Bluesky labels and content warnings
Bluesky lets you label your own posts so that people see them only if they have chosen to. Getting it right every time is what keeps an account in good standing.
What a label is
A label is a small piece of metadata attached to a post or an account that says what kind of content it carries. Bluesky's app reads the label and each person's own settings and decides whether to show the post, show it behind a warning, or hide it. Labels come from two places: the author, who can self-label a post when writing it, and moderation services, which can apply labels to posts and accounts they review.
The self-labels you can set
When writing a post with media, Bluesky's composer offers a set of content labels for the post's images or video, covering suggestive, nudity and sexual content, and a separate graphic media label. You choose the one that fits, and the post carries it from the moment it goes out. A label that does not fit is worse than useful: it hides the post from people who would have been fine seeing it, or fails to hide it from people who would not.
What different people see
| Their setting | What they see | In feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Show | The post as normal | Included |
| Warn | The post behind a warning they can tap through | Included, behind the warning |
| Hide | Nothing | Left out |
| Signed out, or under the age settings | Nothing | Left out |
Since Bluesky's age assurance changes in the UK, people who have not verified their age cannot switch labelled content on, so a labelled post reaches a smaller UK audience than it did. That is a reason to measure by country and by label, not a reason to leave a label off.
Account-level labels and moderation services
Moderation services (Bluesky's own and independent ones people can subscribe to) can label a whole account as well as a single post. An account that repeatedly posts unlabelled content that needed a label is the commonest way to earn one. Each person chooses which services they subscribe to and what each label does for them, so the same post can be visible to one person and hidden from another.
Labelling every post without thinking about it
The mistake that causes most trouble is not the wrong label; it is the missing one, on the post written at midnight from a phone. The fix is a default. In Updrift's Planner, "Label posts with images" is a setting per account: once it is on, every post from that account that carries an image or a video goes out with the label you chose, and the composer shows the label on the post before you schedule it. A single post can still be changed, and a post without media carries no label. The safety rules on every Updrift plan also mean an account that labels its posts is only ever shown to people who chose to see labelled content.
Labels and your figures
A label changes who can see a post, so it changes the figures. Compare labelled and unlabelled posts against your own usual rather than against each other in raw numbers. Updrift's What works report does this for an account that labels its posts, alongside format, length, hashtags and timing.
Content warnings in text
Bluesky has no separate text content warning. The convention is a first line that says what the post is about, with the detail below a fold of blank lines or in a reply, so people can choose whether to read on. It is manners, not enforcement, and it is respected.
Questions
What happens if I forget to label a post?
Other people can report it and Bluesky's moderation service can apply a label for you, which counts against the account. A per-account default that labels every post with an image is the safest setting for an account that needs labels.
Who sees a labelled post?
People who have set the matching content preference to Show see it as normal. Those set to Warn see it behind a warning they can tap through. Those set to Hide never see it, and it is left out of feeds that respect the setting.
Can I label a post after it has gone out?
Not by editing it; Bluesky posts cannot be edited. Delete and repost with the label. Better to set the default so it never happens.
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