Dave Alvarado1d ago

How (racist/sexist/whatever) harassment on Mastodon works:

1. Harasser replies to their target's post, with the reply set to "followers only", saying the most vile stuff you can imagine.

2. All the harasser's followers join in on the harassment, posting more vile stuff.

3. Nobody but the target and the harassment crew can see the vile stuff that was said.

4. Target is traumatized. Nobody else can see why.

5. Everybody says "I don't see it so it's not happening."

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

Hachyderm's Introduction to Mastodon Moderation: Part 1

The first post in a series about Mastodon moderation tooling. This post focuses on context for the upcoming posts.

Hachyderm Community
Show threadMx. Alba 1d ago
@dave

But Dave, couldn't Mastodon just not allow you to reply followers only to a public post?

Dave: "Sure it could, but the harassers would simply run a system on their instance that doesn't have that restriction. The Fediverse is more than just Mastodon. And Mastodon is open source so they could also still use Mastodon but remove that restriction."
Show thread⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe1d ago

@MxAlba @dave and then the admins of sensible instances would block that instance.

while true, this is not an argument against.

Show threadAnne Delong1d ago

@fishidwardrobe @MxAlba @dave

In order to keep their abuse secret, these harassing accounts would have to use "Request to follow", because otherwise their abuse could be easily exposed by those following them.

I have avoided following anyone with this setting, not wanting to be in a group where others are not welcome. I know this is a weak reason, but now I have a stronger one.

Show threadMx. Alba 1d ago
@Anne_Delong @fishidwardrobe @dave

I have follow approval switched on because I don't want creeps following me. I do have it set that if I already follow you, you don't need approval to follow me...
Show threadAnne Delong

@MxAlba @fishidwardrobe @dave

That sounds sensible.

Mar 20 at 8:22pmWeb