Content only gets stored on your local server if a local user downloads it by viewing it before the message or the original content gets deleted. Separately, you can block abusive servers manually if needed (e.g. https://element-hq.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/configurat...).
For instance, this is better than email, where if someone sends you email with abusive attachments, it'll end up hitting your mail spool and likely your imap server whatever.
That said, agreed that moderation and anti-abuse tooling is fragmented currently, and we're working away on improving it. Recently a lot of time got taken on authenticated media (to make it much harder to distribute abusive content): https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/26/sunsetting-unauthenticate... but the top priority for The Matrix.org Foundation is to improve the anti-abuse situation (by securing funding for more folks to work on it).
For instance, this is better than email, where if someone sends you email with abusive attachments, it'll end up hitting your mail spool and likely your imap server whatever.
That said, agreed that moderation and anti-abuse tooling is fragmented currently, and we're working away on improving it. Recently a lot of time got taken on authenticated media (to make it much harder to distribute abusive content): https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/26/sunsetting-unauthenticate... but the top priority for The Matrix.org Foundation is to improve the anti-abuse situation (by securing funding for more folks to work on it).