I've been working on this for a few months now. I want to take more time on it before I say it's truly ready, but some of the things on the #FediBlock and #InstanceBlock tags lately have made me decide to rush this out now: I'm seeing people talk abou...

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

Of the tens of thousands of servers on the fediverse, there are about 200 or so which have administrations which actively support Naziism, Pedophilia, Terrorism, and other serious issues which #Moderation on mainstream Fedi blocks on sight.

TechHub only blocks instances we see as a serious threat to our timeline / users, but we are old and I am thorough, and thus, we've accumulated a considerably large (200+) list of the WORST instances. I publish a curated and annotated version of this list so that #Staff / #FediAdmin s can see it, and potentially import all or part of our blocks.

You can find it at...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H6TljzFoEtZ23QE_vaGlJUl6bC7J1I4J/

In light that moderation issues will increase as we near the US Election, I have just pushed another update. I HIGHLY recommend every admin look at this, and consider importing all or part of it.

- TechHub Moderation

#FediBlock #InstanceBlock #FediAntisemitism #FediRacism

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

By the way, I didn't want to say this on the main post, and I'm even hesitant to do it here, but if y'all appreciate this and want to do something for me, I have a KoFi, and every dollar is highly appreciated.

While I will continue to do things to support the Fediverse, regardless, if you'd like to give me a tip / donation for this sort of thing, it's at...
https://ko-fi.com/rockstarraccoon

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

By the way, I didn't want to say this on the main post, and I'm even hesitant to do it here, but if y'all appreciate this and want to do something for me, I have a KoFi, and every dollar is highly appreciated.

While I will continue to do things to support the Fediverse, regardless, if you'd like to give me a tip / donation for this sort of thing, it's at...
https://ko-fi.com/rockstarraccoon

Josh Rivers

@Raccoon I like that you give people this opportunity. I know it’s hard to ask, but keep doing it.

feld

@Raccoon the "Hate Speech / Harassment" label is doing a lot of heavy lifting. There are multiple instances that do not deserve to be on this list but only exist because these instances host a few annoying edgelord users that could be individually blocked.

The list of CP/pedo instances is appreciated though because I'd really prefer to not have to deal with the cops if they manage to get posts federated to my servers...

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@feld
Part of why I laid out the reasons that way is so you can easily have your spreadsheet sort them, and take or leave what you want. It's intended that you could easily pick out only specific kinds and go after them.

As for the ones that do not deserve to be on this list, please tell me which ones, and I will remove them immediately and re-check them at a later date. You can do this in a DM if you want.

Same goes to anyone else who thinks a server is on here mistakenly.

feld

@Raccoon That's a super admirable of you. Not many people would offer to do this. Everyone on fedi is so tribal, so I really respect that.

I'll probably DM you tomorrow.

Have a good night

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@feld
This list is meant to be extreme cases, the kind of stuff that no mainstream server would want on their timeline, so they only have to decide on the less extreme cases themselves. It only retains its value if people can trust that it is in fact, the worst of the worst, without a lot of doubt. I want this to be one of the gold standards when starting up a new server, not a list of servers which just "may or may not be something you'd find offensive." Which is the issue with a lot of the more automated lists.

So yeah, I'm happy to remove any instance I can't find a "smoking gun" for. If I'm not willing to redact and re-examine in a timely manner, it creates room for doubt, which defeats the purpose of the list.

ikanreed

@Raccoon what countries even allows the child exploitation sites to operate their servers?

Like how are they not shut down and their owners in jail?

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@ikanreed
I'm honestly not sure about that part, but a chunk of it seems to be use of privacy features and plausible deniability. The ones where people sell CSAM content are mostly filled with legal stuff, like pedophilia conversations, pornographic stories, and lolicon, and the people who sell the illegal stuff don't often post about that in public.

I've seen plenty of them get taken down, but obviously, there is a very high standard for taking down an actual URL, so if they know what they're doing for getting the server on the web, they can just point the URL at that server. Sometimes we do get them taken down, and they just pop up a few weeks later.

I remember this being a thing years ago when we used to track down and report incel websites like RapingGirlsIsFun. You're basically playing whack-a-mole with their IP addresses.

Blocking the URL works though, if you're a Fedi admin. That's what this is for.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@feld
Were you going to get back to me on this? As I said, if you just tell me what instances you want me to re-check, I will go ahead and remove them while I go look at them again.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

In light of the US Election tonight, the network is expecting a wave of #spam, #harassment, and #misinformation, especially after Trump preemptively declares victory.

#Admin s, do your #Moderators a favor and make sure you've got the worst-actor servers blocked.

This is a list I have assembled of all the worst servers TechHub has encountered, with explanations. These are not simply things I saw on #FediBlock or #InstanceBlock, these are hardcore servers where I personally found serious reasons we could not have them on the timeline: #Racism, #Harassment, #Pedophilia, etc.

I just added a couple more.

You can download an importable CSV at...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H6TljzFoEtZ23QE_vaGlJUl6bC7J1I4J

While I encourage you to glance over the reasons, and reach out to me if you think there are any servers that shouldn't be there, I do not recommend going to them to check: many contain illegal content.

Let's all keep Fedi safe together!

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

And on the subject of how we on the Fediverse should view the US Election, take a look at my post about my concerns about Trump and Elon Musk in regards to the Fediverse...

Raccoon at TechHub for Harris (@[email protected])

As we get closer to the election, I have realized something which is important to the #fediverse, be it #Mastodon, #Misskey, or any other #instances... Elon Musk, the person many people fled Twitter to avoid is now effectively a member of Trump's inner-circle, and should Trump win, he will have direct influence over the #FCC and #FEC. The consequences of this will be disastrous, not only because it will end all regulation of his businesses, but will allow him to directly attack the Fediverse using regulatory levers. While it's not clear if there is any legal backing for this, most #US based #servers cannot handle this. This is on top of the partisan fight over #NetNeutrality, which Trump went after during his time in office, but Harris will likely protect, just as previous Democrats did. That is why I have no choice, not simply as an #American citizen in a marginalized group, but #TechHub's head of #moderation, to tell my fellow American users to vote for Kamala Harris. Our #Network may depend on it.

TechHub (techhub.social)