Embed Notice

https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#block-activity-outbox

The Block activity is used to indicate that the posting actor does not want another actor (defined in the object property) to be able to interact with objects posted by the actor posting the Block activity.

In the ActivityPub spec itself, it bears no meaning of access control; it’s purely just to ignore notifications and objects (such as replies) from that actor, as there is no rational way to accomplish limiting access to public posts from specific actors.

Anything sensitive that requires access control should not be posted publicly on social media to begin with. This isn’t a software design issue, it’s a human behavioral issue.

I routinely [privately] warn people about oversharing, such as when I stumble across someone posting a photo that gives away the exact location of where they live, or where they work, and most of the time it’s shrugged off as a non-issue, because they assume they have no tangible threats in the present, but never consider the future.

Then of course, they could always end up in some controversy much later on, over something completely innocuous, and face some tangible threats/risk, but yet put the blame on everyone else for their reckless posting behaviors (“omg doxxing!”). Blocking people they perceive as a threat solves nothing.