Bluesky Unveils Ozone: Empowering Users to Create and Manage Independent Moderation Services

Bluesky Introduces Ozone: A Game-Changer in Social Media Moderation

In a significant move towards empowering users, Bluesky, the decentralized rival to Twitter/X, has announced the open-sourcing of Ozone, a revolutionary tool that enables collaborative content review and labeling on the network. Starting this week, individuals and teams will have the ability to operate their own independent moderation services, allowing users to subscribe to additional moderation layers on top of Bluesky’s default offering.

Unprecedented Control Over Social Media Experience

Bluesky’s vision for moderation is a stackable ecosystem of services, giving users unparalleled control over their social media experience. By allowing the installation of filters from independent moderation services, users can create a personalized experience tailored to their unique preferences and sensitivities.

Customizable Filters for Enhanced User Comfort

Imagine a scenario where you have a phobia of snakes. With Ozone, a moderation service could be created that identifies and blocks images of snakes across the network. By subscribing to this service, you can browse your feeds without the fear of encountering any serpentine surprises, ensuring a more comfortable and enjoyable experience.

“One team will never be perfect at moderation and curation for the entire world, with its wide variety of contexts, cultures, and preferences,” the blog post reads. “So we’re excited about opening the ecosystem to empower experts, developers, and users with local context to provide their own input that you can additionally subscribe to, on top of Bluesky’s moderation service.”

Easy Installation and Reporting

Installing filters from independent moderation services will be as simple as following another account on Bluesky. The moderation service filters will initially be available on the desktop version, with mobile support coming soon. Users can easily report content to the moderation services, ensuring a continuously improving and refined experience.

Collaborative Moderation and Potential Monetization

Ozone offers significant advantages over existing mute or block lists, which are often tied to specific accounts and can become overwhelming when people start tagging the list owner directly. With Ozone, individuals and teams running moderation services have access to a dedicated reporting queue, eliminating the need for direct tagging. Multiple people can manage these services collaboratively, and the tool allows for labeling specific posts rather than just adding accounts to a block list.

While moderation services are expected to begin as community-run projects, Bluesky hints at the possibility of paid subscriptions in the future, opening up potential monetization opportunities for service providers.

Open Source and Accessible

Ozone’s open-source nature ensures transparency and accessibility for developers and users alike. The tool can be found on the GitHub repository, inviting collaboration and contributions from the community.

As Bluesky continues to innovate and empower users, Ozone represents a significant step towards a more customizable, collaborative, and user-centric social media landscape.