Hey interoperability nerds: I need a word for actors in distributed social media systems that provide content moderation services. Blockparty is an example. Bluesky labelers and algorithm providers are examples. Blacksky is an example because of its content rules (but having a PDS doesn't matter).
Jul 31, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media
Bluesky is a new social network built upon the AT Protocol, a decentralized foundation for public social media. It was launched in private beta in February 2023, and has grown to over 10 million registered users by October 2024. In this paper we introduce the architecture of Bluesky and the AT Protocol, and explain how the technical design of Bluesky is informed by our goals: to enable decentralization by having multiple interoperable providers for every part of the system; to make it easy for users to switch providers; to give users agency over the content they see; and to provide a simple user experience that does not burden users with complexity arising from the system's decentralized nature. The system's openness allows anybody to contribute to content moderation and community management, and we invite the research community to use Bluesky as a dataset and testing ground for new approaches in social media moderation.
Introduction | Blacksky Documentation
Blacksky Algorithms builds open-source, community-driven infrastructure for decentralized social media. Our mission is to empower communities with tools for safety, governance, and control over their online spaces. This documentation is designed to help new users understand what Blacksky offers and how to get started with our feeds and moderation services.
Build Community Online with Decentralized Tools | Blacksky
Decentralized tools to build community online. The intercommunal net where communities govern, pool funds and stay safe on their own terms.
Build Community Online with Decentralized Tools | Blacksky
Decentralized tools to build community online. The intercommunal net where communities govern, pool funds and stay safe on their own terms.
AT Moderation Architecture | bryan newbold
The AT network is becoming more heterogeneous in practice, with independent PDS hosts, apps, and alternative bsky AppViews establishing themselves. This means that more complex inter-service moderation scenarios are starting to get attention. While the labeling system was released all the way back i...
Blacksky - Open Collective
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Bluesky's Moderation Architecture | Bluesky
Moderation is a crucial aspect of any social network. However, traditional moderation systems often lack transparency and user control, leaving communities vulnerable to sudden policy changes and potential mismanagement. To build a better social media ecosystem, it is necessary to try new approaches.
Looking AT the Blue Skies of Bluesky
The pitfalls of centralized social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter/X, have led to concerns about control, transparency, and accountability. Decentralized social networks have emerged as a result with the goal of empowering users. These decentralized approaches come with their own trade-offs, and therefore multiple architectures exist. In this paper, we conduct the first large-scale analysis of Bluesky, a prominent decentralized microblogging platform. In contrast to alternative approaches (e.g. Mastodon), Bluesky decomposes and opens the key functions of the platform into subcomponents that can be provided by third party stakeholders. We collect a comprehensive dataset covering all the key elements of Bluesky, study user activity and assess the diversity of providers for each sub-components.
Blacksky
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Blacksky
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Medsky
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Beyond moderation: labelers for security/safe browsing, existing services to use · bluesky-social atproto · Discussion #1595
So far, much of the conversation around third party labelers has focused on content moderation. That's an important first use case, but obviously not the only one. We talked a bit about the dow...
Designing decentralized moderation
In decentralized social networks, moderation decisions are made locally by users, servers, or other network entities. This basic…
There are a lot of architectural bits, but if I had to pick one design feature it's Lexicons. Lexicons allow for new shared data types and structures in a way that are immediately available on network for any other service provider to adopt. Getting shared agreement in ActivityPub is hard.
Pedro Vezza
Why did you decide to bet on atproto over Mastodon or similar?
Many people are talking about decentralized social media protocols like #ActivityPub and #ATProto and all the amazing things one can do with them. But do you actually know how they work? We thought we'd do something about this. Come to #FediForum next week if you are curious and like to find […]
Original post on mastodon.social
mastodon.social
