Launch: Domain Blocklists
In November last year, we began developing additional user-facing moderation features for Bridgy Fed users. While blocking users across the bridge was always possible via DMs, we knew it would be easier for users to manage their lists on the Bridgy Fed settings page, and it would also enable us to add more complex blocking features.
Today, we want to share the newest feature we're adding to kick off 2026, along with how we're approaching moderation features on Bridgy Fed and Bounce.
Domain Blocklists
Late last year, we integrated ATProto blocklists into Bridgy Fed, enabling a critical feature from apps like Bluesky to the Fediverse. Today, we're bringing a similar feature from the Fediverse to the ATmosphere: domain blocklists.
Domain blocklists are used and shared across the Fediverse to protect communities from known bad actors. Various organizations, like IFTAS, have also worked hard to maintain an ongoing list so community managers and users don't have to constantly stay up to date on new additions.
Now, on the Bridgy Fed settings page, there are two ways to add domain blocklists:
- Add the URL of a blocklist in the "Block" input
- Choose from a list of reputable blocklists from IFTAS, Garden Fence, and others
Domain blocklists can include Fediverse instances, ATProto PDSes, websites, and handles.
Feature Portability
Our approach to all of these blocking features, whether it's user blocks, ATProto blocklists, or Fediverse domain blocklists, has also been to keep blocks across protocol migrations via Bounce.
When you add blocks or blocklists to your account on either side of the bridge, we maintain and sync those within Bridgy Fed. If you ever decide to Bounce to another protocol, we not only bring your follow graph, but also all of your moderation choices as well.
The goal of all of these features isn't just to apply them one way; we always align them to accounts that are bridged to other protocols, so you never have to interact with those accounts, no matter which protocol you decide to Bounce to in the future. In other words, in an ecosystem where the majority of users are bridged, we bring features from one protocol to all other protocols supported on Bridgy Fed and Bounce.
To us, that's the most important part of a protocol-agnostic future: not just connecting users, but cross-pollinating ideas without requiring users to think about it.
Thank You!
As always, we can't thank our community enough for the feedback we've gotten as we've added new moderation features. A lot of the decisions we've made in the past months have come directly from conversations with you, and we hope the work we've done helps build an open social web that's safe for you.
This is the first of many features we have planned this year, so stay tuned for a lot more exciting work in the coming months!
If you believe in our mission and want to support us, you can do so via our Patreon, starting at $0.95/month with an annual subscription or $1/month for a monthly subscription.
You can also support us via our merch store, where our People, Not Platforms V1 collection is still available.