Infuriating! Yahoo News tries to tar and feather Mastodon with Discord! Yet, this article is wrong on so many counts!
Discord is not "distributed". It is a centralized and proprietary service run by Discord Inc. -- who have dropped the ball on moderation.
Mastodon is decentralized and open source, and individual server admins are very active with moderation. We put lots of effort into reporting CSAM, death threats, and other illegal material.
https://news.yahoo.com/discord-prime-ground-online-rebels-165903041.html
I will not deny that there are problematic Fediverse servers that exist.
You know what's funny? Most of them aren't Mastodon. Instead they typically use Pleroma with a Rebased or Soapbox front-end.
But that's neither here nor there because, yes, problematic Fediverse servers do indeed exist. When I see them, I report them on Fediblock -- and urge everyone else to de-federate.
Most Fediverse server admins are doing more for community safety than Discord Inc.
I agree, I do feel it is safer here, we have the tools / means to block abusive accounts or even servers fully, or just mute for a period of time, and as you mention the ability to report concerns.
Given the recent Intel leak in the US was to a Discord room called Thug Shaker Central, could say something too.
We know WhatsApp was popular with the MET police for sharing mysogomy and other abuse, Twitter is now so out of control they seem to admit it is no longer safe.
I think the most important thing we have done, is admit we are not perfect, rather than pretending everything is fine. We can't elimiate abuse, we can just help users stay safer.