Backdating of postings possible

[diesocke]

Describe the bug
I found several postings with publishing dates that were obviously backdated.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Have a look at https://bsky.app/search?q=until%3A2020-01-01

Expected behavior
There should be no postings prior to October 4th, 2021. It seems, the protocol is somewhat buggy that a manipulation like this is possible.

[Tamschi]

(The search link is broken, the correct one is https://bsky.app/search?q=until%3A2020-01-01.)

Many of these are caused by people importing their Twitter archives, which to me is a feature.

That said, the AppView and frontend should indicate if a post was first seen much later (or earlier) than the date it specifies.
I think most users expect timestamps on social media to be trustworthy, which could cause some issues eventually.

[bnewbold]

This is a frequently discussed topic!

The current behavior is known and documented, though it continues to be debated. Some folks would like to add "verified" timestamps, using existing technical solutions and standards, but there are practical concerns generating and verifying these at scale.

You can read more in the docs: https://docs.bsky.app/docs/advanced-guides/timestamps

Or search around in github or in the Bluesky app itself for previous discussion threads.

[Tamschi]

I just found out about Backdated post labeller randomly.
That seems nice, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be to do this reliably enough to make such post badges visible by default.