Aral BalkanRight, fediverse, let me know what you think. Long-form comments also welcome.
Mastodon instance moderators should…
| Be able to delete other people’s posts | |
| Only ever ask people to delete a post themselves |
Poll ends at .
Actually, here’s what I really think is lacking: a hide post moderation option in Mastodon.
Instead of deleting posts, moderators should be able to hide posts.
Posts that are hidden by moderators should keep their place in the timeline but state publicly that they were hidden by moderators.
(Servers other than the originating server must treat hidden posts as otherwise deleted and remove their local cache of the content. This is no different to the existing social contact for federated deletes.)
The server should also clearly communicate to the person in question (this can be automated) that their post has been hidden and that they can challenge the decision via regular channels by filing an appeal. (And, if they don’t like the moderation, they can move to a different server, etc., as per usual.)
That would feel much better to me than deleting a post outright and it can be combined with a moderation policy that promises not to delete or edit other people’s posts.
It would also allow for an appeal process and the possible reinstatement of a post should it be found that a moderation error has occurred.
#mastodon #moderation #fediverse #postDeletion #postHiding #authorship #censorship #ownership
Gareth 🏴@aral @staff @haubles
That seems more reasonable. You can’t expect shitty people to voluntarily remove illegal or distressing posts, but this would allow you to protect the rest of your users and preserve evidence for the authorities (I’m thinking doxxing/credible threats and CSAM type stuff, not just “I don’t like what you said” complaints)
That seems more reasonable. You can’t expect shitty people to voluntarily remove illegal or distressing posts, but this would allow you to protect the rest of your users and preserve evidence for the authorities (I’m thinking doxxing/credible threats and CSAM type stuff, not just “I don’t like what you said” complaints)
Brad Macpherson@aral @staff @haubles Could a third-third (fourth?) way be to mandate a CW rather than hiding it outright, while considering whether to suspend the account?
Deleting posts lets people off the hook too easily, while hiding them provokes more suspicion of moderators than a form of CW would.
Horses for courses, naturally. I only have to worry about one user, and I mostly follow my rules 😂 I'm all for better tools being available for the mods on larger instances though, it affects all of us.
Benjamin Sonntag-King
A Part of Bee
Earthworm 🐌I agree 100% with you for the need of a 'post under moderation' flag. That would make mod's work so much easier, also because it removes a lot of pressure to come up with a firm decision taken consensually by a team of volunteers dispersed over all timezones.
Nevertheless, I am still i favour of mods being able to delete posts (there's a lot of heinous shit we don't see because somebody made an early report and the mods could act swiftly on obviously horrible things®).
I mean, moderation errors sometimes happen and post deletions can be already reversed.
On the other side, although I am more on the 'if you don't like your mods decisions, move to another instance'-argument side, the moving costs are too high (you'll loose your posts and sometimes followers) and in practice, at the moment of setting up an account it is not possible to know how moderation rules are enforced on a specific instance.
EDIT: that said, it is of course preferrable when mods contact users with 'hey, for reasons XY we suggest that you delete the post'. But again, this works only for the 'homo fediresponsiblus' kind of person and then there's also the mod-workload thing.
Benjamin@aral I'm leaning towards what you've described here.
Deletion of the content but not the existence of the post. If I go to your profile it should be representative of your posts. A version of your profile sans the posts my instance chooses to moderate just misrepresents you and the conversations you're in.
@aral I also think it'd make sense if moderators could add content warnings to posts. Minor difference in instance rules: content warning. Against instance rules but generally acceptable elsewhere: hiding. Then suspension being last resort.
I thought maybe this already existed though it sounds like it's been up for discussion for awhile:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/1307
punIssuer
C++ Wage SlaveI still think moderators should have the nuclear option of deleting a post.
I have, occasionally, had to report transphobic abuse from throwaway accounts in the hope that a moderator will delete it before the intended target sees it. A "message hidden" notification would give the target a pretty strong indication that she'd been abused. I'd prefer it if she didn't even know.
(Yes, she: in my limited experience, it's always been women who were on the receiving end of this garbage.)