(Adapted from Vasco's original proposal)
Introduction
The Bad Bits Denylist is a public list of hashed Content Identifiers (CIDs) that have been flagged for various reasons, such as copyright violations, malware, and other forms of abuse.
This list helps IPFS node operators —such as public IPFS gateway providers—choose to opt out of serving content flagged as problematic by other authorities or services.
IPIP-383 took the first step on decentralizing content moderation in IPFS setups. However, the only list being published in this IPIP-383 format is the output of the current takedown process centralized under Protocol Labs, requiring manual review via email or Google Form submissions. This process lacks transparency, is prone to inefficiencies, and does not scale with the growing needs of the IPFS ecosystem. Currently, error messages (on any gateway) refer the requester of a taken-down CID to this central process, so while multi-list functionality is already live, no other lists are available on denyli.st or in IPFS documentation/tutorials.
Waiting for organic demand is not enough to spread the responsibility and service burden to non-PL-operated gateways. Facilitating the development of multiple lists and weening people off of status quo (total dependence on a single list) require some incentivization and investment in the community.