[docs] Add implementation notes for report (Flag) functionality (#1324)

* add implementation notes for reports * add note on Friendica
2024-12-22 02:02:12 +00:00 · 2023-05-13 15:01:41 +02:00 · 2023-05-13 15:01:41 +02:00 · 1d8dec3998
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+# Reports / Flag Activity Federation
+
+This document contains design notes for GoToSocial's federated (s2s) Flag functionality.
+
+## What do existing implementations do?
+
+Information below is true as of Jan 2023. If you're reading this much later, the below things may no longer apply.
+
+### Mastodon
+
+Mastodon uses the Flag activity to federate reports to other AP servers.
+
+The Activity is wrapped inside a Create, which is addressed To the Inbox of the offending account.
+
+To preserve anonymity of the reporter, the instance Actor is used as the Actor of the Activity.
+
+Examples of the unwrapped Flag:
+
+```json
+{
+  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
+  "actor": "https://example.org/actor",
+  "content": "misinfo: it's not a good morning",
+  "id": "https://example.org/341e866f-93f8-4755-9cf4-f8fb17f434fd",
+  "object": [
+    "https://bad.instance/users/tobi",
+    "https://bad.instance/users/tobi/statuses/01GP388K19DGXSV3SW2RXWM533"
+  ],
+  "type": "Flag"
+}
+```
+
+```json
+{
+  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
+  "actor": "https://example.org/actor",
+  "content": "smellyyyyyyyyyyyyy",
+  "id": "https://example.org/3088184f-81b2-4545-8ce2-4cee4895449f",
+  "object": "https://bad.instance/users/tobi",
+  "type": "Flag"
+}
+```
+
+The `content` field contains the report description.
+
+The `object` field contains the reported Account URI and optionally one or more Note/Article/etc URIs. `object` value will be a string if just the Account URI is reported, or an array if the Account and one or more posts are being reported.
+
+The `id` field is a generic URI that doesn't reveal any metadata. Trying to GET this URI gives a 404 Not Found error, which is OK since all the info needed to process the report is included in the Activity already.
+
+### Misskey
+
+Misskey uses the Flag activity to federate reports to other AP servers.
+
+The Activity is wrapped inside a Create, which is addressed To the Inbox of the offending account.
+
+To preserve anonymity of the reporter, the instance Actor is used as the Actor of the Activity.
+
+Example of the unwrapped Flag:
+
+```json
+{
+  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
+  "actor": "https://example.org/users/909i45meeo",
+  "content": "Note: https://bad.instance/@tobi/statuses/01GPB56GPJ37JTK9HW308HQKBQ\n-----\nincites anti-police behaviour while being cute! ⛔",
+  "id": "https://example.org/db22128d-884e-4358-9935-6a7c3940535d",
+  "object": "https://bad.instance/users/tobi",
+  "type": "Flag"
+}
+```
+
+The `content` field contains the report description. Unlike with Mastodon, `content` also seems to include one or more statuses, as opposed to including statuses in the `object` field.
+
+The `object` field contains the reported Account URI.
+
+Trying to dereference the `id` field for a Misskey report with `Accept: application/activity+json` gives a 200 OK, but the returned content is some HTML unrelated to the report, so functionally equivalent to Mastodon's 404 behavior. Again, this is not really a problem.
+
+### Calckey
+
+Same as Misskey. Example:
+
+```json
+{
+  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
+  "actor": "https://example.org/users/97wsu4gkns",
+  "content": "Note: https://bad.instance/@tobi/statuses/01GPB56GPJ37JTK9HW308HQKBQ\n-----\nTest report from Calckey",
+  "id": "https://example.org/b9a02404-d007-4b31-8dd6-bfc53387ad85",
+  "object": "https://bad.instance/users/tobi",
+  "type": "Flag"
+}
+```
+
+### Pleroma / Akkoma
+
+todo
+
+### Friendica
+
+Unsure: Friendica and GoToSocial still don't federate properly with one another (https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues/169) so it's hard to test this.
+
+## What should GoToSocial do?
+
+Since the above implementations of Flag seem fairly consistent, GoToSocial should do more or less the same thing when federating reports outwards. So GtS ought to adopt the Mastodon behavior:
+
+- Wrap Flag Activity in a Create and deliver it to the offending account.
+- Use the GtS instance Actor as the Actor of the Flag.
+- Generate an ID that doesn't reveal who created the report.
+- Include Actor and one or more Note / Article / etc URIs in the `object` field
+
+For incoming reports, all the above fields should be handled in order to generate a report for admins to look at.