In the wake of instability issues with Twitter, many users were searching for alternatives to the social media platform. Several apps have gained prominence in that area, particularly among creatives. Bluesky, Threads, and Spill have all emerged as leaders in that space.
However, on July 12, 2023 a major problem with Bluesky’s platform was revealed: Users flocked to the app’s report feature to describe incidents where the n-word was included in several usernames, Engadget reports.
Bluesky had no moderation protocol for usernames, which allowed any users to set names featuring the n-word if they so wished. Bluesky’s response was delayed, and the company framed it as a one-off “mistake” as opposed to a serious oversight.
In a post to its official Bluesky account, the social media platform explained its side: “On Wednesday, users reported an account that had a slur as its handle. This handle was in violation of our community guidelines, and it was our mistake that allowed it to be created. Forty minutes after it was reported, the account was taken down, and the code that allowed this to occur was patched.”
It appears that the company did not take the reports seriously until a LinkedIn post went viral. Scott Hirleman, the host of the Data Mesh podcast on Spotify, took to his account to blast the company for not erecting the most basic of standards for their users.
Calling out the company’s lack of investment in trust and safety, Hirleman wrote in part: “If you don’t want to run a social media platform, split the company in twain and go focus on the protocol and fund the platform with another team that cares. Or do you not care about marginalized groups?”
Anti-Blackness in the tech space has been a problem for years, with some tying it to a lack of diversity in not only employment but in the leadership space. The most recent numbers available place Black employment percentage at 7% while white and Asian employment sit at 63% and 20%, respectively.
These numbers reflect a complete disinterest in diversity, which reflects in how Black users of these platforms experience their digital lives. In Elon Musk’s tenure as the leader of Twitter, he has emboldened neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. A platform already slow to ban white supremacists has become its biggest enabler under Musk’s leadership.
“Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, it has become not only a safe space for hate, especially antisemitism, but also a vector for its spread,” Sacha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of Combat Antisemitism Movement, told NewsDirect. “Many white supremacists and other extremists have perceived it as a place where there is permission to incite, and even a single tweet from someone like Nick Fuentes or Ye has to the power to sow seeds of hate for years to come.”