Like other social media platforms, Bluesky Social gives you various options that let you moderate your feed easily. This allows you to control the type of content you see when you sign in to the platform and avoid posts with undesirable content. Thus, you can block posts with extremist views, scams, violence, adult content, as well as posts from inauthentic accounts.

What are Feeds on Bluesky and how to use them
Trying yo find your way around Bluesky? Start with Feeds!
All Things HowPallav Pathak

Muting words and tags

  1. To start moderating your Bluesky feed, log in to your Bluesky account and click on 'Settings' on the left.
  1. On the Settings page, scroll down and click on 'Moderation'.
  1. When the Moderation page opens, click on 'Muted words and tags'.
  1. Now you can type in the words and tags you don't want to see in the text box and click on the 'Add +' button. This will prevent them from appearing in your feeds.
  1. You can block specific words and tags for a particular duration, such as 24 hours, seven days, 30 days, and forever by clicking on the respective option. Additionally, you can choose whether to mute both text and tags or just tags.
  1. If you want to exclude users you follow from your list of muted words and tags, click on the 'Exclude users you follow' checkbox. At the bottom of the box, you can see all the words and tags you've muted.

Creating and managing moderation lists

  1. Once you've muted the words and tags you don't want to see, go back to the main Moderation page and click on 'Moderation lists'.
  1. Click on the 'New' button on the Moderation Lists page to create a new moderation list.
  1. Now, you can enter a name and a description for the list in the box that appears. You can also type a description that helps you remember what the list is about and click on the 'Save' button.
  1. Then click on 'Add' and type in the name of the user you want to add to the list. This will prevent posts from users you've added to the list from showing up.
  1. You can edit a list you create here by clicking on the three dots on the top right. This will show you the option to copy its link to another list, edit the list details, or delete the list.

Muting and managing muted accounts

Another way of moderating your Bluesky feeds is to mute accounts. When you mute an account, Bluesky will not show you any notifications when that user creates a post, makes a comment, or performs any other action on the platform.

  1. You can either go to your feed and find the user you want to mute or search for them directly using the 'Search' option on the left.
  1. Once you've found the user you want to mute, click on their username to go to their profile page.
  1. Once you are on the profile page, click on the three dots and then click on 'Mute Account'. You can also block and report an account from here by clicking on the respective option.
  1. Once you've muted a user, go to the Moderation section in Bluesky settings and click on 'Muted accounts'.
  1. Here you will see all the accounts you have muted. You can click on a muted account and then unmute it the same way as you muted it directly from here.
Note: You can also block accounts in the same manner as you mute them and blocked accounts will appear in the 'Blocked accounts' section in Moderation settings. From there, you can unblock them if you wish.

Adjusting content filters

On Bluesky, you can adjust content filters to control adult content in your feeds.

  1. By default, the 'Enable adult content' toggle is disabled, which means posts with such content will not appear. You can change this by clicking on the 'Enable adult content' toggle.
  1. When you enable adult content, you will see more granular controls for adult content. Now you can decide what happens when different types of adult content appear in your feeds. The platform can warn you about such content, make it visible, or hide it, depending on the setting you choose.
Note: If you want to avoid the hassle of adjusting the controls for each type of adult content individually and simply do not wish any adult content to appear in your feeds, it is better to keep the 'Enable adult content' toggle disabled.

Using Bluesky Moderation Service

  1. If you want more advanced moderation controls, click on 'Bluesky Moderation Service' on the Moderation settings page.
  1. Now you can control the visibility for different types of categories like Self-Harm, Sensitive, Extremist, Intolerance, etc. Click on the 'Off', 'Warn', or 'Hide' buttons for each option as per your preference.

Things to know

  • Bluesky also has a setting that lets you block apps from showing your account to users who are logged out of the platform. However, this setting does not make your account private and certain apps may still show your account.
  • For effective moderation, you should use caution when adding people to your 'Following' list. This will help reduce the effort in maintaining clean feeds.
  • While you cannot set up custom labels for moderation purposes on Bluesky, you can do so using third-party tools.
  • You can access your moderation settings while using the Bluesky app as well by tapping on the hamburger menu that appears as a set of three horizontal lines and then tapping on Settings before going to the Moderation setting.