Federation is a privilege, not a right. Each service must carefully curate the actors it federates with. Having a clear federation policy can help your membership understand when and why a domain might be blocked from delivery, and improves predictability of your actions. It can also help your moderation team make clear, informed decisions.
IFTAS believes that everyone has the right to block anyone, at any time, for any reason.
Example Policy 1 #
SERVICENAME interconnects various services using the ActivityPub standard. ActivityPub provides two layers; a server to server federation protocol so decentralized websites can share information, and a client to server protocol so real-world users, bots, and other automated processes can communicate with ActivityPub using their accounts on servers.
SERVICENAME curates the servers with which it federates. As such, SERVICENAME endeavours to provide a safe, abuse-free service for people to use for all manner of topics and conversations, while observing the general etiquette of being in a public space.
Servers, and service providers, that stand in direct contrast to SERVICENAME’s Code of Conduct are subject to limitation of deliverability.
Limitations are, in ascending order of severity:
- Reject Media
No files from the remote server will be processed locally including avatars, headers, emojis and media attachments. Accounts can be found and followed. Messages will still be delivered. - Silence
All past and future accounts from the remote server are silenced and will not be visible in public timelines, but can be found and followed. Followed accounts will show up in the home timeline of the member following those accounts. - Suspend
All past and future accounts from the server are disconnected and undeliverable. No content from the remote server will be stored locally except for usernames. Accounts cannot be found nor followed.
Defederation Actions #
A service that consistently delivers untagged nudity, gore, imagery and video that is required to be tagged according to our Code of Conduct, will be set to Reject Media. Accounts on that service can still be found and followed.
A service that consistently fails to moderate their general membership and can be demonstrated to host individual accounts that would contravene our Code of Conduct may be Silenced.
A service that consistently fails to moderate their general membership and can be demonstrated to host a preponderance of accounts that contravene our Code of Conduct will be Silenced. Accounts can be found and followed, although individual accounts may be Suspended.
A service that willingly, knowingly hosts members that publicly and repeatedly exhibit hate, discrimination and/or harrassment will be Suspended. No accounts can be found or followed, no messages will be delivered.
A service that willingly, knowingly hosts members that publicly and repeatedly allow content illegal in the SERVICE JURISDICTION(S) will be Suspended. No accounts can be found or followed, no messages will be delivered.
