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seirdy.one/content/posts/fediverse-blocklists.md
2023-08-29 20:37:29 -07:00

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My Fediverse blocklists Documentation on which Fediverse blocklists I offer, how they are made, their differences, their caveats, and their intended use. 2023-05-02T00:00:54-07:00
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The Fediverse https://pleroma.envs.net/notice/AVEkLIaUf7JXnJkz2m
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daily 0.7

I moderate the "pleroma.envs.net" Akkoma instance on the Fediverse, as @Seirdy@pleroma.envs.net.

I maintain three main blocklists for the Fediverse:

The pleroma.envs.net blocklist
A large list of instances that I find worth suspending. After the first couple hundred entries (imported and then reviewed), I started collecting receipts. Since early 2023, every entry has documented reasons and receipts. I share these with multiple people in a collaborative document, but I don't share it publicly due to risk of harassment. Unlike the other two lists on this page, it wasn't made for general use (though you're welcome to use it as reference).
tier0.csv
A much smaller semi-curated subset of pleroma.envs.net suitable for the majority of instances wishing to uphold the Mastodon Covenant's moderation standards. I hope to make it a good starting point for your instance's blocklist, with wiggle room for your own adjustments. I encourage you to add and remove entries as you see fit. Regularly importing tier0.csv won't account for retractions; a sibling blocklist for tier-0 retractions exists for FediBlockHole users.

Note that this list is larger than the bare-minimum I recommend; that'd be FediNuke. If you're skeptical of imported blocklists, you should start there.

FediNuke.txt
A curated subset of tier0.csv, containing what I deem the "worse half" of it. This contains instances I really do recommend most people block, or at least avoid. I try to make it a suitable candidate for a "default blocklist", and use it as reference when I evaluate the quality of other blocklists.

This list is not comprehensive; to keep this list small, I excluded many really bad instances. I take into account not just severity, but also notoriety and likelihood of reaching/harming people on other instances (e.g. spewing toxicity in others' mentions, running blockbots, etc). Bad instances that mostly keep to themselves are less likely to cause problems for a new admin, and therefore less likely to get included in this minimal list.

Criteria are not set in stone. Instances well-known for causing significant problems for many other instances, particularly for instances run by and for marginalized groups, may be added.

Some of these lists are also sources for the Oliphant blocklists. {{}}{{}} describes them in his article {{}}.{{}}

This post is an attempt to document how they are made, their differences, their intended use, and especially their caveats. It also contains a work-in-progress list of receipts for instances in FediNuke and my Tier-0.

{{}}

How Tier-0 and FediNuke work

My tier-0 list (mirrored to tier0.csv in the Oliphant repository) is a subset of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist. It contains entries that appeared on at least 15 out of 28 other hand-picked instance blocklists ("bias sources"), with exceptions detailed below. Not all Tier-0 entries have the same level of severity; a smaller list containing what I personally deem the "worse half" of Tier 0 is FediNuke.txt. Consensus builds Tier-0; severity builds FediNuke.

When I add a bias source, I may also increase the minimum number of votes required if I find that its blocklist is too close to (or mainly just imports all of) tier-0 or the blocklist of a bias source's blocklist. That's the reason why the threshold is 15 instead of 14.

All entries use the root domains when applicable, or are as close to the root domain as possible without triggering false-positives.

Overrides

There were some block-overrides for instances with fewer than 15 votes. Here's how I went about overriding:

  • If an instance has 13 votes, I may elect to add it after additional review instead of waiting for it to hit 15 votes.
  • If an instance is run by the same staff as another Tier-0 instance and has at least 5 votes, I may add it after asking other admins about it and getting multiple thumbs-up from admins who import tier-0.
  • If an instance contains blatant/unapologetic bigotry (something really undeniable, like Nazi imagery or excessive use of slurs in violent/hateful/definitely-not-reclaimed contexts) with staff approval or involvement, I may add it to both tier-0 and FediNuke.txt after I get multiple thumbs-up.
  • If an instance becomes risky even to many tier-0 instances (untagged gore, dox attempts, significant cybersecurity risk, CSAM, etc. with staff approval or involvement): I may add it to both right away, skipping any process.

Under ten controversial entries were excluded despite having more than enough votes, after consulting with other admins. Typically, these were instances that didn't pose a major safety risk, but did fail many admins' "vibe check" or exhibit major governance issues.

I also excluded Twitter mirrors such as BirdSiteLive and bird.makeup; I maintain a supplementary list for those.

Bias sources

Criteria for a bias source:

  1. Has a public blocklist I can easily download.
  2. Practices timely and proactive moderation: doesn't just wait for another instance start interacting and cause trouble, and updates more often than once a month. Evaluating this takes time.
  3. Blocks at least half of FediNuke.txt.

The final tier0.csv isn't a pure representation of agreement between instances; it contains overrides and is merely a subset of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist. Other lists only serve to determine the bias used for filtering the pleroma.envs.net blocklist. The pleroma.envs.net blocklist is technically the only "real source". Other bias sources shouldn't be held responsible for the final tier0.csv contents. I'll explain my motivation for doing this in the next section.

Since accountability for tier0.csv rests on me rather than on other instances, I don't publish the current bias sources. Blame for any problems in tier0.csv should rest with me, not them.

Motivation for including personal bias

If tier0.csv were merely an unbiased list of the most widely blocked instances, then being on the list would become a self-fulfilling point of no return. If an instance gets blocked by enough other instances, then it shows up on my lists. If an instance shows up on my lists, it will get blocked by other instances which import my lists. If more instances block it...you get the picture. This leaves little room for retractions and mistakes. By making all my blocklists a subset of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist, I ensure only one party needs to be convinced to remove an entry.

Some instances migrate their domains. If the old instance was already deemed worthy of a suspension and the new instance maintains the same staff with no visible attempt to change its reputation, then I deem the new location to be as block-worthy as the old location and make an override. It's the same bad actors under a different banner.

Refreshing

Refreshes are a manual process. Refreshes update my tier-0 list, but do not update FediNuke; that list is a manually-curated subset of my tier-0 list. Every time I refresh, I get prompted with changes (if they exist) so I can review them. Since my tier-0 is a subset of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist, all additions should have some level of approval from me already, but I've started giving new additions a second look anyway. Manual review, subsetting the pleroma.envs.net blocklist, having a large number of bias sources, and some level of vetting for my bias sources should mitigate the risk of one bias source "going rogue" and compromising its blocklist right before a refresh.

Retractions

A separate list exists for retractions from my tier0.csv list. I don't add entries to my retractions list when I remove dead instances, or when an admin on a removed instance prefers not to be included in it (some wish to remain less prominent).

Intended use

The original goal was to make a blocklist appealing to instances with a more laid-back moderation approach, so that they would actually implement a decent blocklist and limit the reach of the worst actors. Unfortunately, the final tier0.csv blocklist is 350+ entries; this is still a bit much for the moderate instances.

I pared that down to FediNuke.txt, which contains instances that were both really bad and well-known. It's kind of hard to overlook how shitty each instance on the FediNuke.txt subset is. Common themes tend to be repeated unwelcome sui-bait from instance staff against individuals, creating or spreading dox materials against other users,1 unapologetic bigotry, uncensored shock content, and a complete lack of moderation.

I think if you're starting a well-moderated instance, Tier 0 is a decent place to start (that's why it's in the standard CSV format). You should add and remove entries as you see fit. If you're making a client and want to give it a built-in blocklist, or are looking for a good "default" blocklist: FediNuke is a good option.

However: if your instance grows larger (or if you intend to grow): you should be intentional about your moderation decisions, present and past. Your members ostensibly trust you, but not me. See the "trust but verify" section for for more information.

Rationale for creating two subsets

I used to just make a Tier-0 list. Later, I added the FediNuke list. Some people have asked why I don't just use one or the other; if Tier-0 was big enough to warrant FediNuke, why publish Tier-0 at all?

I have two reasons for maintaining two blocklists:

  1. I didn't feel comfortable placing some Tier-0 instances right next to, e.g., openly Nazi instances when they weren't at the same level of severity. FediNuke's existence establishes that some instances on the list are much worse than others. Maintaining multiple blocklists makes their subjectivity more obvious.

  2. The lists can work together. As I previously mentioned, the division makes it easier for people to feel comfortable importing blocks. Some admins have found that importing FediNuke and gradually combing through the rest of Tier-0 is more approachable than an "all or nothing" approach.

Use FediBlockHole

The CSV format I use is the format used by FediBlockHole. I do this for two reasons:

  1. FediBlockHole supports retractions: admins can configure a merge strategy to support downgrading an entry's severity, with the lowest severity (noop) being equivalent to a removal with an optional reason.

  2. Oliphant's blocklists use my blocklists as sources, and are powered by FediBlockHole.

If FediBlockHole supports your Fediverse server (it currently only supports the Mastodon admin APIs), I recommend using that if you want retractions to work.

Trust, but verify

I totally get resistance to blindly importing blocklists; I don't actually feel comfortable going the "import and forget" route myself! The first couple hundred entries of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist started with a few imports, but all domains have since been manually reviewed. For admins who don't feel comfortable "outsourcing" their moderation to blocklist authors: I generally see pre-made blocklists as a starting point.

Importing FediNuke.txt and then individually importing tier0.csv entries after manual review is a decent way to balance two conflicting needs:

  1. The need to verify suspensions.
  2. Not having the time/spoons to verify all the entries.

Another option is to use some text-processing tools to find entries that are common between Tier-0 and another trusted instance's blocklist. You can import the overlap.

Finally, you could just do something else entirely. I never use "your blocklist is different from mine" as a block-reason; even "totally open federation" is never the sole reason for pleroma.envs.net suspending an instance. Suspending instances for not using my own blocklist feels wrong; it'd turn these lists into a source of authority and cross the line from moderation to cop behavior.

Before you decide to trust one of my lists, please read the "Mistakes made" section.

Mistakes made

Here, I publicly document all significant mistakes I've made in the process. I sort entries in descending order by date addressed.

One mistake hasn't yet been listed; I'll wait for approval from one of the people impacted.

Early April 2023: Oliphant's max list containing bad entries

I made a mistake that didn't have a negative impact on my lists, but did impact someone else's. Even if my own lists came out okay, the fact that I allowed this to happen should be enough reason for you to seriously question my judgement.

I work with {{}} when generating lists; we share ideas regularly. Oliphant offers his own respository of blocklists (GitHub mirror). Using an approach inspired by my tier0.csv generation process, he makes lists generated from consensus across other lists. Unlike tier0.csv, the generated lists don't have significant manual curation. Oliphant's tier-1, tier-2, and tier-3 blocklists require decreasing levels of consensus. Until recently, he also offered a "unified max" blocklist containing any entry common across at least two other blocklists every entry from any trusted source.

One of Oliphant's sources was a single-user instance with many blocks made for personal reasons: the admin was uncomfortable with topics related to sex and romance. Blocking for personal reasons on a personal instance is totally fine, but those blocks shouldn't make their way onto a list intended for others to use. The admin of this instance gave permission to use this blocklist. However, they did warn us of this fact. With my own encouragement, we decided to use their list anyway.

I had reason to be comfortable with the personal nature of this blocklist. This was was one out of 20 bias sources used for tier0.csv generation, and tier0.csv is merely a subset of the pleroma.envs.net blocklist. These two facts prevented someone else's one-off "personal" blocks from making its way onto my list. I also found that adding this trusted source only introduced a dozen generally uncontroversial entries to tier0.csv.

Unfortunately, the situation was different for Oliphant's unified-max blocklist. Several entries made that list for personal reasons. I focused too much on my tier0.csv and failed to notice that anything was off with Oliphant's lists, even though I bore much responsibility for this blunder.

{{}} from pettingzoo.co raised important issues in a thread after noticing his instance's inclusion in the unified-max blocklist. He pointed out that offering a unified-max list containing these blocks is a form of homophobia: it risks hurting sex-positive queer spaces. Simply claiming that the unified-max list isn't intended to be imported isn't enough; there's a real risk that future admins may import it without reading the documentation. I recommend giving the thread a read.

Oliphant has been getting understandable push-back for this issue in his blocklists, but it's not fair for all of the criticism to be directed at him and none at me. Many small mistakes from multiple people, including me, cascaded into one big failure.

Since then, Oliphant has removed that admin's list (and his own) from his blocklists' trusted sources. I removed the same ones. Oliphant also stopped generating the unified-max blocklist, as the potential for misuse was too great.

Supplementary blocklists

Some supplementary blocklists I maintain with very different criteria:

BirdSiteLive and bird.makeup
These are services that allow Fediverse users to follow any Twitter user. Now that far-right figures are back on Twitter, these instance pose a problem. Admins wishing to ban a single Twitter user will need to ban that user across over 100 different Twitter mirrors. Moreover, any interactions with bridged accounts are unseen by the account holder on Twitter. Twitter users may not have consented to such mirroring. Admins wishing to simply ban mass-Twitter-mirroring can import this list.
Corporate social media with user-hostile dark patterns
A short list containing instances run by social media companies that have displayed user-hostile behavior, for anybody who doesn't wish to support such practices. Privacy abuse, growth-mindsets, dark patterns, and a history of vendor lock-in are common (but not all universal) themes.
Spammy subdomains
These domains are often used for HTTP tunneling or short-lived spin-up-spin-down servers. Fediverse instances running on their subdomains almost certainly aren't in it for the long haul, and very frequently shut down within hours or days without doing a clean self-destruct. Note that this is not to be confused with traditional dynamic-DNS subdomains, which are often used for longer-lived servers (although some admins do understandably block those anyway).
This list might prove useful in non-Fediverse contexts as well; I imagine it could be useful for moderating Matrix rooms.

Receipts

The following are receipts for instances on my blocklists. Read the text surrounding a link before navigating to it, and let that context serve as a content-warning. No links point directly to the blocked instance; all go to a third-party archiving service.

I use archive links instead of screenshots. Screenshots pose accessibility issues, can be doctored, and are easy to take out of context.

Receipt criteria

Receipts are biased towards patterns in staff behavior or pervasive patterns among users with staff approval, as that generally won't be solved with a federated report. A one-off user action taken out of context, without any sign of staff endorsement, isn't enough to end up on one of these lists because it's not indicative of an instance's moderation policies.

Receipts revolving around slur usage depend on context. Slurs used in reclaimed contexts aren't grounds for defederation. Patterns of slur usage in discriminatory contexts would warrant adding a receipt. I'm a native English speaker, so I mainly consider English slurs. I give the benefit of doubt to users who aren't native English speakers when using English slurs, depending on context. When I'm unsure, I ask for feedback from other mods from the relevant marginalized group.

Some receipts aren't reasons to block, but exist to contextualize other receipts. For example: I may mention that an instance has open-registration only to highlight that the instance's moderation policies will allow additional bad actors in the future.

One exception is receipts for legally risky media (e.g. sexual depictions of minors): I don't publish archive links for those. It should be easy to verify them yourself if you need to; I'll provide a user handle if necessary.

Toggle receipts

FediNuke entries

Criteria for a good FediNuke receipt is stricter than the aforementioned criteria:

  • Reblogs are only significant if they are from a staff member and are boosting local users. They are mentioned alongside other receipts to indicate that the content in question is permitted by staff.
  • Each instance must have multiple receipts. I'm working towards getting at least three receipts for most instances.
  • For larger instances: receipts must show staff behavior, or show consistent behavior from several users.

This section is a work-in-progress, and it will grow with time.

{{< nofollow >}}

13bells.com
Admin posts Sandy Hook school shooting conspiracy theories, transphobia, and queerphobia.
1611.social
antisemitism from admin, anti-vax from admin with other local members, antisemitic caricature from admin.
4aem.com
Freeze peach PeerTube instance on the "tube" subdomain, hosting blatant antisemitic content. "Clown World" dogwhistles, antisemitic "Why Kanye West is right".
5dollah.click
Blatantly racist use of slurs from staff account, more racism from same account.
The other staff account is racist too. Extreme racism from staff.
"About" page lists no rules.
adachi.party
The instance in question is on the "pleroma" subdomain. Its "about" page has the "Kill, behead, roundhouse kick" copypasta with racial slurs. Archived "about" page.
Later updated rules to include "must advocate for racism/fascism/nazism".
Admin posts racist transphobia, mass-tags other users with blatant racism.
annihilation.social OR dembased.xyz
#FediBlock on 2023-02-24
Hosts a blockbot user, with the handle "blockbot", and a defederation-notification bot. Racism from admin.
dembased.xyz used to run the predecessor of annihilation.social. A few times since, a small experimental instance has been set up on a subdomain. Both are owned by the same person.
anon-kenkai.net
Blatant antisemitic caricature on the landing page of its "peertube" subdomain. Admin on the "mitra" subdomain posts anti-pride messages.
asbestos.cafe
Racism and ableism from admin.
Admin sharing a dox
Transmedical gatekeeping from a cis user.
Antisemitism from local user followed by ableism from admin.
Queerphobic user.
bae.st
Admin profile page has an "n-word pass". Runs a host of bots posting lewd artwork, some of which venture into lolicon and Black-fetishism territory (e.g. "NessaBot"). Runs "glow_in_the_dark_cia_agent", one of the biggest followbots on Fedi. Instance rejects deletes.
banepo.st
Runs a blockbot. Admin posts antisemitism, homophobia, and transphobia in one post, another with more of the same, all of that with a side of ableism.
bassam.social
The admin equates people being against anti-queer discrimination with "oppression". After a user made a FediBlock post against bassam.social, its instance admin doubled down on permitting bigotry.
beefyboys.win
Runs a blockbot. Staff member "Prude" has a profile with a racist rant pinned. Staff member "Tyler" posts "racism is cool and natural" followed immediately by racial slurs, and other slurs in a non-reclaimed context.
boymoder.biz
Admin accounts post anti-Indian racism, racist copypasta. Staff includes "meso" from the.asbestos.cafe. Incompatible moderation standards.
brainsoap.net
dismissive over white supremacy, Nazi humor
breastmilk.club
Admin "leyonhjelm" posts transphobic sui-bait, spamming the "mutualaid" guppe group with blatant queerphobia.
brighteon.social
Brighteon's "about" page marks the instance as a far-right cesspit. Instance is connected to the Brighteon network, a far-right network featuring shows such as "The Reality Camp" with Stacey Campfield.
cachapa.xyz
Admin posts blatant racism, blatantly racist transphobic sui-biat.
Instance permits lolicon, and runs bots for it such as "Shishihime"; this may be a legal risk, depending on your jurisdiction.
catgirl.life OR peervideo.club
Both are part of the Waifu Hunter Club's suite of services, along with gameliberty.club; see its FediNuke entry. catgirl.life has the same admin as gameliberty.club, who has used the domain for block-evasion. Like gameliberty.club, both instances also permit lolicon.
cawfee.club
Racism from multiple users, including admin.
Anti-Romani and racist posts from admin.
Users engaging in more racism.
Anti-vax from admin.
clew.lol
Racist meme from admin.
Another racist meme.
Racial slurs in bio of a user with a white-nationalist dog whistle in their handle who posts NJP propaganda
Local users participating in a transmisogynistic harassment campaign with sui-bait.
clubcyberia.co
Instance features anti-black emotes. Users such as "Inginsub" often post blatant racism. Hosts a KiwiFarms staff member.
Staff member publicizes reports against extremely transphobic harassment in a reply to said harassment (YWNBAW-like copypasta).
crucible.world
Admin participating in extremely transphobic harassment
More transphobia from admin
Even more transphobia.
cum.camp OR cum.salon
Instance has MRF policies to reject deletes and run a blockbot on cum.camp and on cum.salon. Staff members "pernia" and "nimt" are known for overly-creepy posts related to sexual assault, esp. CSA, another.
The cum.salon domain name was recently terminated by PorkBun after several people reported it for publishing dox materials. Other instances have locally overridden their DNS to continue federating until its TLS certificate expires; however, it came back after transferring to Epik.
decayable.ink
Instance is well-known for harassment campaigns.
Targeted transmisogynistic harassment, and aftermath of said harassment.
Racist admin.
The instance introductory post is chock-full of red flags.
Another instance of haraassment.
detroitriotcity.com
Well-known Nazi instance. Instance "about" page says: racial pejoratives, NSFW images & videos, insensitivity and contempt toward differences in sexual orientation and gender identification, and so-called “cyberbullying” are all commonplace on this instance and has a staff account display name featuring an iron cross. Policies permitting lolicon may make it a legal risk, depending on your jurisdiction.
eientei.org
Instance "about" page explicitly describes it as a racist instance, anad uses racial slurs. MRF policies on the "about" page feature a blockbot and rejecting deletes. Admin posts antisemitic caricatures. User "lina" has a bio with blatant bigotry.
eveningzoo.club
Transphobia from admin
More admin transmisogny
Racist meme from admin
Antisemitism from admin
More antisemitism from admin
White nationalism from user.
fluf.club
Transphobia from admin, more transphobia, transphobic sui-bait.
The instance "about" page recommends freespeechextremist.com and kiwifarms.cc as instances "with similar moderation policies"; both those instances are on FediNuke with receipts.
freak.university OR pedo.school
Instance known for permitting paraphilia including pedophilia, and also explicitly allows minors (13+ although that limit may be lowered). Scroll through local users on /directory for more receipts.
pedo.school has identical rules on its "About" page. Instance contains untagged sexual depictions of minors and multiple self-described "pro-c" users; scroll through local users on /directory for more receipts.
freeatlantis.com
Far-right MAGA instance.
Admin has reblogged local users posting extreme transmisogny, xenophobia, anti-drag, MAGA, anti-vax, more anti-vax.
Admin posts QAnon.
freespeechextremist.com
End of this thread has blatant antisemitism.
Multiple other users engaging in transmisogyny, and participating in a transmisogynistic harassment campaign.
Transphobic blanket-pedojacketing.
MRF policies include a block-notification bot. The linked page also makes it clear that this is a freeze-peach instance, so reporting won't help.
froth.zone
Blatant racism, racist homophobia. Reporting is unlikely to help given the lack of rules against this, some ableism from the admin and some racism from the admin.
gearlandia.haus
Transphobic targeted harassment from multiple staff members, including sui-bait.
Racist use of slurs from another staff member.
Assorted queerphobia from multiple users, including staff.
Staff members sometimes post lolisho, which may pose a legal risk in some jurisdictions.
geofront.rocks
Well-known Nazi instance.
Blatantly racist and transphobic use of slurs, ethno-nationalism. All from what seems to be the primary active user of the instance.
Another user has a blatantly Nazi profile featuring violent transphobic shock content.
gameliberty.club
Freeze-peach rules permit lolisho, which may be a legal risk depending on your jurisdiction.
Admin pinned posts contain slurs in un-reclaimed contexts, and runs an rsdb bot for more.
Admin posts racist memes, more racist memes, anti-pride.
genderheretics.xyz
"About" page explicitly labels the instance as transphobic.
Admin posts unmarked NSFL medical gore in a transmisogynistic context.
Anti-drag pedojacketing from admin.
gleasonator.com
Admin is an outspoken TERF, who was head of engineering for Truth Social.
User "caekislove" pedojackets and sui-baits trans users, does homophobic pedojacketing as well, and posts extreme classism (violent imagery).
Admin is aware of the user but will not take action (unrelated extreme bigotry and Nazi iconography in thread).
glee.li
Racist harassment of Mutual Aid posts.
More blatant racism and transmisia.
Admin posts glad shes gone in response to a gender and sexuality scholar dying, and participates in a transmisogynistic harassment campaign.
More blatant racism.
Instance is associated with the website https://getgle.org. Split off of asbestos.cafe in early 2023, formerly at a subdomain of getgle.org.
h5q.net
Contains untagged AI-generated photorealistic erotic content that may pose a legal risk in several jurisdictions.
haeder.net
Instance blocklist reasons are unapologetically queerphobic, calling nonbinary individuals "delusional" and saying We don't need more diversity and tollerance when this doesn't fall back on us straight people.
Admin bio has blatant transphobia and hashtags such as SayNoToWoke.
iddqd.social
Admin posts anti-Black caricatures, supports organized predatory retaliation against DEI efforts. Instance landing page markets itself as an instance for 4chan users.
kitsunemimi.club
Admin "bronze" participates in racist harassment.
Admin sends users transphobic shock content, makes transphobic TTD posts with hashtag spam.
Runs the HighRoller MRF policy for a block-notification bot.
kiwifarms.cc
The official occasionally-online KiwiFarms Fediverse instance. Look up "KiwiFarms" online if you want receipts. It briefly came back once after a long period of downtime, so I'm not removing it during the current downtime.
kyaruc.moe
Admin sui-baiting to get on this list. Later changed their mind, got mad about being on it, and publicized a dox.
Racist use of slurs, targeted ableist harassment
leafposter.club
Blatant antisemitism and queerphobia, SWERF, blatant racist use of slurs.
ligma.pro
The admin threatened mass violence, threatened animal cruelty, posted unmarked gore (CW: NSFL gore), bragged about making death threats. After his infosec.exchange alt got banned he set up shop on fosstodon.org.
lolicon.rocks
"About" page states posting.lolicon.rocks is a common carrier telecommunications provider that does not moderate content and also features the owner with the handle "BlinkRape".
Owner profile bio contains racist and ableist slurs.
Owner posts antisemitism, blatant racism in a climate-denial thread.
marsey.moe
boks.moe had the occasional holocaust denial meme. one of the main users "Ruusu" set their display name to a racial slur in a violent context. Staff member "MischievousuTomatosu" posts blatantly racist takes on border control.
boks.moe moved to marsey.moe, which features a hitler-themed racist "Witster_" account, making fun of mutual aid posts, racist misogyny, blatantly transphobic jokes.
merovingian.club
Instance "About" page bills it as "a club for redpilled exiles".
Admin is active on MGTOW.TV, and posts racist caricatures. Admin and instance members are deeply misogynistic. Another example of admin misogyny.
Among users, there's blatant transmisogyny, antisemitism, anti-vax.
midwaytrades.com
Runs a Libs of TikTok bot. Transphobic and misogynist admin.
mirr0r.city
Paraphilia- and pedophilia-focused instance that explicitly welcomes pro-contacts and neo-Nazis.
mouse.services
Admin posts blatantly racist use of slurs, more racism.
morale.ch
Transphobia, blatant antisemitism, and both at once. Ableist holocaust denial. All from the admin account.
mugicha.club
Admin participated in a transphobic targeted harassment campaign with local users.
Anti-asian racist slurs from admin.
Misogynistic racism from admin with several local users with Confederate battle-flags in their display names.
More blatantly racist use of slurs from admin.
natehiggers.online
Used to run an awful Pleroma instance, which shut down. A WriteFreely instance is still up on the "wf" subdomain. Domain name is an obvious spoonerism of racist use of slurs.
The WriteFreely blog features COVID conspiracy theories, violent racist transmisogyny, anti-vax, and other far-right content.
narrativerry.xyz
Admin posts blatant anti-Indian racism.
Admin combines antisemitic conspiracy theories, homophobia, and racism in a slur-filled thread.
nobodyhasthe.biz
"About" page lists multiple admins and mods with swastikas in their display names and/or profile photos.
Admin "ShariVegas" is an unapologetic white supremacist and antisemite.
Admin "thomaslewis" makes fun of a report against a blatantly racist user while adding a homophobic and antisemitic slur of his own.
Moderator "BobRoss" has a bio starting with Spreading the joy of antisemitism and encourages calling users slurs instead of reporting as an integral part of the culture around here.
shortstacksran.ch OR needs.vodka
Admin posts ethno-fascist harassment, antisemitism. Supports racist, misogynistic, violent grooming.
shortstacksran.ch is the continuation of squid.kids and shortstackran.ch (note the extra "s"), by the same admin. See prior FediBlock post. On the new instance, the admin posts extremely racist use of slurs, and racist antisemitism.
nicecrew.digital
Blatant anti-Black racism from staff, anti-Black racist caricature from staff. Antisemitic COVIDspiracy from staff.
Has a bot to spam threads with racist slurs.
nnia.space
Paraphile pro-zoo pro-MAP and pro-contact instance that also allows minors. Pro-C zoosexuality. They try to avoid getting defederated by moving discourse around contact stances to their Matrix servers, but is very clearly full of pro-C individuals and minors alike.
noagendasocial.com
Far-right instance connected to the No Agenda show.
Blatant queerphobia.
One of its more popular users is openly an ethno-nationalist with thinly-veiled genocidal views and runs the far-right amerika.org blog.
An even more popular user regularly posts far-right content.
noagendasocial.nl OR noagendatube.com
Sibling instances of noagendasocial.com, also connected to the No Agenda Show.
norwoodzero.net
Admin pedojackets in a transphobic harassment campaign.
Admin invites others users for the purpose of harassing trans users. Another example, using the fact that the instance is "barely defederated" as a selling point.
Instance "about" page contains racial slurs and an animated banner that says "whites only".
nyanide.com
Staff member sends transmisogynistic pedojacketing harassment.
Same staff member posts blatant extreme racism (CW: SA).
Same staff member sends anti-vax harassment to other users.
Two staff members in a racist and antisemitic thread.
onionfarms.org
"About" page says This is a Mastodon server for the Onionfarms and Kiwifarms communites [sic] and admin bio confirms it.
pawlicker.com
Root domain hosts a pro-KiwiFarms and transphobic essay. Admin posts transmisogyny, more transphobia (the person he references knowing more is a KF staff member), even more transphobia.
pawoo.net
Lolisho instance that does not moderate sufficiently. Has had several incidents of actual CSAM and child predators going unmoderated for long durations, despite reports.
pieville.net
Admin is a white nationalist who supports building an ethno-state, and genocide. Admin profile features more blatant slur-filled racism, antisemitism, etc.
poa.st
Well-known Nazi instance. See receipts for needs.vodka, kitsunemimi.club, and shitpost.cloud for poast users.
poast.org OR poast.tv
Instances affiliated with poa.st.
pisskey.io OR sad.cab
Graf, admin of poa.st, also runs (and block-evades from) pisskey.io, and sends racist transphobic antisemitic harassment from it too.
Also runs sad.cab.
poster.place
Staff member "spitfire" spams the "mutualaid" guppe group and hashtag with extreme queerphobia, and makes racist homophobic slur-filled anti-antifa posts. Instance header contains an animated GIF full of slurs.
rapemeat.solutions OR rapemeat.express
rapemeat.solutions is the successor to hentai.baby, run by its admin. hentai.baby was known for posting real CSA material. Openly pro-CSA. Has drawn nudity in the instance background.
rapemeat.express is the more public counterpart to rapemeat.solutions according to its "About" page.
rayci.st
Admin posts racial slurs, anti-Indian racism, anti-Black racist use of slurs, and some antisemitism.
Admin spams the MutualAid guppe group with shock content.
rebelbase.site
Admin posts blatant transphobia, posts more thinly-veiled transphobia, insists on misgendering.
Admin is anti-abortion, identifies as an MRA.
Elsewhere on the site is a user who posts COVID denial, anti-vax with a side of queerphobia and Islamophobia.
ryona.agency OR plagu.ee
Admin bio features blatant racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and other bigotry.
Admin participates in transmisogynistic harassment.
Blatant racism from a local user.
The instance "about page" features MRF policies to power a block-notification bot, to convert all posts (including DMs) to public visibility, and to reject deletes.
Also runs a version of Pleroma patched to allow bypassing authorized-fetch.
plagu.ee is run by the same admin as ryona.agency, with similar patches and MRF policies applied as per the plagu.ee "about" page.
schwartzwelt.xyz
Admin participates in a transphobic harassment campaign by posting transphobic pedojacketing sui-bait containing Nazi iconography. More blatant transphobia from admin.
Admin participates in anti-indigenous racist harassment.
Local user "Agartha_Noble" posts blatant racism in a thread about race-mixing.
seal.cafe
Users including admin participate in transphobic targeted harassment.
Racist slurs from admin.
Antisemitic transphobia from a user.
Admin posting sui-bait in response to a trans woman coming out.
shitpost.cloud
Admin "Hoss" uses racial slurs in an unreclaimed context.
Admin publicized reports against local users participating in a targeted transphobic harassment campaign.
A user with a violent racist display name, with staff participating later in the thread.
skinheads.social OR skinheads.eu
The Antisocial Network is for white-nationalist skinhead subculture. "Aryans" botwhite pride, Nordic resistance movement.
skinheads.uk OR skinheads.io
Alternate domains for The Antisocial Network.
spinster.xyz OR neenster.org
Spinster is a TERF instance created by Alex Gleason, admin of gleasonator.com; see its entry. Instance mostly engages in transmisogyny.
Staff member posts blatant transmisogyny.
Another staff member openly admits to being a TERF in their profile.
A third staff member posts a rant against the validity of trans women, with several local members piling on in the replies.
Neenster shares staff members (Alex Gleason, Nina Paley). The latter posts self-described TERF content and links to her blog with more TERF content.
strelizia.net
Instance "About" page lists MRF policies to reject deletes and run a block-notification bot.
Admin posts anti-Black racism, more blatant racism, and some other slurs in non-reclaimed contexts
Local user "nikiboo" posts blatant anti-Black racism (re-blogged by admin), has a profile photo with Nazi imagery.
thechimp.zone
Admin sends transphobic pedojacketing harassment to trans users, with racial slurs to boot.
Admin participates in queerphobic harassment.
Admin profile contains racial slurs.
thenobody.club
Admin participates in a transmisogynistic harassment campaign.
Racist and antisemitic use of slurs from admin, along with some heavy xenophobia shortly after.
More racist xenophobia from admin.
usualsuspects.lol
Admin led targeted transphobic bodyshaming harassment against members of a mainly-trans instance. Originally created to be a block-bait Soapbox instance.
varishangout.net
Instance permits lolicon/shotacon. sample non-graphic thread containing queerphobia, esp. transphobia, with staff involvement, another such thread.
Staff member being openly transphobic.
Several members participating in transphobic harassment.
vtuberfan.social
Racism and other hate-speech, CW for unmarked nudity in profile pictures and banners.
Admin "Sivee" posts blatant racism, and local user "Saige" replies with violent racist bait. Sivee likely went by the same handle on seal.cafe.
Saige posts homophobic bait.
wolfgirl.bar
Admin participates in racist harassment, posting openly Nazi bigoted slur-filled content. Sends Nazi imagery with racial slurs to Jewish users.
yggdrasil.social
The first rule of the yggdrasil.social "about" page says "No LGBTQ. Period. No homosexuality" followed by blatant transphobia.
Profile for "Ricotta", the current most active user, has a swastika in their display name and a bio that includes "National Socialist" and "TERF".
Blatant racism from another user.

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Tier-0 entries, excluding FediNuke

This section has barely been started.

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baraag.net
Very well-known lolicon-friendly instance that recently cleaned up its act enough to re-federate with misskey.io, but still focuses on lolisho artwork and may therefore pose a legal risk, depending on your jurisdiction.
berserker.town
Refuses to moderate hate speech (the post in question has received reports, but the admin tends to dig his heels in when it comes to this stuff). About page doesn't ban such content.
Permissive policies have made space for anti-diversity eugenics dogwhistles evolving into xenophobic eugenics.
bungle.online
Racial slurs from admin, repeatedly uses ableist slurs. Another example.
crlf.ninja
Instance admin endorses sending toxic racist slurs and being "horrible" to people for blocking instances. Admin participated in a transphobic dogpiling campaign. Admin publicizes blocks.
federated.fun OR wikileaks2.org
Blatant transphobia from admin. Admin profile pinned an extremely transphobic post.
Admin switched to running misinformation.wikileaks2.org instead.
firedragonstudios.com
Currently runs an instance on the "pleroma" subdomain.
Used to run a freeze-peach instance under the "freespeech" subdomain, allowing far-right linkspam, anti-vax, and anti-woke users
Got widely blocked as a result before switching domains. Current "pleroma" subdomain seems inactive but still allows registration.
freesoftwareextremist.com
Ableism and antisemitism from local user "dookie", ableist sui-bait, ableism and queerphobia.
Admin often uses anti-Chinese racial slurs, more usage, other anti-asian slurs.
Instance has fully open registration.
freetalklive.com
Instance "about" page self-identifies as unmoderated, except for spam. Connected to the libertarian Free Talk Live show.
kawa-kun.net
Instance rejects deletes. (unfinished entry)
kompost.cz
Racism, more racism, transphobia, queerphobia. All from admin.
occultist.space OR enjoyer.network
Run by the same admin as the.usualsuspects.lol (FediNuke). Admin announced the.usualsuspects.lol from the.occultist.space. See confirmation that the enjoyer.network admin is the same.
shitposter.club
Admin "Moon" posts racist bait.
Blatant transphobia from user "noyoushutthefuckupdad", who's gone on multiple transphobic benders, with admin knowledge.
User "billiam" has a profile with a Confederate battle-flag, antisemitic dog-whistles, and blatant white supremacy in a pinned post
Truscum user "animeirl", who also ran an instance of the ap-proxy block-evasion tool.
User "coolboymew" rants about how misgendering and pronouns shouldn't be taken seriously because they're "politically charged".
Some more racism from user "triodug".
Note that its freeze-peach environment probably won't be changing: other users, including the admin, seem fond of it in this thread.
shota.house OR burger.rodeo
Instance self-identifies as a freeze peach haven that permits unrealistic/2D lolisho; this may be a legal risk, depending on your jurisdiction.
Staff defends permitting bigotry while dismissing concerns about hate-speech. With that context, reporting won't address problems like racist Black fetishism from one user.
Harassment risk seems low, however, and admins claim that the instance will moderate harassment but not "opinion".
lemmy.burger.rodeo is run by the same staff and has the same policies.
starnix.network
Note: there are multiple Fediverse servers on different subdomains, such as "pl" and "mstdn."
Staff includes the admin of annihilation.social and dembased.xyz (FediNuke).
whinge.town OR whinge.house
Racism from staff, more racism, even more racism.
Ableist misogyny.
Both instances were set up by the same user (confirmation 1, confirmation 2), who mains on the former.
wideboys.org
There used to be an instance on the "social" subdomain, but it shut down. However, there is still a WriteFreely instance on the "blog" subdomain. The instance on the "social" subdomain has been mostly superseded by beefyboys.win.
On the root domain is a wiki describing how this domain is affiliated with beefyboys.win. The beefyboys.win "about" page confirms this.
Since beefyboys.win is on FediNuke and wideboys.org is part of the same network with staff and member overlap, and wideboys.org still federates on the "blog" subdomain, it's on the list too. But since it only federates via WriteFreely at the time of writing, it looks like a smaller harassment vector so it's demoted to my tier-0 list.

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Future

Once Threads and/or Tumblr start federating, I plan to make a separate blocklist for "mainstream" social media platforms that prioritize profit over safety. I've explained my views on Threads in another post: {{}}{{}}{{}}.

The biggest complaint I've heard is the lack of reasons and receipts. I'm working on adding them to this page. {{}}{{}} is working on a separate project called {{}}{{}} to create an index of instances with receipts. It doesn't have a lot of content yet, but that will change with time. I've shared my receipt archive with him.

I like the idea of a separation between receipt-tracking projects and blocklist-generating projects. Reasons in a blocklist tend to invite retaliatory harassment in an effort to make admins hide their blocklists, often in the form of (very dubious) legal threats (defamation and privacy regulations have come up).

I also hope to see more tier-0 lists crop up. Any instance should be able to make a tier-0 list by sub-setting its own blocklist. When that happens, "Seirdy's Tier-0 list" will hopefully lose whatever authority it has.


  1. I did not consider dox attempts against certain neo-Nazis a reason to block. ↩︎