Moderation guidelines

Status

This document is a working draft and incomplete.

Definitions

The key words shall, shall not, should, should not, may are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

• shall: strict adherence, no deviation
• should: recommendation, deviation with good reason
• may: suggestion, optional, but good manners

Representation

The term representation applies to both textual (something being described in text) and pictoral (something shown in a still image or video) representation. It applies whether or not the represented idea is real or imaginary.

Visibility

• unrestricted
  • Activities may be visible in public timelines.
  • Media attachments may not be marked as sensitive.
• restricted
  • Activities shall not be visible in public timelines if unlabeled.
  • Activities should be labelled with a content warning.
  • Activities may be visible in public timelines if labelled with a content warning.
  • Media attachments shall be marked as sensitive.
• prohibited
  • Activities shall be rejected.
  • Media attachments shall be stripped.

Personal integrity

Many individuals experience discomfort or distress when confronted with the compromise of a person’s integrity.

Personal integrity includes:

• Physical (bodily) integrity
• Mental (emotional) integrity

Representation of:

• compromise of personal integrity should be restricted.
  • invasive medical procedures
  • mental health
• non-consensual compromise of personal integrity shall be restricted.
  • physical violence
  • psychological abuse

Practical application:

• Media depicting physical violence shall be marked as sensitive and labelled with violence.
• Posts about mental health issues should be labelled with mh.

Nudity & sexuality

Nudity and sexuality are considered private to varying degrees in most cultures. Some individuals have experienced trauma related to sexuality and find confrontation with nudity or sexuality distressing. Some representations of sexuality are illegal.

Representation of:

• any penis, vulva or anus should be restricted.
  • body parts commonly used to experience sexual pleasure
• bare anthromorphic torso may be restricted.
  • unclothed breasts, abdomen or buttocks
• non‐sexual nudity may be unrestricted.
  • breast-feeding of children
  • non‐sexual nudity in medical settings
  • non‐sexual nudity in culturally accepted settings
• erotic or sexual nudity shall be restricted.
• erotic or sexual nudity involving humans or anthropomorphic characters below the age of 18 shall be prohibited.
• sexuality should be restricted.
• sexuality involving humans or anthropomorphic chararcters below the age of 16 shall be prohibited.
  • edge case: person describing their own experience of sexual abuse

Practical application:

• Pictures with nudity should generally be marked as sensitive and labelled with nudity.
• Sexually suggestive pictures without nudity should be marked as sensitive and labelled with lewd or suggestive.
• Explicit descriptions or depictions of sexual activity shall be marked as sensitive and labelled with lewd.

Bodily emissions

Emissions from a being’s body tend to be considered private in most cultures. Many individuals experience discomfort when confronted with them.

Representation of:

• bleeding or blood should be restricted.
• micturition or urine should be restricted.
• defecation or feces should be restricted.
• ejaculation or ejaculate shall be restricted.

Practical application:

• Descriptions or depictions of blood should be marked as sensitive and labelled with blood.
• Pictures of dog excrement should be marked as sensitive and labelled with scat.

Existential threats

Confrontation with existential threats may be important, but can be highly distressing.

Representation of:

• existential threats to any population should be restricted.

Practical application:

• Discussions of war or climate change should be labelled with appropriate content warnings.

Politics

Discussion of politics is very important, but can be exhausting. Some political ideologies are fundamentally incompatible with our values.

Practical application:

• Discussion of politics may be labelled with content warnings (pol, depol, uspol etc.).

Food

Food and its consumption are not considered private in most cultures, but some individuals have eating disorders and may experience distress when confronted with food.

Representation of:

• eating or food may be restricted.

Practical application:

• Pictures of meals may be marked as sensitive and labelled with food.

Eye contact

Eye contact may be experienced as uncomfortable by some people. May need some research.

Representation of:

• eyes focused on the viewer may be restricted.

Practical application:

• Selfies with eyes focused on the camera may be marked as sensitive and labelled with ec.

Instance moderation

Instances should only be moderated if an issue cannot be expected to be resolved in a less invasive manner, for example by addressing them directly with the users causing them or the instance administrators. Reducing the visibility of an instance’s content should generally be preferred over complete defederation.

(incomplete)

• activities:
  • unlist: Remove activities from federated timeline.
  • restrict: Force activities to be visible to followers only.
  • reject: Reject all activities except deletes.
• media:
  • mark: Mark media attachments as sensitive.
  • strip: Strip all media attachments.

Practical guidelines

(incomplete)

Politics

• Instances focused on right‐wing extremism should be defederated.
• Instances with strong free speech policies may have their activities withheld from public timelines.
• Instances with a high prevalance of unlabelled political content may have their content withheld from public timelines.

Personal integrity

• Instances with a high prevalence of media depicting violence should have their media marked as sensitive.

Nudity & sexuality

• Instances focused on CSAM shall be defederated.
• Instances with a high prevalance of legally questionable sexual content should have their media stripped.
• Instances with a high prevalance of unmarked sexual content should have their media marked as sensitive.

Local user moderation

Issues with local users should preferably be addressed in a cooperative and constructive manner.

(incomplete)

• Unlisting (removal from federated timeline), mrf_tag:force-unlisted
• Sandboxing (removal from public timelines), mrf_tag:sandbox
• Marking media attachments as sensitive, mrf_tag:media-force-nsfw
• Stripping media attachments, mrf_tag:media-strip
• Account deactivation
• Account deletion

Practical guidelines

(incomplete)

• Users publishing CSAM shall be permanently suspended.
• Users failing to mark sensitive media may have them forcibly marked as sensitive.