Updated 22 October 2026
Roles and moderation
Give people the right permissions, keep conversations on track, and understand how moderation decisions take effect.
Roles decide who can do what in a workspace or server. Moderation tools keep conversations healthy.
Roles#
| Role | Can |
|---|---|
| Admin | Manage the workspace or server, its channels, roles, members and plan |
| Moderator | Remove any message, pin and unpin, remove or ban members |
| Member | Read and post in the channels they belong to |
| Viewer | Read without posting |
Roles, moderation and the admin console come with Team, Growth and Scale for workspaces. Community servers include moderation tools.
Moderation actions#
- Delete any message: the message is hidden for everyone straight away.
- Pin and unpin: keep important messages at the top of a channel.
- Remove or ban: takes effect immediately for that person.
- Channel restrictions (such as making a channel read-only) take effect after a short grace period, so everyone's apps agree on the change.
How decisions are recorded#
Moderation actions are signed by the moderator and recorded like messages. Every member's app works out the same result from the same history, so there's no hidden "admin override" on a server somewhere.
A message someone has already seen is never silently erased from their screen by a later decision. It stays visible and is labelled.
Private channels and bans#
When someone is removed from a private channel or group, its encryption keys change. They keep anything they already received, but can't read new messages.
Komms