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Be warned: joining servers that relay other public servers is a quick way to unwittingly encounter pornographic content that is illegal to possess in many count

Be warned: joining servers that relay other public servers is a quick way to unwittingly encounter pornographic content that is illegal to possess in many countries. The tech isn't safe outside of heavily moderated and/or small instances.

Enhex 5y ago
how centralized services deal with that? filtering AI?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- babelfish 5y ago
  CSAM scanning - comparing content hashes with known hashes of CSAM material, usually provided by a law enforcement agency
chefandy 5y ago
I know they have blurred previews for content marked sensitive and I imagine porn marketers or people sharing content that's illegal anyway are more than happy to ignore that. I wonder if you can blur, or even better, not load any images and display them selectively? Or not load any images from people you don't follow?
mathlover2 5y ago
There are many ways to avoid encountering illegal pornographic content on Mastodon. Indeed the one you linked to does just that, by having a mod staff that can block offending accounts and suspend interactions with instances.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  I can't think of any other major platform where avoiding illegal pornography is something users explicitly have to think about and take actions to protect themselves. I find it worrying that this is even an issue, but then again it's not surprising - if you build a platform explicitly against witch hunts, you'll end up with 1% principled legitimate users that use it to make a statement and 99% witches.
  - mathlover2 5y ago
    Actually, even Twitter has a CP problem. I've seen it discussed before, where various accounts with CP were reported, but action on said accounts was delayed due to unknown issues on the side of Twitter. Meanwhile, the moderation on Mastodon instances varies from being more lax than Twitter to being more strict (IIRC that instance you linked is slightly more strict than Twitter). Also, Mastodon wasn't built "explicitly against witch hunts". A lot of people go there because they don't like the hellscape that is Twitter, or because they simply want a different audience. Heck, there are many people --- myself included --- with both Twitter and Mastodon handles. The people who go to Mastodon after a Twitter ban usually end up on more toxic fringe instances, like radical.town (tankie) or social.quodverum.com (MAGA). Depending on which part of Mastodon you are on, you can still find witch hunts, usually on the fringier instances.
jrnichols 5y ago
and even moderated instances still have huge issues with it. There was one called "Sinblr" that had a user from another domain (in Japan, I think) overwhelmed it to the point that the hobbyist mods couldn't keep up with actual illegal porn content (underage material.) Seems law enforcement caught wind of it, and Sinblr has ceased to exist, along with any user accounts on it.

Enhex 5y ago

how centralized services deal with that? filtering AI?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
babelfish 5y ago
CSAM scanning - comparing content hashes with known hashes of CSAM material, usually provided by a law enforcement agency

chefandy 5y ago

I know they have blurred previews for content marked sensitive and I imagine porn marketers or people sharing content that's illegal anyway are more than happy to ignore that. I wonder if you can blur, or even better, not load any images and display them selectively? Or not load any images from people you don't follow?

mathlover2 5y ago

There are many ways to avoid encountering illegal pornographic content on Mastodon. Indeed the one you linked to does just that, by having a mod staff that can block offending accounts and suspend interactions with instances.

Nextgrid 5y ago
I can't think of any other major platform where avoiding illegal pornography is something users explicitly have to think about and take actions to protect themselves. I find it worrying that this is even an issue, but then again it's not surprising - if you build a platform explicitly against witch hunts, you'll end up with 1% principled legitimate users that use it to make a statement and 99% witches.
- mathlover2 5y ago
  Actually, even Twitter has a CP problem. I've seen it discussed before, where various accounts with CP were reported, but action on said accounts was delayed due to unknown issues on the side of Twitter. Meanwhile, the moderation on Mastodon instances varies from being more lax than Twitter to being more strict (IIRC that instance you linked is slightly more strict than Twitter). Also, Mastodon wasn't built "explicitly against witch hunts". A lot of people go there because they don't like the hellscape that is Twitter, or because they simply want a different audience. Heck, there are many people --- myself included --- with both Twitter and Mastodon handles. The people who go to Mastodon after a Twitter ban usually end up on more toxic fringe instances, like radical.town (tankie) or social.quodverum.com (MAGA). Depending on which part of Mastodon you are on, you can still find witch hunts, usually on the fringier instances.

jrnichols 5y ago

and even moderated instances still have huge issues with it. There was one called "Sinblr" that had a user from another domain (in Japan, I think) overwhelmed it to the point that the hobbyist mods couldn't keep up with actual illegal porn content (underage material.) Seems law enforcement caught wind of it, and Sinblr has ceased to exist, along with any user accounts on it.