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Bluesky — Policy Change

moderateNeutral → Policy Change

Executive Summary

Bluesky open-sourced Ozone, its collaborative moderation tool, and launched a 'stackable moderation' system allowing any user or organization to create and operate independent labeling services on the AT Protocol. Users could subscribe to third-party moderation services on top of Bluesky's baseline moderation, introducing a decentralized content governance model with significant privacy implications for how user content is reviewed and labeled across the network.

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What Happened

On March 12, 2024, Bluesky open-sourced Ozone, a collaborative moderation tool, and announced plans to allow users and organizations to run independent moderation services on its AT Protocol network. The company introduced a stackable moderation system where users can subscribe to third-party moderation services in addition to Bluesky's default moderation. These independent services can review, label, and filter content across the network, with users able to report content directly to these services.

Who Is Affected

All users of Bluesky's network, which serves over 5 million people, are affected by this change. Anyone who posts content on Bluesky may have their posts reviewed and labeled by multiple independent moderation services beyond Bluesky's own team. Users who subscribe to third-party moderation services will have their content exposure shaped by these independent operators, who may apply different standards and labels to posts across the network.

Why It Matters

This represents a significant shift from centralized content moderation to a decentralized model where multiple independent parties can review and label user content. The change raises privacy concerns about how many different entities may access and evaluate user posts, what data these independent moderators collect during review processes, and how content labels from third parties might follow users across the network. Bluesky's approach creates an ecosystem where user content may be subject to review by an unknown number of third-party services with varying privacy practices.

What You Should Do

Review your Bluesky privacy settings and understand that your public posts may be reviewed by third-party moderation services beyond Bluesky's official team. Before subscribing to any independent moderation service, research who operates it and what content review practices they follow. Consider adjusting what you post publicly if you are concerned about multiple independent parties reviewing your content. Monitor which moderation services you have enabled and remove any you no longer trust.

AI-Assisted

Event summaries are generated by Claude AI from verified sources and reviewed by humans before publication.

Sources

Related Events

Bluesky open-sourced Ozone, its collaborative moderation tool, and launched a... — Bluesky | PrivacyWire