Bluesky Safety

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.

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:

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 🧵

Incident report: Earlier this week, our automated moderation system incorrectly labeled ~32,000 accounts as requiring moderator review. Here’s what happened, what we fixed, and the current status. 1/5

An error caused a large number of accounts to be incorrectly "marked for review" by our automated system. This tool is normally used to rapidly respond to mass harassment and spam campaigns. We have removed the incorrect labels and will publish an incident report in the coming days.

If you want to change Bluesky’s default moderation settings, go to your moderation settings on the web - bsky.app/moderation. Apple limits adult-content controls inside iOS apps, so you won’t see those options on the iPhone app itself. 1/2

We're announcing a new partnership with StopNCII.org to prevent non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) from spreading on Bluesky. While NCII hasn't been frequent on our platform, these incidents are devastating for victims and preventing them is a top safety priority. 1/4

🔐 Account Security Thread 🔐 We're seeing an increased number of phishing and social engineering attempts targeting Bluesky users. While we're working hard to protect you, here are essential steps YOU can take to secure your account and stay safe. 1/10 🧵👇

The account owner of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social was suspended for 72 hours for expressing a desire to shoot the author of an article. The post, made 11/10, stated: "I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die." 1/2

In Ohio, starting on Monday 9/29, we'll be implementing an age assurance solution similar to what we're doing in South Dakota and Wyoming. Read more here: bsky.social/about/blog/0...

Glorifying violence or harm violates Bluesky’s Community Guidelines. We review reports and take action on content that celebrates harm against anyone. Violence has no place in healthy public discourse, and we’re committed to fostering healthy, open conversations

Protecting young people online is a shared responsibility. Here’s how Bluesky is approaching new age assurance laws with pragmatism and flexibility. bsky.social/about/blog/0...

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