# Exploring Content Moderation in the Decentralised Web: The Pleroma Case

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.13500 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.13500/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Oct 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Safeguarding Decentralized Social Media: LLM Agents for Automating Community Rule Compliance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08963/) (2024)
- [Decentralised Moderation for Interoperable Social Networks: A Conversation-based Approach for Pleroma and the Fediverse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03048/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Decentralising the Web is a desirable but challenging goal. One particular challenge is achieving decentralised content moderation in the face of various adversaries (e.g. trolls). To overcome this challenge, many Decentralised Web (DW) implementations rely on federation policies. Administrators use these policies to create rules that ban or modify content that matches specific rules. This, however, can have unintended consequences for many users. In this paper, we present the first study of federation policies on the DW, their in-the-wild usage, and their impact on users. We identify how these policies may negatively impact "innocent" users and outline possible solutions to avoid this problem in the future.