Folk Risk Models and Mutual Aid on Federated Social Networks

Project Lead / Student Investigator: Erika Melder
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Ann DeVito
Co-Investigator: Dr. Ada Lerner

Background

The Fediverse is a collection of servers (known as instances) that can all communicate with one another across a common protocol. A federated social network is one of these platforms. Users choose an instance when they sign up for an account, which allows them to customize their experience. Much like email providers, users can send messages to other users even if they’re on other instances, but each instance is allowed to determine certain aspects of their structure, design, and rules. Most critically, each instance may decide which other instances they federate with, and instance staff may suspend both individual users and entire other instances (a process known as defederation). The policies around administering a suspension vary widely, and are based on the risk model employed by the instance staff.

However, moderation often grapples with the fact that social media is a critical source of mutual aid, enabling both fundraising and organizing. Mutual aid is a collaborative process where members of a community help one another meet their needs. This may take many forms, including direct donations, bartering for material goods, assistance with navigating bureaucratic systems, and community organizing. Notably, mutual aid implies reciprocation: community members both give and receive support as needed. Often, mutual aid schemes arise in at-risk communities which are not guaranteed access to other support networks. These communities are forced to have permeable boundaries to allow in marginalized users while blocking those who would break the community guidelines. Therefore, instances which provide community support or mutual aid face tension between blocking proactively to protect the space, and withholding blocks to ensure that users in need of a community space are not caught in the crossfire. One common mechanism for resolving this is shared instance blocklists compiled by trusted community members, which serve as a baseline for many instances of who to avoid federating with.

Project Description

This project seeks to determine how federated social media platform structure impacts the ability of its users to organize, and particularly, conduct effective mutual aid. We will conduct an interview study of users whose posts appear on instances of the federated social network Mastodon. We will interview instance staff to determine how blocking decisions are made and how instance norms are enforced, and how this in turn affects community-building and mutual aid on the platform. We will also interview users impacted by blocking decisions to understand how blocking schemes impact users’ participation in and access to mutual aid.

Research Questions

  • How do shared instance blocklists positively or negatively impact community-building and mutual aid on the Fediverse?
  • How are blocking procedures on the Fediverse informed by users’ privacy and security needs?
  • How does the technical structure of the Fediverse affect the procedures and outcomes of these user actions?

Expected Outcomes

Our goal with this project is to develop design guidance for Fediverse platforms, as well as for for developers of blocking and other moderation and curation tools on the Fediverse. We seek to help Fedizens by drawing on community-sourced experiences to identify ways to improve the Fediverse structurally and systemically.

How to Participate

Recruitment for this study is now closed. The inclusion criteria are listed here for documentation purposes. In order to participate, you must be:

  • 18+ years old
  • An active Fediverse user
  • Able to conduct an interview in English
  • Located in the US, Canada, the UK, or the European Economic Area
    • Individuals outside these regions may still be able to conduct an interview with us. Please let the researchers know and we will do our best to work with you.

Here is the consent form for the study.

If you have any questions about this study, contact Erika Melder via one of the following channels: