Bluesky will allow users to manage their own moderation services

Bluesky, the open-source Twitter alternative, is about to start testing one of its more ambitious ideas: letting its users manage their own . The change will allow Bluesky users and developers to work together to create custom tagging tools for the fledgling social media platform.

The new moderation tools arrive as Bluesky sees explosive growth after getting rid of its waitlist for all users in February. Since then, the service has added about 2 million new users, bringing its total community just over .

The company said its approach to moderation is based on the same philosophy that led it to adopt algorithms. The goal, Bluesky wrote in a blog post, is to create “an ecosystem of open source moderation and safety tools that empowers communities to create their own spaces with their own norms and preferences.”

In practice, these moderation tools will take the form of labeling services. Just as Bluesky allows users to set moderation preferences — for example, you can choose whether you want the app to “show,” “warn,” or “hide” explicit content — developers will be able to create their own filtering systems, and others can choose c. “For example, someone could make a moderation service that blocks pictures of spiders from Bluesky — let’s call it Spider Shield,” the company explains. “If you get a jump scare seeing spiders in your otherwise peaceful nature, you can install this moderation service and instantly all tagged spider photos will disappear from your experience.”

To make such experiences possible, Bluesky is open-sourcing its collaborative labeling tool , which will allow groups of moderators to respond to reports and tag content. But the company notes that developers can also build automated labeling systems using Bluesky’s API.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber called the concept “composable” or “stackable” moderation. “We always do basic moderation, which means we give you a moderated experience by default when you sign in [to Bluesky]Graber told Engadget last month. “And on top of that, you can customize things.”

These new third-party labeling services will begin rolling out later this week to the desktop version of Bluesky, with the mobile version coming “soon,” according to the company. And users are likely to see more options available in the coming weeks as more developers and groups get their hands on the core tools.