IFTAS - Independent Federated Trust & Safety
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IFTAS - Independent Federated Trust & Safety
@iftas.org
1.6K followers 190 following 240 posts
We support moderators on federated social media. Learn more at https://about.iftas.org

Follow our bridged posts feed: @iftas.mastodon.iftas.org.ap.brid.gy
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iftas.org
Last year, volunteer moderators told us their top tooling needs: this year, we’re listening again. Take the survey: about.iftas.org/moderator-ne... - any platform, any protocol
A chart showing the various platforms our survey respondents moderate for
September 2, 2025 at 11:01 AM
iftas.org
1 in 5 moderators faced burnout in 2024. Many still work without formal guidance or support. Share your story in the Needs Assessment - it’s how we push for better tools, training, and wellness resources. about.iftas.org/moderator-ne...
Chart showing 21.4% of moderators reporting burnout or mental health issues over the past 12 months
August 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
iftas.org
Your answers turn into action. In 2024, the Needs Assessment led to new guidance, tools, and translations used across the open social web. Let’s make it happen again in 2025: about.iftas.org/moderator-ne...
Chart showing "I have enough knowledge and resources to adequately manage and moderate my service" Strongly disagree 1.8%, Somewhat disagree 15.5%, Somewhat agree 50%, Strongly agree 32.7%
August 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM
iftas.org
3. Connect us with potential funders: If you know of philanthropic organisations or individuals interested in trust and safety for decentralised communities, we would love to connect. If you know anyone going to #RightsCon who might be a good connection, tell us.
Mastodon posts reading "Really enthusiastic about @iftas.org and the potential to share knowledge, support, etc between activitypub and atproto worlds on all this.” “Tilley. I think our best collaborative effort so far is all the tooling and infrastructure IFTAS is bringing to the table. They're sponsoring the development of some really powerful stuff that could help a lot of communities, and providing severely needed resources, too.” “Greg Scallan. Even on Flipboard, we regularly disable or otherwise limit hundreds of accounts created daily which have bad actors behind them. A major goal we have to to never allow these accounts to federate to begin with, but it is a cat and mouse game, so IFTAS and AP node admins working together will be crucial to a safe social environment.” “Tim Chambers. I am excited to be helping the @iftas efforts & as an admin at Indieweb. Social, our server is now an early beta tester of their new FediCheck system. Am very impressed and giving notes to the dev team. It's a crucial tool to help the #Fediverse up its game in terms of content moderation & distributed trust & safety. Am excited to implement it here. If any users here see any issues DM me. But so far, so good.” “Johannes Ernst. If you are wondering what legal obligations you might have as an operator of a #Fediverse server that might be used by Europeans, IFTAS produced this handy guide.”
February 10, 2025 at 3:01 PM
iftas.org
How you can help IFTAS:

1. Spread the word: Raising awareness about our funding challenges can help us connect with potential funders, partners, and supporters.
Share our fundraising overview (about.iftas.org/wp-content/u...).

We know most funders cannot move quickly, so we're accepting pledges.
Mastodon posts which say things like “#IFTAS is building so many things that are incredibly important: moderator stipend funds, a portal for learning from other moderators & exchanging notes & building fellowship, CSAM detection tools, labelers, protection for at-risk moderators.” “One of the sessions at #FediForum focused on CSAM, quite a tough topic. If you host your own instance, even if it's just YOU on that instance, you need to consider taking action to protect yourself and your moderation team. Kudos to @thisismissem and @iftas for exploring new ways to manage this without scarring moderators for life.” “IFTAS is amazing, and so is all the work @thisismissem is doing! IFTAS is the perfect org that could eventually maintain FediDB, its growing increasingly important to the fedi and an org like that could manage it long term better than I might be able to.” “It's been really interesting to see the team at @iftas discussing their vision for connecting moderators across the Fediverse. At Newsmast we've been reaching out to other moderators and admins to help us with content we may not have the context or language skills to understand. It'll be great to have a simple way for moderators to communicate and learn from one another!” “I'm excited about IFTAS Connect. It's a great platform, and considerable thought seems to have gone into making it safe and productive.” “Thank you to IFTAS for their important work to make the fediverse more inclusive, safe, and welcoming.”
February 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
iftas.org
To all our moderation heroes, community managers and everyone working to make #BetterSocialMedia

As the year draws to a close, all of us at IFTAS want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the incredible work you do every day.
"happy holidays" in various fonts on colourful blocks in multiple languages
December 23, 2024 at 2:58 PM
iftas.org
We’re thrilled to have @andresmh.bsky.social on our advisory board! He leads multidisciplinary research teams that build & study technologies designed to help people connect & collaborate in new ways.
A headshot of Andrés, a man with medium light skin tone and short black hair. He is wearing a shirt with the top button undone and glasses and smiling at the camera.
November 29, 2024 at 11:00 AM
iftas.org
While the French and Brazilian Portuguese translations for the DTSP Glossary of Terms have hit 100% we still have a long way to go with the other languages so please spread the word and help out if you can: crowdin.com/project/dtsp .
Screenshot of part of the CrowdIn translation effort showing French and Brazilian Portuguese as 100% translated. German, Italian and Portuguese as 2% translated. Scottish Gaelic as 3% translated. Korean as 7% translated. And Bengali, Chinese Simplified, Dutch, Hindi, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Russian at 0%.
November 26, 2024 at 11:00 AM
iftas.org
We’ve hit 100% on the French and Brazilian Portuguese translations for the DTSP Glossary of Terms to establish a common set of terms and definitions for online harms 🥳️.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped us get there.
Screenshot of part of the CrowdIn translation effort showing French and Brazilian Portuguese as 100% translated. German, Italian and Portuguese as 2% translated. Scottish Gaelic as 3% translated. Korean as 7% translated. And Bengali, Chinese Simplified, Dutch, Hindi, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Russian at 0%.
November 23, 2024 at 2:00 PM
iftas.org
We are excited to announce that @knowtheory.net has joined the IFTAS Advisory Board!

Ted is a distinguished leader in open-source technology and digital public interest work.
A person with medium light skin tone, short black hair and black stubble, wearing black glasses, smiles broadly while taking a selfie. Behind them is a white wall with a red triangle whose tip bends to slant to the side behind them.
November 21, 2024 at 4:00 PM
iftas.org
Be a part of a global community that prioritizes trust, safety, and inclusivity across the Fediverse, and take part in growing the community and the toolset.

Visit IFTAS Connect to learn more and join our growing community: connect.iftas.org/ .

#Moderator #Admins #Mods
screenshot of IFTAS connects library section including guides and how tos of mastodon moderation and educational resources, wellness and resilience like conflict de-escalation and resolution and coping with exposure to traumatic content, legal and regulatory information like what is PII and CSAM reporting requirements, tools and resources like denylist management and reserved words, community management including responding to self harm and suicidal content, and IFTAS documentation.
November 14, 2024 at 4:00 PM
iftas.org
IFTAS Connect provides moderators, community managers and anyone engaged in creating a safer Internet with a wealth of tools, resources, and a supportive network to help them connect, collaborate, and navigate the complexities of federated content moderation.

3/4 🧵
Screenshot of part of IFTAS connect with news showing last week in Fediverse, FediVision 2024 is Live, Bluesky introduces direct messages, and a primer on Mastodon's new board members.
November 2, 2024 at 2:01 PM
iftas.org
Did you know we run a community for moderators?

It was inspired by our Moderator Needs Assessment, especially this powerful quote from one moderator;

“together we are stronger."

1/3 🧵
screenshot of part of IFTAS connect showing discussions, groups and members. Under discussions are active discussions and new discussions. Under groups are group membership and active groups. Under members are new arrivals and recently active.
November 2, 2024 at 2:00 PM
iftas.org
Within an hour of observing the first spam messages, the IFTAS Connect community had created a shared spreadsheet of affected servers.

We saw fewer than a hundred servers involved in the spam wave so the community decided to instead try to alert the small number of impacted service providers.

🧵3/4
A section of the tracking spreadsheet showing each server's status
October 29, 2024 at 8:00 AM
iftas.org
It’s DAF Day so there really is no better time to donate to IFTAS.

DAFs are an incredible way to maximise your donations to the nonprofits you love and anyone can open a DAF account at more than 1,000 providers around the USA.

#DAFDay #Donate #NonProfit

🧵1/4.
A yellow background with orange and blue text over it reading “Happy DAF Day. Let’s DAF to trust and safety.” On the right is a photo of a group of people sat on a sofa using a laptop together. The IFTAS logo is in the bottom left.
October 10, 2024 at 10:00 AM
iftas.org
If you don’t have a DAF yet, you’re not alone: only 17% of the general population does. The good news? It’s never been easier to DAF.

It’s no too late to join the fastest growing donor group - and we’d love for you to be able to DAF by October 10th so you can support IFTAS.
Yellow background with orange text reading “Want to 2X your annual giving? Yellow background with orange text reading “The 2X truth, Once someone starts giving from a DAF, their annual giving almost doubles." Yellow background with orange text reading “Why DAF? DAFs make it easy for you plan for your charitable giving, and they’re getting easier to use than ever before." Yellow background with orange text reading “Who can DAF? DAFs are for anyone. You can open a DAF with major financial institutions, community foundations, independent providers."
October 6, 2024 at 10:00 AM
iftas.org
IFTAS Connect is free to join. We invite all Bluesky #moderators, community managers, trust and safety professionals, and academic researchers to request access to IFTAS Connect.

5/6 🧵
Screenshot of part of IFTAS connect with news showing last week in Fediverse, FediVision 2024 is Live, Bluesky introduces direct messages, and a primer on Mastodon's new board members.
August 15, 2024 at 1:29 PM
iftas.org
We’ve worked with a broad array of moderators and advisors to kick-start the available resources – and we hope many more will join and contribute their experience.

4/6 🧵
screenshot of part of IFTAS connect showing discussions, groups and members. Under discussions are active discussions and new discussions. Under groups are group membership and active groups. Under members are new arrivals and recently active.
August 15, 2024 at 1:28 PM
iftas.org
IFTAS Connect provides #moderators, community managers and anyone engaged in creating a safer Internet with a wealth of tools, resources, and a supportive network to help them connect, collaborate, and navigate the complexities of federated content moderation.

3/6 🧵
screenshot of IFTAS connects library section including guides and how tos of mastodon moderation and educational resources, wellness and resilience like conflict de-escalation and resolution and coping with exposure to traumatic content, legal and regulatory information like what is PII and CSAM reporting requirements, tools and resources like denylist management and reserved words, community management including responding to self harm and suicidal content, and IFTAS documentation.
August 15, 2024 at 1:26 PM
iftas.org
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
A view of nine member groups available on IFTAS Connect
May 29, 2024 at 3:30 PM
iftas.org
Check out our Spring 2024 Update for news on FediCheck, CCS, Digital Services Act support, Bluesky labelling, Moderator Advisory Council and more!

about.iftas.org/2024/04/23/s...
Screenshot of the FediCheck app showing a denylist option
April 24, 2024 at 12:44 PM
iftas.org
And there's more! Our moderator community portal will house a library of resources for trust and safety, discussion forums, a sharing space to seek help from a peer moderator community, template documents, and a lot more.
Screenshot of the IFTAS Connect moderator library Moderator forums Groups home page
April 3, 2024 at 12:41 PM
iftas.org
Next: the DSA Guidebook for Micro Services. Everything you never wanted to know about the EU's Digital Services Act. We partnered with Tremau to figure out what applies to small service providers. We've provided some concrete guidance on how to stay on the right side of this broad regulation.
Front cover of the DSA Guidebook
April 3, 2024 at 12:37 PM
iftas.org
First up: FediCheck. This is Moderation-as-a-Service that monitors domain denylists from your trusted sources and automatically updates your server. Mastodon for now, but the roadmap includes additional platforms as well as managing toxic IP addresses and email domains. github.com/iftas-org/re...
Screenshot of the FediCheck app showing the number of domains blocked by the service
April 3, 2024 at 12:36 PM