xeps/xep-0377.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE xep SYSTEM 'xep.dtd' [
  <!ENTITY % ents SYSTEM 'xep.ent'>
%ents;
]>
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='xep.xsl'?>
<xep>
<header>
  <title>Spam Reporting</title>
  <abstract>
    This document specifies a mechanism by which users can report spam and other
    abuse to a server operator or other spam service.
  </abstract>
  &LEGALNOTICE;
  <number>0377</number>
  <status>Experimental</status>
  <type>Standards Track</type>
  <sig>Standards</sig>
  <approver>Council</approver>
  <dependencies>
    <spec>XMPP Core</spec>
    <spec>XMPP IM</spec>
    <spec>XEP-0191</spec>
  </dependencies>
  <supersedes/>
  <supersededby/>
  <shortname>NOT_YET_ASSIGNED</shortname>
  &sam;
  <revision>
    <version>0.3</version>
    <date>2021-06-21</date>
    <initials>ssw</initials>
    <remark>Rework based on list feedback.</remark>
  </revision>
  <revision>
    <version>0.2</version>
    <date>2017-09-11</date>
    <initials>XEP Editor (jwi)</initials>
    <remark>Defer due to lack of activity.</remark>
  </revision>
  <revision>
    <version>0.1.0</version>
    <date>2016-05-25</date>
    <initials>ssw</initials>
    <remark><p>Initial version approved by the Council.</p></remark>
  </revision>
  <revision>
    <version>0.0.1</version>
    <date>2016-05-21</date>
    <initials>ssw</initials>
    <remark><p>First draft.</p></remark>
  </revision>
</header>
<section1 topic='Introduction' anchor='intro'>
  <p>
    Many spam and abuse prevention techniques rely on users being able to report
    other users who are sending unwanted messages, or specific instances of
    abuse.
    &xep0191; allows users to block spammers, but does not provide a mechanism
    for them to report a reason for the block to the server operator.
    This specification extends the blocking command to optionally provide an
    abuse report.
  </p>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Background' anchor='background'>
  <p>
    This document extends the blocking command instead of providing a separate
    reporting IQ because we hypothesize that this will slightly lower the levels
    of false reports received by service operators.
    We have observed a common pattern on the internet where a user becomes mad
    at or disagrees with another user and begins harassing them by replying to
    or reporting their every comment even if it is not itself spam or abusive.
    However, this sort of behavior cannot continue if the harasser can no longer
    read the messages of the person they are stalking.
    Giving them a choice between their abusive behavior and being able to
    read their targets can possibly force them to break the cycle and only
    create valid reports.
  </p>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Discovering Support' anchor='disco'>
  <p>
    Entities that support &xep0030; and abuse reporting using the blocking
    command as defined in this spec MUST respond to service discovery requests
    with a feature of 'urn:xmpp:reporting:1'.
    Support for this namespace also indicates support for the abuse reporting
    reasons defined in this document.
    For example, a response from a server that supports reporting and
    understands the abuse and spam reasons defined later in this specification
    might look like the following:
  </p>
  <example caption="Service discovery information response"><![CDATA[
<iq from='example.net'
    id='ku6e51v3'
    to='kingclaudius@example.net/castle'
    type='result'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info'>
    <feature var='urn:xmpp:reporting:1'/>
    …
  </query>
</iq>]]></example>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Payload' anchor='payload'>
  <p>
    The payload for reporting abuse to the server takes the form of a
    &lt;report/&gt; qualified by the 'urn:xmpp:reporting:1' namespace &VNOTE;.
  </p>
  <example caption='The most basic report payload'><![CDATA[
<report xmlns="urn:xmpp:reporting:1" reason="urn:xmpp:reporting:spam"/>]]></example>
  <p>
    Abuse reports MUST include a reason for the report in the "reason" attribute.
  </p>
  <p>
    This document defines the following reasons for a report:
  </p>
  <dl>
    <di>
      <dt>urn:xmpp:reporting:spam</dt>
      <dd>Used for reporting a JID that is sending unwanted messages.</dd>
    </di>
    <di>
      <dt>urn:xmpp:reporting:abuse</dt>
      <dd>Used for reporting general abuse.</dd>
    </di>
  </dl>
  <p>
    Reports MAY contain a user provided message explaining or providing context
    about the reason for the report.
    See also the <link url='#i18n'>Internationalization Considerations</link>
    section of this document.
  </p>
  <example caption='Report with optional reason and text'><![CDATA[
<report xmlns="urn:xmpp:reporting:1" reason="urn:xmpp:reporting:spam">
  <text xml:lang="en">
    Never came trouble to my house like this.
  </text>
</report>]]></example>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Use with the Blocking Command' anchor='blocking'>
  <p>
    To send a report, a report payload MAY be inserted into an &lt;item/&gt;
    node sent as part of a request to block a spammer as defined in &xep0191;.
    For example:
  </p>
  <example caption='Report sent with blocking command'><![CDATA[
<iq from='juliet@example.com/chamber' type='set' id='block1'>
  <block xmlns='urn:xmpp:blocking'>
    <item jid='romeo@example.net'>
      <report xmlns="urn:xmpp:reporting:1" reason="urn:xmpp:reporting:abuse"/>
    </item>
  </block>
</iq>]]></example>
  <p>
    Servers that receive a blocking command with a report MUST block the JID or
    return an error just as they would if no report were present.
    Servers then MAY take other actions based on the report, however, such
    actions are outside the scope of this document.
  </p>
  <p>
    If the server supports &xep0313; the report MAY also include the stanza-id
    of specific messages being reported.
    This is done by including copies of each &lt;stanza-id/&gt; element that the
    user wishes to report as a child of the &lt;report/&gt; element.
    The stanza indicated by the provided stanza-id SHOULD be by the same JID
    being reported and blocked.
  </p>
  <example caption='Report sent with stanza IDs'><![CDATA[
<iq from='juliet@example.com/chamber' type='set' id='block1'>
  <block xmlns='urn:xmpp:blocking'>
    <item jid='romeo@example.net'>
      <report xmlns="urn:xmpp:reporting:1" reason="urn:xmpp:reporting:spam">
        <stanza-id xmlns='urn:xmpp:sid:0' by='romeo@example.net' id='28482-98726-73623'/>
        <stanza-id xmlns='urn:xmpp:sid:0' by='romeo@example.net' id='38383-38018-18385'/>
        <text xml:lang="en">
          Never came trouble to my house like this.
        </text>
      </report>
    </item>
  </block>
</iq>]]></example>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Implementation Notes' anchor='impl'>
  <p>
    Clients that support sending reports as part of the blocking command SHOULD
    expose interfaces to both block a JID without reporting it as abuse, and to
    block and report a JID.
  </p>
  <p>
    The blocking command may be used to block multiple JIDs at the same time.
    When blocking multiple JIDs any abuse report only applies to a single JID.
    If the client allows selecting multiple JIDs in an abuse reporting dialog
    they SHOULD also allow choosing a separate reason, text, and messages for
    each JID.
    They MAY choose to only allow reporting a single JID at a time as well when
    the "block and report" dialog is accessed, and multiple JIDs when the
    "block" dialog is accessed.
  </p>
</section1>
<section1 topic='Internationalization Considerations' anchor='i18n'>
  <p>
    If one or more &lt;text/&gt; elements are present they SHOULD include
    'xml:lang' attributes specifying the natural language of the XML character
    data.
  </p>
</section1>
  <section1 topic='Security Considerations' anchor='security'>
    <p>
      This document introduces no additional security considerations above and
      beyond those defined in the documents on which it depends.
    </p>
  </section1>
  <section1 topic='IANA Considerations' anchor='iana'>
    <p>This document requires no interaction with &IANA;.</p>
  </section1>
  <section1 topic='XMPP Registrar Considerations' anchor='registrar'>
    <section2 topic='Protocol Namespaces' anchor='registrar-ns'>
      <p>This specification defines the following XML namespace:</p>
      <ul>
        <li>urn:xmpp:reporting:1</li>
      </ul>
      <p>
        Upon advancement of this specification from a status of Experimental to
        a status of Draft, the &REGISTRAR; shall add the foregoing namespace to
        the registry located at &DISCOFEATURES;, as described in Section 4 of
        &xep0053;.
      </p>
    </section2>
    <section2 topic='Namespace Versioning' anchor='registrar-versioning'>
      &NSVER;
    </section2>
    <section2 topic='Abuse Reporting Registry' anchor='registrar-reporting'>
      <p>
        The XMPP Registrar shall maintain a registry of abuse report reasons.
        All abuse report reason registrations shall be defined in separate
        specifications (not in this document). Application types defined within
        the XEP series MUST be registered with the XMPP Registrar, resulting in
        protocol URNs representing the reason.
      </p>
      &REGPROCESS;
      <code>
<![CDATA[<reason>
  <name>The human-readable name of the abuse report reason.</name>
  <feature>URN representing the reason.</feature>
  <desc>A natural-language summary of the reason.</desc>
  <doc>
    The document in which the report reason is specified.
  </doc>
</reason>]]></code>
    </section2>
    <section2 topic='Abuse Reporting Reasons' anchor='registrar-reasons'>
      <p>This specification defines the following abuse reporting reasons:</p>
      <ul>
        <li>urn:xmpp:reporting:spam</li>
        <li>urn:xmpp:reporting:abuse</li>
      </ul>
      <p>
        Upon advancement of this specification from a status of Experimental to
        a status of Draft, the &REGISTRAR; shall add the following definition to
        the abuse reporting reasons registry, as described in this document:
      </p>
      <code><![CDATA[
<reason>
  <name>spam</name>
  <feature>urn:xmpp:reporting:spam</feature>
  <desc>Used to report a JID that was sending spam messages.</desc>
  <doc>XEP-0377</doc>
</reason>]]></code>
      <code><![CDATA[
<reason>
  <name>abuse</name>
  <feature>urn:xmpp:reporting:abuse</feature>
  <desc>Used to report general abuse that is not covered by a more specific reason.</desc>
  <doc>XEP-0377</doc>
</reason>]]></code>
    </section2>
  </section1>
  <section1 topic='XML Schema' anchor='schema'>
    <p>
      An XML schema will be added before this specification moves to draft
      status.
    </p>
  </section1>
  <section1 topic='Acknowledgements' anchor='acknowledgements'>
    <p>
      Thanks to the participants of the XMPP Summit 20 in Austin, TX who
      discussed this XEP: specifically to Waqas Hussain, Kevin Smith, Lance
      Stout, and Matthew Wild. A special thanks to Daniel Wisnewski for giving
      the presentation that kicked off the anti-abuse work.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thanks also (in no particular order) to Jonas Wielicki, Georg Lukas,
      Daniel Gultsch, and Matthew Wild for their feedback.
    </p>
  </section1>
</xep>