Report offensive messages

PubNub provides a mechanism for users to report offensive content in messages directly from their applications. A moderator can then fetch these flagged messages from storage and either delete them or take appropriate action against the users who sent the messages.

Flag Messages

Use the addMessageAction method to add a flag as an action to a published message. The flag is stored and linked to the original message, so you can see if messages are flagged or not when you fetch them from storage.

JavaScript

pubnub.addMessageAction(
  {
    channel: 'ch-1'
    messageTimetoken: '15610547826970040',
    action: {
      type: 'flagged',
      value: 'message is inappropriate',
    },
  },
  function(status, response) {

  }
);

Swift

extension MyAppMessageAction: MessageAction {}

let action = MyAppMessageAction(type: "flagged", value: "message is inappropriate")

pubnub.addMessageAction(
  channel: "ch-1",
  message: action,
  messageTimetoken: 15610547826969050
) { result in
  switch result {
  case let .success(response):
    print("Successfully Message Action Add Response: \(response)")
  case let .failure(error):
    print("Error from failed response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
  }

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Java

pubnub.addMessageAction()
    .channel("ch-1")
    .messageAction(new PNMessageAction()
            .setType("flagged")
            .setValue("message is inappropriate")
            .setMessageTimetoken(15701761818730000L)
    )
    .async(new PNCallback<PNAddMessageActionResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNAddMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) {
            if (!status.isError()) {
                System.out.println(result.getType());
                System.out.println(result.getValue());
                System.out.println(result.getUuid());
                System.out.println(result.getActionTimetoken());

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Unity

MessageActionAdd messageAct = new MessageActionAdd();
messageAct.ActionType = "flagged";
messageAct.ActionValue = "message is inappropriate";

pubnub.AddMessageActions().Channel("ch-1").MessageAction(messageAct).MessageTimetoken(15701761818730000).Async((result, status) => {
        if (!status.Error) {
            Debug.Log("result.ActionTimetoken: " + result.ActionTimetoken);
            Debug.Log("result.ActionType: " + result.ActionType);
            Debug.Log("result.ActionValue: " + result.ActionValue);
            Debug.Log("result.MessageTimetoken: " + result.MessageTimetoken);
            Debug.Log("result.UUID: " + result.UUID);
        } else {
            Debug.Log(status.Error);
            Debug.Log(status.ErrorData.Info);
        }

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Unflag Messages

Use the removeMessageAction method to remove a flag from a message.

JavaScript

pubnub.removeMessageAction(
{
    channel: 'ch-1'
    messageTimetoken: '15610547826970040',
    actionTimetoken: '15610547826970040',
},
function(status, response) {
}
);

Swift

pubnub.removeMessageActions(
  channel: "ch-1",
  message: 15610547826969050,
  action: 15610547826970050
) { result in
  switch result {
  case let .success(response):
    print("Successfully Message Action Remove Response: \(response)")
  case let .failure(error):
    print("Error from failed response: \(error.localizedDescription)")
  }
})

Java

pubnub.removeMessageAction()
    .channel("ch-1")
    .messageTimetoken(15701761818730000L)
    .actionTimetoken(15701775691010000L)
    .async(new PNCallback<PNRemoveMessageActionResult>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(PNRemoveMessageActionResult result, PNStatus status) {
            if (!status.isError()) {
                // result has no actionable data
                // it's enough to check if the status itself is not an error
            } else {
                status.getErrorData().getThrowable().printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    });

Unity

pubnub.RemoveMessageActions().ActionTimetoken(15701775691010000).Channel("ch-1").MessageTimetoken(15701761818730000).Async((result, status) => {
        if (!status.Error) {
            // result has no actionable data
        } else {
            Debug.Log(status.Error);
            Debug.Log(status.ErrorData.Info);
        }
});

Flagging Events

PubNub triggers events when flags are added or removed. Users that are subscribed to channels will receive these events.

Message action added:

{
   "channel":"my_channel",
   "subscription":null,
   "timetoken":"15871508399473609",
   "publisher":"user-1",
   "message":{
      "source":"actions",
      "version":"1.0",
      "action":"added",
      "data":{
         "type":"flagged",
         "value":"message is inappropriate",
         "messageTimetoken":"15632184115444390",
         "actionTimetoken":"15632184115444394"
      }

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Message action removed:

{
   "channel":"my_channel",
   "subscription":null,
   "timetoken":"15871508399473609",
   "publisher":"user-1",
   "message":{
      "source":"actions",
      "version":"1.0",
      "action":"removed",
      "data":{
         "type":"flagged",
         "value":"message is inappropriate",
         "messageTimetoken":"15632184115444390",
         "actionTimetoken":"15632184115444394"
      }

show all 17 lines