IFTAS / is on Nostr

Nonprofit trust and safety support for volunteer social web content moderators

Last Notes

2024-09-24 15:41:15

We are excited to celebrate the launch of the Social Web Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the open, interconnected web through the ActivityPub protocol. At IFTAS, we believe in fostering transparency, innovation, and safety within social platforms, and the formation of SWF is a major step toward that goal.
The Social Web Foundation brings together leaders from the Fediverse, with its mission grounded in educating users, improving social web infrastructure, and enhancing user experience across independent platforms. Under the guidance of leaders like Evan Prodromou (Research Director), Mallory Knodel (Executive Director) and Tom Coates (Product Director), the foundation aims to catalyse innovation while ensuring user autonomy and safety. Already working on end-to-end encryption, GDPR guidance, a Fediverse starter pack and more, the Foundation has plenty of amazing activities lined up.
ActivityPub has enabled thousands of platforms to communicate seamlessly across the Fediverse. This framework encourages a healthier online experience by supporting diversity of thought and content while redistributing governance back to the communities that can best serve their members. In an era where centralised networks dominate, the SWF’s commitment to open standards represents a renewed opportunity for a democratic and inclusive web.
At IFTAS, we share this vision of a safer and more equitable online world. That’s why we are happy to announce that Jaz-Michael King, our Executive Director, is joining the Social Web Foundation as an Advisor. His work at IFTAS has always centred on building safer digital spaces, and this partnership aligns perfectly with our mutual commitment to civil discourse and privacy protection.
The Social Web Foundation’s work is crucial for the future of independent social platforms, and we at IFTAS look forward to collaborating in this endeavour to build a robust, inclusive, and harm-free digital landscape. As Jaz has emphasised, “The opportunities to enhance trust and safety across the Fediverse are immense, and we are eager to work closely with SWF to make this vision a reality.”
Together, we are working to redefine the social web, ensuring that it is not only open but also safe for everyone.
For more information on the Social Web Foundation and its upcoming initiatives, visit socialwebfoundation.org or follow on Fedi using @swf@socialwebfoundation.org.
https://about.iftas.org/2024/09/24/welcoming-the-social-web-foundation/
#ActivityPub #Fediverse #SocialWebFoundation
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2023-12-13 20:11:03

IFTAS intends to provide guidance, and operate or facilitate services to support electronic service providers (ESPs) who require assistance mitigating Child Sexual Abuse Media (CSAM) on their services.Motivation
IFTAS serves the independent social media trust and safety community, and is driven in large part by the community Needs Assessment.
Support for CSAM issues is consistently ranked as one of the most requested needs, and as such IFTAS is seeking to mitigate the legal exposure and personal trauma faced by ESPs and content moderators who are tasked with moderating CSAM.
Regulatory compliance requires ESPs to either actively scan for, or respond to reports of CSAM on their service. Understanding the regulatory requirements is confusing and jurisdictionally complex. Detection solutions can be costly, technically difficult to implement, and pose an additional regulatory burden. Moderating CSAM can be traumatic. The various bodies engaged in child safety are not open to working with thousands of ActivityPub service providers.
IFTAS wishes to:
Promote a healthier, safer Internet;
Reduce the regulatory burden and legal exposure for ESPs;
Minimise harm to content moderators;
Provide or facilitate the use of CSAM classification services while preserving privacy and security to the fullest extent possible;
Reduce duplicative effort;
Serve as a trusted voice for this issue in the open social web.IFTAS Activities and Services
IFTAS intends to make various resources available, including but not limited to the following:Content moderator trauma support
Moderators exposed to CSAM via their moderation workflows have expressed the need for post-trauma support. Working with University Middlesex London Centre of Abuse and Trauma Studies, IFTAS is reviewing self-help materials and guidance for trauma mitigation resources, to be made available on the forthcoming IFTAS community library.Legal and regulatory guidance
While we have published some guidance already (https://github.com/iftas-org/resources/tree/main/CSAM-CSE), IFTAS plans to consult with domain experts in relevant jurisdictions to provide guidance for ESPs, updating routinely to ensure accurate, actionable guidance from trustworthy sources.IFTAS Media classification
Safer is an IFTAS-hosted enterprise deployment that performs hash-matching on images and videos securely transmitted from opted-in services to IFTAS for classification, and creates an automatic report to NCMEC if required. Shield is a hash-matching API from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection that can be called to examine locally-hosted media (images and video) and provide a classification. 3-is is a similar service oriented to EU hosts. IFTAS is exploring methods to facilitate access to these services.
https://safer.io/, https://projectarachnid.ca/en/#shield, https://www.3-is.eu/ fedi-safety
fedi-safety is an open source clip interrogation tool that can help classify images. IFTAS is exploring methods to facilitate the use of fedi-safety locally, or as a third-party service.Known Hashtags
IFTAS plans to provide service administrators with a rolling list of known hashtags in use by sellers and sharers of CSAM, to support local service moderation decisions.Known Hosts
IFTAS plans to provide service administrators with a rolling list of services seen to host CSAM with no intent or ability to moderate the content, to support local service moderation decisions.Best Practice
IFTAS is consulting with child safety experts including INHOPE, Arachnid, NCMEC, End Violence Against Children and others to source and share best practices for moderation workflow enhancements to minimise harm for moderators likely to be exposed to CSAM. for example blurring images, using monochrome, and using a dedicated browser profile for this work.Reference Material
IFTAS Moderator Needs Assessment Report (Q3 2023)
CSAM-CSE (IFTAS Guidance)
About Child Safety on Federated Social Media – Fediversity – SocialHub
#140 – WIP: PhotoDNA Attestation extension (CW: mention of CSAM) – fep – Codeberg.org
2023-08-04 Special Topic Call – Social Web and CSAM: Liabilities and Tooling
Integrate PhotoDNA to scan for known CSAM · Issue #21027 · mastodon/mastodon · GitHub
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues?q=CSAM
Lemmyshitpost community closed until further notice – Lemmy.World
https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues?q=CSAM
Stanford researchers find Mastodon has a massive child abuse material problem – The Verge
Child Safety on Federated Social Media
https://about.iftas.org/2023/12/13/iftas-csam-roadmap/

2023-12-07 15:00:56

The IFTAS Moderator Advisory Council is the community body that reviews the Moderator Needs Assessment results, weighs in on projects and spending, and directly reviews activities to ensure they are fit for purpose, meeting the needs of the moderator community, and steering the work of IFTAS.
Because participation in such groups is often dominated by people with the privilege of being able to volunteer uncompensated time, IFTAS offers a stipend of $260 per month to help ensure a broad representation of voices. Part of our non-profit mission is to support the uncompensated labour provided by the hardworking moderator community, and this is a small first step in that direction.
Participation includes one video meeting per month, and we ask that you commit to two hours each week commenting on proposals, reviewing activities, or suggesting new services. To get a sense of what we’re working on, and the kinds of things we’d like your feedback on, take a look at our Activity Board.
While anyone with relevant experience can apply, priority is given to active moderators working in ActivityPub platforms.
Our current panel has been an invaluable resource for feedback on our planned activities, and as we begin working to respond to the most recent Needs Assessment, we’d like to add more members to the group to ensure we are receiving feedback from a diverse, representative group of active moderators.
If you’d like to apply, please fill out this form: Moderator Council Application
Applications will be reviewed by December 31, and announcements made in early January 2024.
If you’d like further details, or have questions, please email Jaz
https://about.iftas.org/2023/12/07/open-call-moderator-council-members/
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