cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/51288619

Hi All,

Due to some ongoing issues with harassment campaigns, we’ve had to setup a rudimentary monitoring system for all new users.

  • When a user’s signup is accepted, they will be automatically enrolled into the monitoring system. The admins team may also add accounts manually if they have been given a strike.
  • The system will monitor all posts, comments and DMs sent by new users, and bring them to the attention of the admin team if it appears suspicious. In egregious cases, it will auto-remove posts and comments if required, but a human admin will always review and reverse any false positives as soon as required.
  • Once we have validated that the user is not a spammer, they will be removed from the system.

We don’t want to go into too much detail on how it all works, but we can say that all the processing is being done locally on the instance server. For most of you, this wont have any impact, but some of you have been impacted by the systems false positives. It is also a good time to point out that DM messages are not private, and should not be used for anything that requires strong privacy.

There will likely be teething problems, but we are actively working on improving the bot to minimize impact and we are always open to feedback.

  • AlexanderA
    22·
    4 days ago

    Well, auto-remove feature looks like a bit too much for me, especially with no clear write-up on rules it follows - getting unexpected automated false positive bans often sucks a lot emotionally; good thing you’ve announced it at least.

    I have an opinion (just a personal vision on the big picture, I have no desire to instill it in others) that whenever we start needing automated tools like these in Fediverse, it’s a sign that decentralization concept starts failing locally and it’s time to federate more: make more servers with smaller governance.