,000 content moderators, with roughly 30,000 definitions of what constitutes inappropriate content. 30,000 servers means connecting with 29,999 <em>other</em> servers that may or may not be well-moderated.</p><p>Those 30,000 servers host 14 million accounts. Federating with those servers means giving 14 million people the right to create files on your publicly-accessible hard drive. This is the de facto standard; most instances allow connection unless the administrator blocks a specific domain. It is a reactive proposition, and the more servers that join the network, the more things there are to react to. Moderating one server means moderating the entire network.</p><p>The web is used by billions of people, and not all of them have your best interests at heart. The low barrier to entry – download some free software and install it on a cheap web host with a free domain name – means that some servers are operating with the explicit intent to harbour hateful or illegal content, to <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/21977" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">disrupt the network</a>, or to generally provide a source of troll behaviour. </p><p>Consider this statement from one server operator:</p><p>Many well-meaning community leaders have started services only to be drowned in a torrent of hate and abuse from users of servers such as the one above, leading many to walk away, scarred, likely never to return. Those who stay to work through the problem are incredulous that the alternative to corporate social media boils down to “connect to anyone and everyone, good luck with that”. I believe this to be unacceptable, unscalable, and easily mitigated. I’d like to see far fewer messages like the one below.</p><p><em>One server administrator at the beginning of a brigading onslaught</em></p><p><strong>Domain Federation: How IFTAS Is Helping</strong></p><ol><li>We maintain a “<a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/iftas-dni-list/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Do Not Interact</a>” list, a list of domains we believe expose service providers to harm by hosting and federating illegal content.</li><li>We monitor the domain blocks put in place by a large proportion of servers, and we hand review the domains that are blocked by at least 51% of those servers. We then create a list of domains we recommend for action, using our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/cariad-policy/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CARIAD policy specification</a>.</li><li>We built and operate <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/fedicheck/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FediCheck</a>, a Mastodon-facing web service that can synchronise your server with our lists, saving admins from having to learn about new problem servers, researching them, being exposed to their content, and manually adding the domain to a denylist.</li><li>For those who have been exposed to traumatic content, we publish wellbeing and post-trauma resources in our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library-category/wellness/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Moderator Library</a>.</li><li>We are working with managed hosting providers to explore how they can offer safety tools to their customers.</li></ol><p><em>A screenshot of the FediCheck web service application</em></p><p>Separately, I advocate for changes to the ecosystem:</p><ol><li>I believe all federating software should explicitly inform administrators during install that the installed service will federate with a range of servers, some of which host illegal or undesirable content.</li><li>I believe all federating software should offer the option to start with the denylist currently in place by the software maintainer. For example, Mastodon installers should be able to start their service with the current mastodon.social denylist. This allows software maintainers to offer a list that reflects their own foundational principles.</li><li>I believe all federating software should have a federation allowlist option, whereby the administrator can opt to only federate with servers they allow. A large number of small communities, family servers, schools and more can benefit from curating the domains they connect with.</li><li>I believe all federating software that allows importation of domain blocks should allow importation of retractions.</li><li>I believe all federating software maintainers have a duty of care to the people who download and install their software to educate them about resources they will likely need. One-click installers or managed host providers can be used by non-technical community managers to create an online presence in minutes, unaware of the implications and ramifications of joining a global network of federating content.</li><li>I believe that a messaging protocol that federates content should also federate metadata about that content. I can federate disinformation, but I can’t federate a trusted flag that a server is operated by a persistent threat actor. I can federate an illegal media object, but I can’t federate a signal that a server is knowingly and willingly hosting illegal content. I can federate a thousand spam messages, but I can’t federate my finding that a given server is being used to send spam.</li></ol><p><strong>Domain Federation: What We’re Doing Next</strong></p><ol><li>IFTAS will continue to support work on shared denylists, labelling services, and we’ll explore open sourcing FediCheck so anyone can run the service and use any upstream provider to help manage their domain federation. My hope is that rings of trust will form, allowing Servers A, B and C to automate the mutual sharing of their denylists, or Server A and B can choose to emulate Server C, or all three can decide that some other list or service is the best one for them, and plug that into FediCheck.</li><li>FediCheck will be extended to accommodate email domain and toxic IP blocking, using highly trusted sources to further protect administrators, hosts and moderators from interacting with known sources of harm.</li><li>Over the coming year, I hope to extend CARIAD into an API that can be consumed by other software products, making it a robust source of signal intelligence.</li><li>I will continue to advocate for safety features that inform and support community managers and service providers so we can continue building a decentralised social web that offers options for everyone to build the community that’s right for them.</li></ol><p><strong>Domain Federation: How You Can Help</strong></p><ol><li>If you are a software developer creating federation software or a supporting app, use <a href="https://www.prosocialdesign.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">prosocial</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-023-00052-7" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">evidence-based approaches</a> to your development process. Learn from those who have walked the path, talk with safety experts, review extant moderation tooling, and consider <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/safety-by-design" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Safety by Design</a>. If you are building networking features that connect users of your software to 14 million people, take the anticipated potential harms into account.</li><li>If you use federated software, talk to the maintainers of your software of choice. Use their preferred feedback channel, and clearly describe the problem and the proposed solutions. Talk to the administrator of your home instance. Ask them if they monitor inauthentic domains.</li><li>If you operate a server, read our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/tools-resources/denylist-resources/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Denylist Resources</a> page. If you have additional resources to add, tell us so we can share your knowledge and experience with others. IFTAS Connect members can share resources to add in the <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/forums/discussion/library-suggestions-edits/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Library discussion forum</a>, or send me a note at <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/@jaz" target="_blank">@<span>jaz</span></a></li><li>If you can afford to support us, we need to pay people for their time reviewing domains, fixing the bugs and maintaining FediCheck, providing technical support, and creating the next generation of support tools. You can find ways to make a charitable donation at the bottom of this article.</li></ol><p><strong>Common Vocabulary</strong></p><p>Federating platforms are proliferating, and apps and clients to connect to them are being developed by energetic teams with limited resources, each one needing to reinvent moderation tooling. Reporting workflows, labels, definitions… each platform and each app needs to consider what words to use, how to present them to users, what options to offer content moderators and service administrators.</p><p>I believe we can leverage the work performed by the larger trust and safety ecosystem to find a common vocabulary – creating an easy path for developers to ensure they have considered not only what harms their software may expose their users to, but how to robustly codify and act on those harms. </p><p><strong>Shared Vocabulary: How IFTAS is Helping</strong></p><ol><li>IFTAS has adopted the <a href="https://dtspartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/DTSP_Trust-Safety-Glossary_CC.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Digital Trust & Safety Partnership Glossary of Terms</a> and uses those as the core labels in everything we do. A great entry point into this vocabulary is our <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/shared-vocabulary-labels/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shared Vocabulary page</a>. We have created a page for each and every label, with links to guidance and resources for each label.</li><li>Borrowing from the misinformation research landscape, we use the <a href="https://cdn.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ABC_Framework_TWG_Francois_Sept_2019.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Actor, Behaviour, Content</a> taxonomy to classify each of 34 labels.</li><li>We worked with DTSP to republish the Glossary as a Creative Commons document, meaning we and you are free to use it in any form. The Glossary is the backbone of our moderator community (<a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a>) and is how we classify content and collaboration in the library and the discussion forums.</li><li>Our domain denylists use these labels to classify domains, and we use the same labels on our <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/iftas.org/g/sw-isac-announce" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">information sharing advisories</a>.</li></ol><p><strong>Shared Vocabulary: What We’re Doing Next</strong></p><ol><li>Now that we’ve obtained the Creative Commons version of the document, we will begin translating the Glossary into as many languages as we can, and maintaining those translations over time if and when the Glossary is updated.</li><li>We will begin labelling content on Bluesky using our shared label list, and we will work with other developers to consider adopting a standard list.</li></ol><p><strong>Shared Vocabulary: How You Can Help</strong></p><ol><li>If you’re a moderator or service administrator, consider rewriting your server rules to reflect the DTSP common labels and definitions. We have example template rules in our Library for <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/shared-vocabulary-labels/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">each label</a>.</li><li>If you’re a developer, consider using the Glossary as a starting point for your reporting workflows, <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/tools-resources/information-for-software-developers-and-designers/#4-toc-title" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">we have some guidance on implementation</a>.</li><li>If you’re a subject matter expert in any of the labels in our list, <a href="https://about.iftas.org/contact/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reach out</a> if you can offer tools and resources you know of that can help volunteer moderators with their decision making and interventions.</li></ol><p><strong>Regulatory Compliance</strong></p><p>My concern here is to protect administrators and moderators from liability for their accidental non-compliance, and to offer guidance on basic risk assessment. More and more countries are creating complex requirements for social media providers, and Fediverse servers are liable for the content they carry.</p><p>I have seen malicious use of illegal content, both to cause trauma, and to enable the takedown of an unsuspecting server. The Fediverse has seen <a href="https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/2875447" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">concerted attacks of computer-generated child sexual abuse material</a>, mass DMCA takedown requests, frivolous GDPR reports, and law enforcement hold requests.</p><p>The two resources most asked for by moderators are legal support and CSAM detection. We are working on both.</p><p><strong>Regulatory Compliance: How IFTAS is Helping</strong></p><ol><li>We partnered with industry experts <a href="https://tremau.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tremau</a> to co-author the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/09/dsa-guide-for-the-fediverse/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Digital Services Act Guide for Decentralized Services</a>. The DSA is a broad set of rules that apply to any service with users in the European Union.</li><li>We have a dedicated area for <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library-category/legal-regulatory/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legal and regulatory resources</a> in our community library.</li><li>We have met with child safety organisations and subject matter experts, and acquired licensed access to hash matching databases to identify illegal media.</li><li>We have built a working prototype of an opt-in <a href="https://about.iftas.org/activities/moderation-as-a-service/content-classification-service/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CSAM detection and reporting service</a> for use by Fediverse administrators.</li></ol><p><strong>Regulatory Compliance: What We’re Doing Next</strong></p><ol><li>We are seeking funding to move the CSAM detection and reporting service into production, and hiring additional subject matter experts to evaluate our service and the adjacent resources.</li><li>We will extend the service to offer hash and match service for non-consensusal intimate images (NCII) and terroristic/violent extremism content (TVEC).</li><li>We are exploring opportunities to work with legal counsel to provide basic legal advice to Fediverse administrators.</li><li>We will co-author additional guidance similar to our DSA Guide, to cover the UK’s Online Safety Act and other extra-national online regulations. We are also monitoring age verification requirements and will provide guidance there also.</li><li>We are talking with law enforcement agencies and legal notice portal providers to create guidance for service providers on how to recognise and respond to a valid legal request.</li><li>We will create a web service using the <a href="https://github.com/berkmancenter/lumendatabase/wiki/Lumen-API-documentation" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lumen API</a> to enable structured receipt of takedown notices for any Fediverse service provider.</li></ol> <p><strong>Regulatory Compliance: How You Can Help</strong></p><p>This is the most expensive piece of our puzzle, and the most-requested by our membership and the broader community. The CSAM detection service will cost us over $160,000 US this year, the hosting bill for the platform is $1,500 a month, and will increase as we ramp up service. </p><p>We are chasing a grant opportunity but we need matching funds.</p><p>If you’d like to join IFTAS as a corporate sponsor, please <a href="https://about.iftas.org/contact/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contact us</a> for information on our sponsorship program. If you’d like to contribute personally, see the bottom of this article.</p><p>Separately, if you are a service provider or instance admin and you would like to register your interest in using our service, we need to show support for our work to obtain grant funding. Please <a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/SXiobzcxTRrpVsWMJDh+h+loLkAmsTQ-8-egNm+ihlo/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fill out this short form</a> to let us know you are interested in using our service once it’s available so we can demonstrate to potential funders that we are building something that will be used.</p><p><strong>Shared Signals</strong></p><p>I have a deep background in healthcare and cybersecurity. Both of these industries have a rich culture of collaboration and sharing, and I want to help accelerate the adoption of similar approaches in the Fediverse.</p><p>The Fediverse has 30,000 moderators. Twitter has fewer than 2,000. Meta has 15,000.</p><p>We have twice as many content reviewers than Meta.</p><p>I’ll say that again.</p><p>We have twice as many content reviewers than Meta.</p><p>Now, almost none of our 30,000 are full time, very few are paid, and there is little in the way of central guidance or tooling to help any of them with their work. Some are working on their individual instance and see only a fraction of the network, but what if we could find a way to join forces, share the load, and spread the love?</p><p>I believe we can harness the power of the Fediverse for the greater good, reducing workload for all moderators, and demonstrating to the world what it looks like when mission-driven communities come together to create the next generation of social media.</p><p><strong>Shared Signals: How IFTAS is Helping</strong></p><ol><li>We have created a structured community for admins, moderators, and subject matter experts to convene and collaborate at our web portal <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a>. We also operate a set of <a href="https://matrix.to/#/#space:matrix.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matrix chat channels</a> to allow for real-time conversation, and we are adding live conferencing options for one-on-ones and community meetups.</li><li>We have created the <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/social-web-information-sharing-and-analysis-centre/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SW-ISAC</a>, an Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC) for the social web. This channel allows service administrators to share information with trusted partners, and release <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/iftas.org/g/sw-isac-announce" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">advisories</a> that everyone can benefit from.</li><li>IFTAS joined the <a href="https://www.ngoisac.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NGO-ISAC</a>, a cybersecurity community for nonprofits.</li></ol><p><strong>Shared Signals: What We’re Doing Next</strong></p><ol><li>We are monitoring a lot of independent work in the space, most notably <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@thisismissem/112299152768594202" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ThisIsMissEm’s FIRES project</a>. Where possible, we will directly support the work.</li><li>We are tracking information sharing activities in the industry, and will continue working with several groups that are exploring broader sharing activities in the social web.</li></ol><p><strong>Shared Signals: How You Can Help</strong></p><ol><li>If you are a large service provider or web host, consider joining the SW-ISAC sharing channel. <a href="https://about.iftas.org/contact/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Contact us</a> for details.</li><li>If you are a content moderator or run your own Fediverse server, consider joining <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a>. Our community portal offers groups, direct messages, and discussion forums for sharing and learning from your peers.</li></ol><p><strong>Big Picture</strong></p><p>Since starting IFTAS, I’ve been yelled at, received obscene and threatening waves of abuse, been accused of working for Big Social, people have taken issue with me being too political or not political enough, and I’ve had to navigate the complexity of building a central resource in a decentralised world. </p><p>But I believe in the web, and I am certain that an open social web is worth our collective time and energy. Access to information, personal connections, news, sports, education, comics and games… we as a society owe it to ourselves to build the web we want, the web we need, the web that lives up to its name. </p><p>There are no walls on a spider’s web. </p><p>We want a web where everyone can participate, where everyone is safe from abuse and harm, where civil society can flourish, where people can meet, learn, share, live, love, laugh.</p><p>Our founding grants of $400,000 have delivered everything you see above and a whole lot more, and will keep the lights on throughout 2023, but we need to keep building, keep paying the bills, and keep paying the people doing the work. At some point, I’d like to be paid, too. I’ve been working unpaid full time since this started, and that can’t last much longer. I am supported by my amazing wife who is 100% committed to what we’re trying to do, and without her support none of this would be possible. </p><p>We have never asked for money; my goal was to take our founding grants and demonstrate our capability, build trust, and put some wins on the board. I believe we’ve done that. Next we will build toward self sustainability, and my plan is to get there in three years. </p><p>So far we’ve helped hundreds of instances and moderators in 30 countries. Our community is asking for legal support, CSAM reporting, spam detection, access to expensive APIs, vicarious trauma counseling and much more. We want to continue working to meet the needs, but we need your help. If you’d like to support IFTAS on our mission to support the people making this happen, please consider making a contribution. </p><p><strong>Supporting IFTAS</strong></p><p>First and foremost, if you run or moderate an instance, or you can contribute your expertise to our projects, join us. <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Join IFTAS Connect</a>, share, learn, teach, translate… Your peers need you. Your participation is the most important way to support the mission. The next most important thing you can do is to support your instance, the vast majority cannot cover the bills and we need a strong, vibrant community of servers to make this all work.</p><p>Nonetheless, we need to pay the bills.</p><p>We are opening up to organisational sponsorship. If you’re interested in partnering with IFTAS, please contact me, we have some great options. If you know an organisation that might be interested in sponsoring us, introduce us. </p><p>If you run an instance, make a small one-time donation and let us list you as a supporter. We’d love to show a list of servers that believe in what we’re doing. And keep an eye out for our next Community Needs Assessment, your feedback is how we prioritise what to work on for you.</p><p>We will also be soliciting donations from the community. To celebrate our founding support, we will memorialise the first 500 donors on a special page we will keep forever, the IFTAS First 500. </p><p>Send a dollar, send ten. We’ll list every supporter. Add your name, your blog, your profile pic, whatever you like. We want to demonstrate broad support for our work, it keeps us all energised and lets our sponsors know we have the support of the community.</p><p>If you are able to, make a sustaining contribution to help our monthly expenses. We pay moderators, developers, community managers, and we operate web services that require beefy hosting.</p><p>If you have employer matching funds at your job, see if IFTAS is on the list. We are registered with Benevity, tell your co-workers.</p><p>As a 501(c)(3) charitable organisation your support is tax deductible in the United States. We accept money, securities, donor-advised funds, cryptocurrency and more, all tax deductible.</p><p>If you can, <a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">donate today</a>. </p><p>To everyone who has supported us this far, thank you. Your time, wisdom, energy, feedback and words of encouragement have sustained us all.</p><p>Join me and the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/about-us/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">incredible team</a> on this journey, support an open social web, and help us as we keep pushing for <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a>.</p><p>Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi gyd,</p><p>Jaz</p><p><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fediverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://about.iftas.org/2024/08/13/fediverse-trust-and-safety-the-founding-and-future-of-iftas/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a></p>
Sam (Ethical Revolution) 🌱✌️<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://toot.wales/@jaz" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>jaz</span></a></span> The Fediverse is a much more welcoming environment in which I’m not harangued by adverts or promoted posts, and I’m safe in the knowledge that my words and activity are not tracked in order to sell me things, in fact not tracked at all!<br> <a href="https://climatejustice.social/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a></p>
Jayne :wales_flag:🇪🇺🏳️🌈<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://toot.wales/@jaz" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>jaz</span></a></span> </p><p>Everyone (well nearly everyone!) on the <a href="https://toot.wales/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> behaves like civilised, intelligent adults. We all, at least try, to give others the right to speak and be heard without being attacked...just as one would do in a face to face discourse.</p><p>Content Warnings are used liberally as is Alt-text on images, videos, and even GIFs, and hastags (#) use pascal case (<a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/snake-case-vs-camel-case-vs-pascal-case-vs-kebab-case-whats-the-difference/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">freecodecamp.org/news/snake-ca</span><span class="invisible">se-vs-camel-case-vs-pascal-case-vs-kebab-case-whats-the-difference/</span></a>) all of which makes the <a href="https://toot.wales/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> a more inclusive space for everyone.</p><p><a href="https://toot.wales/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> ❤️<br><a href="https://toot.wales/tags/TellEveryone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TellEveryone</span></a> 📢</p>
jaz :twt: :wales_flag:<p>👋 If you can see this toot you are on the <a href="https://toot.wales/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> enjoying <a href="https://toot.wales/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> </p><p>How flippin' awesome is that!?</p><p>In one or two sentences, tell me one thing that stands out for you personally, one of the reasons you enjoy being here.</p><p>And if you're ok with me using your answer in promotional material to get more people here, add the tag <a href="https://toot.wales/tags/TellEveryone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TellEveryone</span></a> 📢</p>
IFTAS Blog<p>When we asked the moderator community what resources they’d like IFTAS to work on, one of the most requested items was a way to convene and collaborate with fellow moderators around the world. </p><p>We heard requests for things like sharing lessons learned, tips and tricks, technical help with moderation tools, standard terminology, and translation of non-native language content.</p><p>Our favourite quote from the Moderator Needs Assessment… “<strong><em>together we are stronger</em></strong>”.</p><p>We couldn’t agree more.</p><p>We are thrilled to announce the launch of <strong><a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a></strong>, a new community of practice designed specifically for Fediverse moderators. IFTAS Connect aims to provide moderators, community managers and anyone engaged in creating a safer Internet with a wealth of tools, resources, and a supportive network to help them connect, collaborate, and navigate the complexities of federated content moderation. (<a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/iftas-connect-launches-to-provide-moderator-community-feature-rich-tools-and-resources-to-foster-a-safer-more-inclusive-fediverse-302157417.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read the Press Release here</a>.)</p><p>We’ve worked with a broad array of moderators and advisors to kick-start the available resources – and we hope many more will join and contribute their experience.</p> <ul><li></li><li></li><li></li><li></li><li></li><li></li><li></li></ul><p></p> <p><strong><strong>Key Features of IFTAS Connect</strong></strong></p><ul><li>Crowd-Sourced Library – A growing collection of practical guides, wellness resources, and research curated by moderators for moderators. <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The library is open to all</a>, no sign-up required.</li><li>Discussion Forums – Engage with fellow moderators, share experiences, suggest new resources, and learn from one another.</li><li>Community Groups – Join groups focused on specific aspects of moderation, from software assistance to cultural issues.</li><li>Moderation Support – Ask for help with moderation software, content translation, and access IFTAS resources like the moderator sandbox and the FediCheck automated denylist service.</li></ul> <p>In addition we have aggregated news relevant to Fediverse community leaders, a multilingual feature under way to allow for contributed translations, and a wiki-like shared document feature being tested. <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/library/iftas-documentation/iftas-connect-features/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more about the IFTAS Connect account features</a>.</p><p><strong><strong>Join Us Today</strong></strong></p><p>IFTAS Connect is free to join. We invite all Fediverse moderators, community managers, trust and safety professionals, and academic researchers to <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/register/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">request access to IFTAS Connect</a>. Be a part of a global community that prioritizes trust, safety, and inclusivity across the Fediverse, and take part in growing the community and the toolset.</p><p>Visit <a href="https://connect.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Connect</a> to learn more and join our growing community.</p><p><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/05/29/iftas-connect-a-community-for-fediverse-moderators/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://about.iftas.org/2024/05/29/iftas-connect-a-community-for-fediverse-moderators/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/social-media/" target="_blank">#SocialMedia</a></p>
IFTAS Blog<p>We’ve had a tremendously busy first quarter, too much too fit in a newsletter, so here’s the roundup of what’s been happening these past few months.</p><p><strong>Content Classification System</strong></p><p>This is the biggest project we have underway: build an opt-in, privacy-preserving CSAM detection and reporting system to help protect the Fediverse. We are halfway through our initial buildout, which will allow server operators to optionally send their media to IFTAS for hash and match detection using the Safer platform from Thorn. No media leaves IFTAS, and if we get a pertinent match we take care of the necessary reporting. This one’s a complex activity, but we are working our way through and hope to have more on this soon.</p><p><a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/SXiobzcxTRrpVsWMJDh+h+loLkAmsTQ-8-egNm+ihlo/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Register to be notified when CCS is available.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Moderator Advisory Panel</strong></p><p>We’ve set aside funds to pay active moderators a monthly stipend for their guidance and input on our activities, and we are extremely pleased to announce our initial cohort has been onboarded and the first payments went out for March. This group is tasked with reviewing our our products and services, and ensuring a broad range of voices are heard throughout the process. You can review our Moderator Advisory Panel on the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/about-us/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">About Us</a> page, welcome to everyone who stepped up to help guide this work and thank you for your participation!</p><p><strong>FediCheck / CARIAD</strong></p><p>FediCheck is our moderation-as-a-service domain federation app, it allows Mastodon servers to sign in and automatically update their domain blocks and retractions from a trusted list. For this iteration we are using our CARIAD list (an aggregation of the most blocked domains) combined with our Do Not Interact list, each domain is reviewed before inclusion, and the service is intended for new administrators to get a kick start on their federation choices while keeping them safe from day 1 harassment. </p><p>We’ve onboarded our first batch of beta testers and while we’ve got some kinks to iron out, the service is working well. We’ll keep adding more servers from the initial round of requests, and work our way toward making this a free, public service.</p><p><strong>If you’d like to use FediCheck for your server, please <a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/E2yxXhoruIVzj4EGGdDIKintwBVFYsq9Srl4GhYeXwU/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">register your interest</a>.</strong></p><p><strong>Personal Digital Safety</strong></p><p>We have contracted with <a href="http://@tallpoppy@infosec.exchange" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tall Poppy</a> for up to 20 moderators to gain access to a range of personal safety tools, including live support during online harassment and doxxing attacks. We are scheduling the first onboarding and hope to offer this to many more in the coming months. </p><p><strong>If you’d like to be notified when we open up to more applicants, <a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/6P+--16cAT7ltdM6Q5xfnk0Rdyo41yWMVGWbiS4B1mM/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">let us know using this form</a>.</strong></p><p><strong>EU Digital Services Act</strong></p> <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSA-Guide-Decentralised-Servers.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>Working with the great folks at <a href="https://tremau.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tremau</a>, we launched the first of our regulatory guidance materials, this easy-to-read guide to the DSA allows Fediverse administrators to review their exposure to the DSA, and practical guidance on working toward compliance. </p><p><strong>Download the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSA-Guide-Decentralised-Servers.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DSA Guide for Decentralised Servers</a>.</strong></p><p><strong>Composable Moderation</strong></p> <p>We’ve installed and experimented with the Bluesky open source moderation tool <a href="https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-12-2024-stackable-moderation" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ozone</a>. As part of this activity, we’ve set up a labeller account on Bluesky, we’re not actively moderating anything (yet) but we are looking into if and how we can support labelling on the network. Our Bluesky links:</p><ul><li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS</a></li><li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/labeller.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IFTAS Labeller</a></li><li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ngve5na356bhaet3bwvf2brr/feed/aaaka26kinvjk" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trust and Safety Custom Feed</a></li></ul><p><strong>Moderator Templates</strong></p><p><a href="http://@Lillian@mastodon.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lillian</a> and <a href="http://@jdp23@blahaj.zone" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jon</a> have been conducting a survey of moderators to help guide the production of a number of templates for moderation teams, including a moderator agreement and code of conduct. Longer-term this will become a handbook for hands-on moderator activities. </p><p><strong>If you’d like to add your insight and feedback, <a href="https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/0sU8JebkNU8lb1yTD0VFIFiX1HVXKB4r3At41z9gaNY/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fill out this brief questionnaire</a>.</strong></p><p><strong>Charitable Status</strong></p><p>IFTAS is now a recognised 501c3 organisation, this means we can accept tax-deductible donations to support our work. Everything we do is free of charge and we need your support to keep the work moving forward! </p><p>We have a number of ways for you to support the mission:</p><ul><li><a href="https://givebutter.com/iftas-sustaining-supporter" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Make a sustaining contribution</a></li><li><a href="https://givebutter.com/iftas-org-mac" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sponsor the Moderator Advisory Council</a></li><li><a href="https://givebutter.com/iftas-fedicheck" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Support FediCheck</a></li><li><a href="https://app.endaoment.org/orgs/93-2011167" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Donate stocks, securities and cryptocurrency</a></li></ul><p>If you’re considering making a contribution, your employer may have matching funds available! We are registered with <a href="https://benevity.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Benevity</a>, check with your company’s giving program to see if you can double your contribution!</p><p><strong>Spoiler Alert</strong></p><p>We are slowly opening the doors to our collaboration portal “IFTAS Connect”.</p><p>We’ve issued invitations to our Needs Assessment participants, and will be opening up more broadly in late April. IFTAS Connect is a community of practice for moderators, community managers and researchers new and old to come together, share what works, seek help, and get guides and resources for their day to day work.</p><p>Stay tuned for the official announcement!</p><p><strong>What’s Next?</strong></p><p>A few of the items on the todo list…</p><ul><li>Signals sharing – we will soon be convening a group to begin the work of classifying shareable information to strengthen the Fediverse defenses against spam, disinformation and more, using an ISAC-like format. <a href="https://about.iftas.org/contact/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Email us for more info</a>.</li><li>Additional regulatory guidance for administrators, GDPR, UK’s OSA and more on the list.</li><li>Moderator wellness and resilience education</li></ul><p>Thanks for reading, to stay on top of our activities please <a href="https://subscribepage.io/iftas" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">join our newsletter</a>.</p><p><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/23/spring-2023-update/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/23/spring-2023-update/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/activitypub/" target="_blank">#ActivityPub</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bluesky/" target="_blank">#Bluesky</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/dsa/" target="_blank">#DSA</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a></p>
IFTAS Blog <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSA-Guide-Decentralised-Servers.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <p>IFTAS is happy to announce the public availability of our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSA-Guide-Decentralised-Servers.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DSA Guide for Decentralized Services</a> – a practical guide for small and micro services that are subject to the EU’s Digital Services Act. </p><p>Developed in collaboration with the great people at <a href="https://tremau.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tremau</a>, our DSA Guide is designed to help independent social media service providers navigate these complex regulations and achieve compliance with these new rules without compromising the unique qualities of federated, open social networks.</p><p>As part of our <a href="https://about.iftas.org/moderator-needs-assessment/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Needs Assessment</a> activities, we’ve heard a repeated need for help understanding the complex regulatory landscape that decentralized services need to consider, and this DSA Guide is the first of many in our plan to provide clear, actionable guidance to a range of regulations for the community.</p><p>As of February 2024, all online services and digital platforms that offer services in the European Union are required to be fully compliant with the DSA. If your server has member accounts in the EU, or is publicly viewable in the EU, your service is most likely impacted by this regulation.</p><p>However, various portions of the DSA are not applicable to “small and micro” services, and this guide will show you clearly which parts apply and which do not.</p><p>For administrators of platforms like Mastodon, PeerTube, and Pixelfed, the DSA Guide can help demystify the requirements and offer practical advice on achieving compliance for the over 27,000 independent operators of these and other decentralized social media services who otherwise may not be able to obtain the guidance and advice that larger operations can afford to invest in.</p><p>Download the <a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSA-Guide-Decentralised-Servers.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DSA Guide for Decentralized Fediverse Services</a>.</p><p>To join the discussion, visit our community chat service at <a href="https://matrix.to/#/#space:matrix.iftas.org" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://matrix.to/#/#space:matrix.iftas.org</a> or stay tuned to join our community portal in the coming weeks!</p><p><a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/09/dsa-guide-for-the-fediverse/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://about.iftas.org/2024/04/09/dsa-guide-for-the-fediverse/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/activitypub/" target="_blank">#ActivityPub</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/bettersocialmedia/" target="_blank">#BetterSocialMedia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/dsa/" target="_blank">#DSA</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://about.iftas.org/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a></p>
Alan McConchie<p>We just expanded the section in our <a href="https://subdued.social/tags/SubduedSocial" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SubduedSocial</span></a> server rules to conform to the <a href="https://subdued.social/tags/IFTAS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IFTAS</span></a> guidelines against targeted misgendering and deadnaming in the fediverse. </p><p>Read more here: <a href="https://about.iftas.org/2024/01/30/targeted-misgendering-and-deadnaming-in-the-fediverse/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.iftas.org/2024/01/30/tar</span><span class="invisible">geted-misgendering-and-deadnaming-in-the-fediverse/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://subdued.social/tags/BetterSocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BetterSocialMedia</span></a> <a href="https://subdued.social/tags/moderation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>moderation</span></a> <a href="https://subdued.social/tags/FediMod" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FediMod</span></a> <a href="https://subdued.social/tags/MastoMods" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MastoMods</span></a> </p><p>cc <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.iftas.org/@jaz" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>jaz</span></a></span></p>
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