Twitter/X's decentralized rival Bluesky announced Tuesday that it is open-sourcing Ozone, a tool that allows individuals and teams to collaboratively review and categorize content on the network. The company plans to open up the ability for individuals and teams to run their own standalone moderation services later this week, meaning users will be able to sign up for additional moderation services in addition to Bluesky's default moderation.
In a blog post, Plosky said the change would give users “unprecedented control” over their social media experience. The company's vision for moderation is a stackable ecosystem of services, which is why it will begin allowing users to install filters from standalone moderation services in addition to what Bluesky already requires. As a result, users will be able to create a personalized experience that suits their preferences.
For example, someone could create a moderation service that blocks images of spiders on the web. If you are someone who gets scared when you see a spider, you can install a moderation service and hide all labeled spider images from your feeds.
“One team will never be perfect in moderation and organization for the entire world, with its wide diversity of contexts, cultures and preferences,” the blog post said. “So we're excited to open up the ecosystem to enable experts, developers and users with local context to provide their own input that you can subscribe to in addition to Bluesky's moderation service.”
Moderation Service Filters will be available on the desktop version of Bluesky to start and will soon be available on mobile.
Bluesky says installing filters from independent moderation services will be as easy as following another account. Moderation services will allow users to report content, so if you see an image of an unnamed spider, you can report it to the service.
Although Bluesky does allow people to turn on a mute list or block list that other users can subscribe to, it's often tied to a specific account, which doesn't allow for collaboration and can be confusing if people start tagging you directly. Additionally, unlike a blocklist that only lets you add accounts, Ozone lets you label specific posts.
Individuals and teams who create a moderation service will have access to the reporting queue, eliminating the need for people to tag you directly every time. People running moderation services will be able to set custom labels and decide what they do. Moderation services are not tied to individual accounts, so multiple people can manage them together.
Ploski notes that moderation services will likely start out as community-run projects, but notes that “there's also nothing preventing a moderation service from getting paid subscribers.”
The open source tool can be found in the GitHub repository here.
