Bluesky Safety
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: bsky.social/about/support/commu…
- 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.
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View full threadLists 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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:
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View full thread5/6 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 4/6 We never ask for your password, and you shouldn't share it with anyone else.
- 2/6 We never charge money for moderation decisions. Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to scam you.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
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View full threadWe’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.
- 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 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 🧵
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View full thread5/ 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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/ 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.
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View full thread3/ 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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! 🙏
- 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:
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View full threadWith 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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:
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View full threadWe 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.
- Lastly, check your voting eligibility and find your polling place here! www.usa.gov/election-day
- • 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.
- Additional safeguards: We may roll out additional in-app interventions as needed to ensure a safe and accurate election process.
- • Labeling misinfo about the voting process: Posts with misleading claims about voting, like incorrect ID requirements or manipulated media, will be marked as misinformation.
- • 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.
- 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.
- • Keeping the process safe and accurate: Any content that encourages or glorifies intimidation or disruption in voting, tabulation, or certification will be removed.
