Aaron Rodericks

@aaron.bsky.team

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Canadian wanderer in Ireland. Trying to make the internet a better place. Bluesky Head of Trust and Safety.

Individual reports in app get faster review, [email protected] for more complex issues.

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Aaron Rodericks

You can grab an entire copy of everything on Bluesky and keep it up-to-date in real-time for just $153/month in computing costs. I hope researchers will take advantage of this to do some interesting data analysis. For example, can you identify disinformation campaigns as they happen?

more technical details on this demo relay setup. thinking of going through a couple more network services, like AppView

Notes on Running a Full-Network atproto Relay (July 2024) | bryan newboldwhtwnd.com These are some informal notes on setting up a full-network atproto Relay, using the bigsky relay software developed by Bluesky. This is the same software we run ourselves at https://bsky.network. The ...

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Aaron Rodericks

Reply to

Ari Cohn

This is it. This is the point.

Great piece on ‘anti-communities’

There's something that everyone gets wrong about the Ashley Madison data dump from 2015. And I should know, because I was one of the reporters who broke the story. It's my latest for @[email protected] (sign up for a free account to read). www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

What everyone gets wrong about the 2015 Ashley Madison scandalwww.newscientist.com Nine years after hackers targeted Ashley Madison, the dating site for wannabe adulterers, many people still don't grasp what was truly chilling about the scandal, says Annalee Newitz

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Aaron Rodericks

Great piece by @noupside.bsky.social (who's new book is excellent) responding to the nonsense cinematic universe created by the Twitter Files Boys, in which she is apparently some sort of CIA censorship mastermind. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

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Aaron Rodericks

This story is horrifying on multiple levels. (1) It very likely cost lives in Philippines and around the world, including here in the US due to diminished trust in vaccines. (2) When democratic govs employ this kind of info operation, they undermine the values and trust that sustain democracies.

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic www.reuters.com/investigates...

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccineswww.reuters.com The covert effort began under Trump and continued into Biden’s presidency, Reuters found. Health experts say it endangered lives for possible geopolitical gain.

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Aaron Rodericks

saw someone in the discover feed saying they just made an account and were so glad to see a feed *without drama* compared to other sites we must protect them at all costs

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Aaron Rodericks

this is a real shame www.platformer.news/stanford-int...

The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantledwww.platformer.news House Republicans attacked the lab’s reports on misinformation and election integrity — and now Stanford is pulling the plug

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Aaron Rodericks

Just in case you hadn't heard, Bluesky has free algorithmic choice. You are in control of what you see here. Don't trust the algorithm, choose your algorithm. Or write your own.

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Aaron Rodericks

Reply to

rahaeli

There are multiple things being conflated in recent discussions: * posting actual CSAM to Bluesky * soliciting or offering actual CSAM to be sent through a third party channel * posting CSEM that is not CSAM to Bluesky * soliciting or offering CSEM that is not CSAM to be sent etc

“three common misperceptions: that average exposure to problematic content is high, that algorithms are largely responsible for this exposure and that social media is a primary cause of broader social problems such as polarization.”

New paper on what public discourse gets wrong about misinformation. We push back on causal claims about harms from mass exposure to social media misinfo. Instead, we argue for focusing on exposure/effects on the fringe -- and, importantly, in non-US contexts. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I cannot begin to describe the headaches we used to have with BNN. When people talk about an endless stream of AI-powered disinfo overtaking this web - this is exactly it.

A look at the now-shuttered news site BNN Breaking, which former staff say mostly published AI-generated content; Microsoft had licensed BNN content for MSN.com (New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Aaron Rodericks

In the latest app update, we added the ability to temporarily deactivate your account. This will hide your profile and posts but keep your handle reserved. Take a breather for as long as you need to! Read more about how account deactivation works on Bluesky: 🧵 /1

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Aaron Rodericks

Here's a guide for advanced Bluesky search! 🔍 Over time, we’ll make these features easier to use directly within the Bluesky app.

Tips and Tricks for Bluesky Search - Blueskybsky.social Let’s dive into all the tips and tricks for advanced Bluesky search!

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Aaron Rodericks

Thrilled to announce the launch of IFTAS Connect, a resource designed specifically for volunteer #Moderators The site provides a wealth of tools, resources, and a supportive network to help moderators connect, collaborate, and navigate the complexities of federated moderation. connect.iftas.org

@jcperrino.bsky.social finally found the right kind of list on your profile for internet policy folks, but it was configured as a moderation list. Did you make a Feed out of that list?

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Aaron Rodericks

If you're running an Ozone instance and want to get some insight into your data, please watch out for #OzoneInsights where I'll be posting some of the postgresql queries that we use internally at bsky.

Let's clarify things since my mentions are turning into a dumpster fire. I'm responsible for designing T&S policies, systems, and processes that scale. One of those areas is spam, since as the network grows, so does disruptive spam. That's why you can't mass spam people in mentions or replies.

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Aaron Rodericks

For everyone who isn't sure if they can DM yet, here's what your screen looks like once you've properly updated to the new version. (To update, refresh your browser or manually download the new mobile version from the app store.)

Desktop on left, mobile on right. It's the "chat" bubble.

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Aaron Rodericks

DMs on Bluesky will not be "end-to-end encrypted" until we are able to do some more protocol work. We have very careful access controls within our systems. If you're extremely privacy conscious, I'd recommend using Bluesky DMs to share your Signal accounts!

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Aaron Rodericks

Direct Messages (DMs) are now available on Bluesky! Learn more about the built-in safety features and how to use them 🧵:

Now available: DMs! Start a private conversation with a friend directly on Bluesky within the Chat tab. 💬 Update to the latest version of the app (1.83) or refresh on desktop to start chatting!

The UK calling their general election is bringing back 'fond memories' of the 2019 election when the Conservative Party decided to change their handle to FactCheckUK.

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Aaron Rodericks

So a fun thing happened the other day. I was at a conference on the west coast and taking a mid afternoon nap during a break. When I woke up, Jim Jordan had released the transcript of the deposition I did with his “Weaponization” committee last year. At 5:30pm on a Friday 😂😂😂

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Aaron Rodericks

Okay, I wrote a big thing regarding Jack Dorsey and Bluesky. It explains why he's actually more correct than people give him credit for, but still absolutely wrong about Bluesky. www.techdirt.com/2024/05/13/b...

Bluesky Is Building The Decentralized Social Media Jack Dorsey Wants, Even If He Doesn’t Realize Itwww.techdirt.com There was a bit of news in the world of decentralized social media over the past few weeks. It kicked off with the announcement that Jack Dorsey had left the board of Bluesky. This was followed by …

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Aaron Rodericks

It amazes me when people keep saying "I can't believe Bluesky doesn't have "[insert favorite feature]" yet" without recognizing how much the team has done in a short time while making the app functional, and then continually adding in each "missing" feature.

Paul solo-shipping the entire app while thousands of people began joining last year was probably one of the most extreme situations a developer could be thrown into, I'm not sure if most people understand. Last April, the entire team was... 8? Six devs. We were all losing our minds.

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Aaron Rodericks

Big New Report: Today, my colleagues and I at @stanfordio.bsky.social, led by @shelbygrossman.bsky.social, are publishing a comprehensive report about the CyberTipline, the pipeline by which platforms report child sex abuse material (CSAM) they find on their services. io.stanford.edu/CyberTipline...

How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting Systemio.stanford.edu A new Stanford Internet Observatory report examines how to improve the CyberTipline pipeline from dozens of interviews with tech companies, law enforcement and the nonprofit that runs the U.S. online ...

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Aaron Rodericks

“The word censorship has an actual meaning”…and it’s not a private social media platform slapping a label on bullshit. techpolicy.press/the-word-cen...

The Word Censorship Has An Actual Meaning: A Defense of Content Moderation | TechPolicy.Presstechpolicy.press Collapsing content moderation by platforms into a broader notion of censorship risks diluting the phrase of its importance, writes Dylan Moses.

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Aaron Rodericks

So true. The "just be yourself" advice is like the "titles don't matter" and "bring your whole self to work" advice. It doesn't help (and often will hinder) people outside the dominant demographic. www.ft.com/content/ff58...