This link safety feature works automatically in the background to protect you from known threats while maintaining your privacy. There is no review of your messages unless you or another participant reports them. 4/4
Sharing updates about trust and safety on Bluesky. This account’s mentions are not actively monitored. To report a post or account, use the in-app reporting feature. Community Guidelines: https://bsky.social/about/support/community-guidelines
263,977 followers 2 following 132 posts
view profile on Bluesky
This link safety feature works automatically in the background to protect you from known threats while maintaining your privacy. There is no review of your messages unless you or another participant reports them. 4/4
Bluesky does not read or review your DMs. We gain limited access to messages only when they're reported by a participant in the conversation to conduct a moderation assessment. 3/4
When you receive a link that's been confirmed as malicious or unsafe, the app will either warn you when you click the link or block the URL entirely. This helps protect you against scams, CSAM, and compromised accounts. 2/4
We're launching a new safety feature to help protect you from malicious links shared in messages. This service will warn or block URLs to keep you safer on Bluesky. 1/4
We appreciate your support as we continue to work to make Bluesky safe and enjoyable for our users. 8/8
We can’t get every moderation decision right, which is why we maintain an appeals process. We encourage anyone using Bluesky for fundraising to focus their efforts through authentic accounts that follow our community guidelines. 7/8
Separately, some forms of solicitation for Bluesky users to share their bank account details with unknown third parties may expose users to serious financial and legal risks. While we understand the urgent desire to help, these posts are in violation of our Community Guidelines. 6/8
In other cases, when our moderation team detects bulk networks of accounts working to target Bluesky users and exploit goodwill towards crises, we take action to suspend these accounts. 5/8
When we identify these patterns, through a combination of signals that may not be publicly visible to users, we first provide warnings and opportunities for users to adjust their approach. We suspend accounts as a last resort. 4/8
In some cases, investigations revealed networks where single individuals operate hundreds of accounts engaging in bulk messaging, identical replies across unrelated conversations, and mass following — behaviors that disrupt the platform experience for all users regardless of the underlying cause.
Our moderation team works to protect users by distinguishing genuine advocacy from spam, manipulation, or other patterns that suggest fraud or deception. 2/8
We deeply understand that people in Gaza and other crisis areas need platforms to share their experiences and seek support, and we’re committed to ensuring that they can be heard on Bluesky. 1/8
Remember, you can self-verify on Bluesky by setting your domain as your username. Even if you're applying for a visual verification badge, we recommend linking your web presence to your username to make it easier for your followers to find you.
To receive a verification badge from Bluesky, your account must be active and secure, authentic, and notable. The form includes more details on our verification criteria. Please ensure your account meets the listed criteria before you submit your request.
We're excited that verification badges have made it easier to quickly recognize authentic accounts, especially in moments of breaking news. Now, we're expanding our roll-out. Notable and authentic accounts can apply for verification or to become a Trusted Verifier via the form linked in our blog.
If your list is hidden, you can edit it to comply with our terms, then email moderation@blueskyweb.xyz for review. Our aim is to address toxicity while preserving list functionality.
Lists and starter packs used for harassment will not be visible to other users in the Bluesky app. Existing subscribers will remain subscribed to the list.
Moving forward, lists and starter packs with insulting profanity, slurs, abusive terms, or unproven allegations will be hidden from other users in the Bluesky app (but still visible to the creator).
Lists are a feature that allow users to create groups of accounts, for example, for curation. However, we’ve also seen lists be used for harassment.
6/6 We only communicate moderation decisions via email, not via DMs. If anyone messages you claiming this, please report them as spam in the app.
5/6 Never change the email on your account to one you don't control. Someone can then request a password reset to that email and take over your account. Additionally, verify your account email if you haven’t already. Settings > Account > Email.
4/6 We never ask for your password, and you shouldn't share it with anyone else.
3/6 We never discuss moderation decisions in a separate Discord channel or other apps. You can submit reports in the Bluesky app, or via email to moderation@blueskyweb.xyz.
2/6 We never charge money for moderation decisions. Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to scam you.
1/6 We're seeing an uptick in scams pretending to be Bluesky or @aaron.bsky.team. These scammers are targeting artists via DMs, trying to take you off-app. Our moderation team is reviewing reports of these scammers and will take down their accounts. Here are some important reminders:
Mistakes can and do happen, and it helps us improve our processes and tooling. If you think an account was suspended in error, you can appeal through moderation@blueskyweb.xyz.
What does lead to immediate suspensions? Inauthentic behavior, like running multiple accounts for the same purpose or impersonation accounts, can cause this. Our improved anti-spam tooling can surface rings of inauthentic coordinated behavior that may not be as obvious at face value.
Occasionally, groups on Bluesky will coordinate to mass report an account. This may lead our moderators to review the case more quickly, but mass reporting alone doesn’t lead to suspensions. Reports and user behavior are reviewed by moderators, not counted like votes.
Programming note: Bluesky’s moderation email is moderation@blueskyweb.xyz. Moderation emails sent from this domain are authentic. You can also use this email to submit more complex reports that don’t fit in the in-app reporting method.
Also, you can toggle your DM inbox settings to accept messages from everyone, only people you follow, or no one: bsky.app/messages/set... 2/2
We’ve invested in cutting down DM spam over the past week, so you should see fewer scammers and spammers in your inbox. Expect more improvements in this area as we build additional tooling. 1/2
@bsky.app joins the fight against child sexual abuse material by becoming a Member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The move comes as the ‘insidious spread’ of child sexual abuse imagery reaches record levels across the internet. Read more: www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/n...
Ensuring user safety at scale takes massive resources. That’s why we’re excited to partner with ROOST—helping smaller orgs enhance safety, meet regulations, and compete. More safety, more competition, more user choice.
In 2024, Bluesky grew from 2.9M to 25.9M users. With this growth came anticipated challenges in scaling Trust & Safety, from adding workstreams to adapting to new harms. In our newly published 2024 Moderation Report, we share details on what the year looked like for our Trust & Safety team.
Moderation decisions draw intense public scrutiny from many places. That’s why Bluesky's architecture is designed to enable communities to control their online spaces, independent of the company or its leadership. We will continue to work on empowering people with more control over their experience.
We’ve been working on an improved version of our Community Guidelines that provides greater detail and more examples, and plan to release it early next year and solicit feedback from the community. As we grow, we will continue to learn and adjust.
Our moderation team continues to monitor and review all received reports, and will action accounts based on in-app violations of our Community Guidelines. We want our actions to be clear and consistent, recognizing that we have more work to do to make that happen.
We do not currently take action on accounts that share Bluesky screenshots with commentary, unless that commentary violates our Guidelines. We will take action when someone's private information is shared without their consent, but only when it is personally identifiable and verifiable in-app.
Our growing moderation team needs clear evidence and well-defined rules to make decisions that can be consistently enforced, so they action accounts based primarily on content and behavior that appears in our app, where the context and authenticity can be directly verified.
The current controversies reveal weaknesses in the clarity of our Community Guidelines and failures in our communications. This has led to understandable confusion about how we interpret our guidelines. We need to be more transparent – without revealing to bad actors how to circumvent our systems.
We recently introduced a new system to detect impersonation. This tool automatically flagged some accounts that were taken down, then reinstated. Other prominent impersonation accounts were quickly removed, contributing to a false perception that we take action based on behavior outside of Bluesky.
In the past month alone, over 12M people joined Bluesky, with daily active users growing 10x. We received more reports in two days than in all of last year, and have integrated new systems and quadrupled our moderation team to try and keep up. Sometimes, we have to work quickly to correct errors.
6/ We also hear your feedback: users want more ways to verify their identity beyond domain verification. We’re exploring additional options to enhance account verification, and we hope to share more shortly.
5/ Identity churning (changing your account identity with the intent to mislead users) is not allowed on Bluesky. If you set up an impersonation account just to gain followers and switch to a different identity that is no longer impersonation to keep that account, your account will be removed.
4/ Parody, satire, or fan accounts are allowed on Bluesky, but they must clearly label themselves in both the display name and bio to help others know the account isn’t official. Accounts with only one of these elements will receive an impersonation label.
3/ We have also quadrupled the size of our moderation team, in part to action impersonation reports more quickly. We still have a large backlog of moderation reports due to the influx of new users as we shared previously, though we are making progress.
2/ We are working behind the scenes to help many organizations and high-profile individuals set up their verified domain handles. In the meantime, we’ve updated our impersonation policy to be more aggressive. Impersonation and handle-squatting accounts will be removed.
1/ With more users joining Bluesky, we know how important it is to identify which accounts are real. Users deserve confidence that the accounts they interact with are authentic. Sharing some details about our impersonation policy 🧵
4/ We’re expanding our moderation team as we grow to improve both the timeliness and accuracy of our moderation actions. Thank you for your understanding and your feedback.
3/ We notified users who were affected by this decision by email, and they can appeal by replying to the email. Anyone who appeals will get a comprehensive review and will be reinstated if they have not violated our Community Guidelines.
2/ This resulted in over-enforcement and temporary suspensions for multiple users. We have reinstated accounts of some users, and are continuing to review appeals.
1/ We're experiencing a huge influx of users, and with that, a predictable uptick in harmful content posted to the network. As a result, for some very high-severity policy areas like child safety, we recently made some short-term moderation choices to prioritize recall over precision.
To clarify, this will affect users who sign up for Bluesky *after* this update rolls out shortly. If you're already on Bluesky, you will continue to be able to post, though you should still verify your email if you haven't already! 🙏
We're rolling out an update shortly to email verification to prevent harassment and trolling from throwaway accounts. New users may need to verify their account email before they can create a post. Thanks for your understanding!
Another day at Bluesky, and it looks like growth is not slowing down! Welcome! We’d like to take a moment to share our stance on AI and user data:
We appreciate your patience as we dial our moderation team up to max capacity and bring on new team members to support this load. Your safety is our highest priority, and we’re glad to welcome you to Bluesky!
With this significant influx of users, we’ve also seen increased spam, scam, and trolling activity — you may have seen some of this yourself. Our team is reviewing these accounts, and you can help us by reporting them by clicking the three-dot menu on each post/account.
In the past 24 hours, we have received more than 42,000 reports (an all-time high for one day). We’re receiving about 3,000 reports/hour. To put that into context, in all of 2023, we received 360k reports. We’re triaging this large queue so the most harmful content such as CSAM is removed quickly.
Bluesky has grown by over 3M people in the last week — welcome! With every wave of growth naturally comes an increase in moderation reports. Here’s a status report on how the Trust & Safety team is handling it:
Lastly, check your voting eligibility and find your polling place here! www.usa.gov/election-day
We added a priority queue in our system for election-related reports. We still have an increased number of reports as a result of the two most recent influxes of users, so we hired more moderators to our team. We triage reports to ensure the most severe violations are addressed quickly.
Additional safeguards: We may roll out additional in-app interventions as needed to ensure a safe and accurate election process.
• Monitoring the post-election period: We’re committed to monitoring the post-election period closely to identify and address any disruptions to the peaceful transition of power.
• Rapidly changing reports: If we can’t verify emerging reports—such as claims of long lines or incidents at specific polling stations—we’ll label them as "unconfirmed" at the time of assessment.
• Labeling misinfo about the voting process: Posts with misleading claims about voting, like incorrect ID requirements or manipulated media, will be marked as misinformation.
• Keeping the process safe and accurate: Any content that encourages or glorifies intimidation or disruption in voting, tabulation, or certification will be removed.
We’ll be reviewing content for potential misinformation and unconfirmed information regarding claims about the U.S. election. Remember, you can report posts to Bluesky’s moderation service for misleading and illegal/urgent content by clicking the three-dot menu on each post or account.
This has been a big year for elections globally, and we’re a few days away from the U.S. Presidential election. Here’s how our team, led by @aaron.bsky.team who previously led election integrity efforts at Twitter, is preparing:
This is a big quarter for Trust and Safety here, as we work on a large number of improvements. Here’s a look at our projects in progress, including ban evasion and multi-account detection capabilities, toxicity and spam detection, sending feedback on moderation reports you submit, and more.
📢 1.90 is rolling out now (10/11) We’re publishing a series of blog posts on Trust & Safety efforts at Bluesky. The first in the series covers the features we’re releasing in this version. Read it here: bsky.social/about/blog/0...
📢 App Version 1.90 is rolling out now (1/11) This release is focused on personal moderation controls, and includes a lot of new tools for reducing unwanted attention! Open this thread for more details. 👀
Note that “soft blocking,” or blocking and then immediately unblocking the creator, will not remove you from a list or starter pack. Once you unblock a user, you’ll reappear on that list or starter pack.
Blocking a user will not affect moderation lists. Mod lists serve a role in maintaining user safety. We're working on ways to restrict abuse of moderation lists, and more will be announced on that front soon.
In response to user feedback, we’ve shipped an update to starter packs on Bluesky. Now, you can remove yourself from a starter pack by blocking the creator. If you don't want to be part of a starter pack, block the user and you'll no longer appear on their list.
We also have two safety tooling improvements rolling out now in the latest release (1.87):
Read more about starter packs here (FAQ at the bottom): bsky.social/about/blog/0...
Spot a starter pack that’s a policy concern? You can report starter packs to Bluesky’s moderation service, and our team will review your report.
Currently, you can add suggested users and custom feeds to your starter pack. We’re working on improving in-app discovery and reliability of labeling services before they’re available in starter packs.
When you join a starter pack as a new user, you’ll get a sunrise badge on your profile. This helps your community find you, and lets other people know they should welcome you!
Now you can use a starter pack to invite friends and colleagues to Bluesky! Some more details threaded 🧵
Deactivate and re-activate on your own schedule through settings > account > deactivation. We'll be here when you're ready to come back! /3
What happens when you deactivate? Users will see a message on your profile that your account is deactivated. All of your posts will no longer be visible, and your account won’t show up in search results. /2
In the latest app update, we added the ability to temporarily deactivate your account. This will hide your profile and posts but keep your handle reserved. Take a breather for as long as you need to! Read more about how account deactivation works on Bluesky: 🧵 /1
Read more about the feature here:
This first version of DMs has limited features (no images or encryption yet), but we'll be adding more safety enhancements in future updates. Enjoy connecting with others via Bluesky DMs!
Infractions may result in temporary or permanent loss of DM privileges or even full account takedowns. Please use DMs responsibly!
In rare cases, we may need to open your DMs to investigate broader patterns of abuse, such as spam or coordinated harassment. Rest assured this would only be done when absolutely necessary to keep Bluesky safe, and access is extremely limited and tracked.
You can report DMs directly to mods, who will review reported messages for Community Guidelines violations. Mods can see the reported message and surrounding messages for context to assess your report.
Blocked someone? They won't be able to DM you. Additionally, you can easily block users right from within the DM feature.
By default, only people you follow can start conversations with you. To change this, check the settings in the DM interface. You can allow DMs from no one, only people you follow, or all Bluesky users. It’s up to you!
Direct Messages (DMs) are now available on Bluesky! Learn more about the built-in safety features and how to use them 🧵:
4/4 Spot an issue with the labels? You can help by reporting images you believe are incorrectly classified, or appealing labels you think were applied in error. Human moderators review all reports and appeals. We appreciate your assistance in getting image labeling correct!
3/4 Moving forward, we'll continue fine-tuning the system to improve the accuracy of adult content labels. We're also reviewing our policy guidelines to ensure they're comprehensive and clear. More updates to come.
2/4 🎨 We've made some improvements to our image labeling system on Friday. The latest changes should reduce the number of false positives for adult content labels, particularly on furry art and cartoon images. Let us know if you notice a difference!
1/4 📸 We want to share an important update about image labeling on Bluesky. Every image posted is initially reviewed by an automated system that checks for adult content, graphic imagery, and more. The system then applies labels to flag sensitive content, which human moderators can review.
Still, using Bluesky feels familiar and intuitive. It's a straightforward app on the surface, but under the hood, we have enabled real innovation and competition in social media by building a new kind of open network. Read more: bsky.social/about/blog/0...
2. We recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to moderation—no single company can get online safety right for every culture and community in the world. We’ve also been building an ecosystem that gives communities power to create their own spaces, with their own norms and preferences.
We’re investing in safety from two angles. 1. We've built our own moderation team dedicated to providing around-the-clock coverage to uphold our community guidelines.
Bluesky is built to give users control over their social spaces online. Today, we’re open sourcing Ozone, a tool that lets users collaboratively inspect and label content on the network. Later this week, we’re opening up the ability for users to run their own independent moderation services.
Today, we’re excited to announce Bluesky’s Head of Trust and Safety. Aaron Rodericks, who has over a decade of experience in defending platforms at global scale, is leading our moderation team in cultivating a healthy space for public conversation on Bluesky. Learn more: