How to Block Words on Bluesky

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2024-09-27

In this tutorial, we'll learn how to block words and phrases on Bluesky (the platform users the term "mute" words). Blocked or muted words won't appear in posts for you. That is, if a post contains a blocked word, the post isn't shown, and the words will be "hidden" form you. Therefore, if you don't want to see some term, or you don't want to see posts that talk about some topic, it's a good idea to block the words so the posts never appear in your sight.

Recommendation: I recommend using this function to block the word "Twitter," in case you're tired of hearing about Twitter on Bluesky. It's also a good idea to block the phrase "Elon Musk."

Observation: when you block a word you only make the word disappear, this function doesn't block users. To block users, see [How to Block Users on Bluesky].

To block words on Bluesky, follow the following steps:

1: in the side menu, click on "Settings" to access the Settings page.

Bluesky's side menu, with Settings active.

2: in the "Settings" page, in the "Basics" section, click on the option "Moderation." If you can't find it, you can also access the moderation page through the URL:

https://bsky.app/moderation

A page with the title "Settings," section "Basics," with the options: Accessibility, Appearance, Languages, Moderation, Following Feed Preferences, Thread Preferences, My Saved Feeds, and Chat Settings. — The "Basics" section of Bluesky's "Settings" page.

A page with the title "Moderation," section "Moderation tools," options: Muted words & tags, Moderation lists, Muted accounts, and Blocked accounts. — The Moderation Tools section of the Moderation page in Bluesky.

3: in the moderation page, click on "Muted words & tags." A dialog box will appear where you can add words and tags to be hidden from you.

A dialog box with the title "Add muted words and tags." A message: "Posts can be muted based o ntheir text, their tags, or both. We recommend avoiding common words that appear in many posts, since it can result in no posts being shown." A field that says "Enter a word or tag." Options for "Duration:" Forever, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days. Options for "Mute in:" Text & tags, Tags only. Other "Options:" Exclude users you follow. A button "Add." A section "Your muted words," "You haven't muted any words or tags yet." — The dialog box "`Add muted words and tags`" on Bluesky.

Adding Muted Words & Tags

As we can see, this dialog box has various options. Let's understand how it works.

Details about the Blocking Algorithm

The algorithm for blocking words that Bluesky uses is extremely simple. Although Bluesky uses the term "word," in reality the algorithm makes use of arbitrary text and doesn't understand the concept of "words" in the grammatical sense. That is, if you type a phrase of two words, it will be blocked. And if you type a text that is contained in another word, it will be blocked as well. Let's understand what this means.

If we block "Twitter," only the word "Twitter" will be blocked, and not similar words like "tweet."

Currently, Twitter is also called "X." However, you shouldn't add "X" to the list of blocked "words." That's because every post that contains the text "X," that is, the LETTER "X" will be blocked. For example, if a post contains the phrase "for example," it would be blocked since the word "example" is written with the letter "x."

To block two different words, you need to add one word first, and then add the other. If you add both at once it won't work.

For example, if you add "Twitter Elon Musk," this will only block posts that contain the phrase "Twitter Elon Musk" exactly, in this order.

Similarly, if you add the phrase "Elon Musk" to the blocked terms, this won't block posts that contain only the surname "Musk." In this case the situation gets a bit complicated since "Elon" could be any random Elon, but generally "Musk" only refers to Elon Musk, thus it's a good idea to block the term "Musk." Of course, if you block "Musk," this also makes "Elon Musk" redundant, since the phrase "Elon Musk" contains the word "Musk," so everything that "Elon Musk" would block is already blocked by "Musk."

A section titled "Your muted words" with three items: "musk," "elon musk," and "twitter." All of three as "text & tags." — The section "`Your muted words`" on Bluesky after some "words" have been added.

It's possible that you need to add "ElonMusk" without spaces if you use only "Elon Musk," in case someone use te term only as a hashtag which wouldn't allow the use of the space character.

Appearance

When a post contains a blocked word, the post itself is shown but its content is not. Instead of the content, the message "Post Hidden by Muted Word" is shown, and you have the option to reveal the content by click on a "Show" button that appears on the right side.

How a post that contains a muted word looks like on Bluesky.

Observation: it seems that in the moment there is no way to configure the moderation to hide the post completely. This option exists on Mastodon, but not on Bluesky.

Duration

We can block a word "Forever" or for a specific period of time, after which the muting will be autoamtically removed.

Normally, you'll want to block a word "Forever." If there is a term that you never want to see, there is no reason to choose any other option.

However, suppose that something happened recently and everyone is posting about that, and you're tired of hearing about it. You can block terms related to this event for only a few days, and the block will be removed automatically after everyone will have stopped talking about the subject.

Mute in

Choose "Tags only" to block the typed text only if it's part of a hashtag. Choose "Text & tags" to block the text if it appears anywhere on the post, even outside of a hashtag.

Unfortunately, it seems very few people use hashtags on Bluesky, so using "Tags only" wouldn't be as effective as you might expected.

Exclude users you follow

This option means that users you follow won't be affected by this block, only users you don't follow. This would be a way to allow users that you trust to speak about a topic that you generally wouldn't want to hear about.