A Speck in the Eye: Bluesky’s White Supremacy Problem
Please visit Gaza Funds for a list of campaigns to help Gazans:
www.gazafunds.com / x.com/gazafunds /www.instagram.com/gaza.funds / @gazafunds.bsky.social
Thread of Palestinian GFMs that have not met their goals: https://x.com/cowboylikezain/status/1795789203571151210
Thread of Sudanese GFMs: https://x.com/Rawansalah__/status/1784973935269884407
Thread of initiatives to support Sudan: https://x.com/saroyahx/status/1771956699089273061
Update 5/29/2024: I had used a screenshot of a post I saw on Aaron’s feed criticizing the labelling system. I had no idea that the OP had a history of transphobia and anti-black racism and simply thought that Aaron’s response needed to be showcased. I deleted the quote and stand by everything else.
From what I’ve seen, Bluesky didn’t really gain traction organically, but rather as a direct alternative to another collapsing social media website. I’ve seen countless people with “Twitter refugee” in their bios as people sought to distance themselves from Elon Musk as he made X, formerly Twitter, his newest playground to spread his vitriol. For many, his desperate grabs to monetize Twitter, coupled with the restoration of racist accounts and an attempted rollback of anti-disinformation policies, had a domino effect. There was also undeniably a certain pattern of engagement there, even amongst relatively like-minded people. There came a point where repeated cycles of discourse began to feel like they were being manufactured deliberately just to get a rise out of people. On the flip side of that, though, there were moments where Twitter reminded me of Tumblr, which I had migrated from after Yahoo acquired it. It was a great way to connect with other fans of my favorite shows and sports teams — not to mention Black Twitter. If white people were being out of pocket on the Bird App, best believe they were packed up by Black Twitter by the end of the night. I had my main account for almost 10 years, and deleted after accuring over 1,000 followers. I didn’t think I would regret it as much as I do. BlackSky is by far one of my favorite aspects of Bluesky, but leaving the feed is usually a mistake that sends my blood pressure soaring. Bluesky has a peculiar form of white supremacy ingrained that I personally did not experience on Twitter. There are no Community Notes on Bluesky, and the website is so small that you can block someone and still see their hidden posts on a regular basis. White and western supremacy are the guiding force behind Trust and Safety’s approach to moderation, which ultimately makes the website unsafe for all.
Two months ago, around March/April, Aaron Rodericks became head of Bluesky’s Trust and Safety team. His arrival came in the middle of the first point of contention: the lists feature. Lists were, on the surface, meant to allow the community to self-moderate. You can make lists, add people to them, and have other people subscribe. I used them to keep up with people who didn’t post frequently, or to have my favorite scholars all in one place. However, I quickly became wary of the feature as a whole when I saw how disastrous abuses thereof could be. People were being labelled as everything from Russia apologists to pedophiles, frequently without merit.
White supremacists have been using this feature to their advantage. Seasoned, popular accounts, sometimes dubbed “Bluesky Elders”, began using it as a tool to terrorize people with smaller followings who they’d had problems with at an interpersonal level. Things really hit the fan for me when friend of mine, a Black transfemme, was put on a list by someone who had not only never interacted with her, but claimed that they were out to protect Black people. The list was a catch-all for pedophiles, transphobes, anti-Blackness, and people who had generally fucked up in the eyes of the creator. As a CSA survivor, I was outraged and deeply offended. It seemed like a severe trivialization to put alleged criminals and annoying people on the same list. I didn’t understand why someone would make a list accusing someone of a literal felony with no receipts instead of reporting it to the appropriate authorities. Indeed, the list creator later admitted to their own error.
My friend had been cut off from community and from mutual aid because one person glanced at an interaction and decided it posed enough of a threat that 8,000 people had to be alerted. I also didn’t understand why a Black person would suggest that another Black person was dangerous to Black people, to a room full of white people. It invited white people to do the same, and it is in no way acceptable for white people to presume that they can accuse Black people of being anti-Black.
I interacted with Aaron about this. I didn’t think he would offer anything of substance, and I was right. But I also didn’t anticipate Bluesky becoming even worse by entering Zionist territory.
Since October 7th, Palestinians have fought for their lives against an unimaginable evil. I am grateful for each and every person in Palestine who takes the time and energy to use social media and keep us updated, especially since many of them do not speak English on a regular basis. As the occupation’s assaults intensify, many Palestinians have been posting frequently online to make their mutual aid posts visible. This includes tagging and responding to popular people who have thousands of followers. This was the case when Abdul (@sonofnoor2.bsky.social, gofundme here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-noor-hassan-and-her-family) tried to circulate his gofundme in the replies of Bluesky team member Paul Frazee, who has upwards of 50,000 followers. Within 20 minutes, Abdul’s account was labelled spam, and his posts and replies were hidden for anyone who used Bluesky’s native moderation tool.
A few days later, Emad (emadmoh.bsky.social) received an email threatening him with the same thing (his gofundme is here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Palestine-wants-to-live-in-security-and-peace?member=31955589). Bluesky Elders almost immediately weighed in, suggesting that Abdul was a possible scammer despite the online presence of him and his mother, Noor, and the input from multiple people who had spoken to them on the phone or elsewhere. Others might beg to differ, but the fallout from this reminded me of something that Elon Musk would do. Aaron Rodericks defended the absolute cruelty of cutting off Abdul’s access to mutual aid, calling his mentions a “dumpster fire” after the justified outrage.
During the fallout of Abdul’s account being labelled, Wolf (@habibiwolf) was suspended, which many suspect is for saying “I hope you fall off a cliff”.
Those aware of their suspension believe this was regarded as a death threat despite the fact that hoping for something isn’t a threat, and that you can fall off of a cliff and live.
People continued to overstep the reality that a Palestinian young man’s mutual aid links were flagged as spam.
As of today, Wolf has not actually been contacted by Bluesky about their suspension:
I have no idea why I was suspended or banned. No one sent me an email saying what the reason was.I also have sent them a message 3 times over 2 days via two different modalities and have not gotten a response. How are you gonna tell Arabic speakers to appeal a label when you don’t even offer Arabic as an option AND you don’t even respond to English speaking messages? If people can’t see the hypocrisy and double standards in me saying “I hope you fall off a cliff” to a rich man in Ireland vs him choosing openly to silence a member of a Palestinian family in Gaza then I do not know what will make them see.
After the attack on Rafah, a purported “mistake” by Netanyahu, another user was censored for “threats” against the unabashed genocidaire.
Mind you, the person who wished a sustained power outage on a Al Aqsa Hospital is still posting.
*TRIGGER WARNING*
In a display of harrowing laziness, Aaron suggests that users also consider aegis.blue, a user-run labeller that utilizes therapy speak in its haphazard approach to website moderation. For an idea of some of the monstrous and racist viewpoints espoused by those mods, this sums it up:
Kairi isn’t alone in her hatefulness. Some of her peers feel that this situation warrants the creation of memes while also leaning into their own marginalizations to justify their white supremacy:
Let it be known that Abdul and his mother Noor’s gofundme has protected donations. If for whatever reason they aren’t who they say they are, donors are guaranteed refunds.
In Greek mythology, the aegis is a shield carried by Zeus and Athena, featuring the head of Medusa. Etymologically, aigis may have roots in the word aigis, meaning “storm” or, of interest to me, “speck in the eye”. Aegis is a pretty big speck, with arbitrary labels “bad-selfies”, “based”, and “beans”.
Aegis.blue’s documentation openly admits that the range of coverage is restricted to the issues that westerners are most invested in, and for many white people, that’s just fine. Everything else is a speck in the eye.
I’m not purporting to have solutions to Bluesky’s thinly veiled white supremacy problem. But it’s interesting to see how the platform capitalized on the anti-Elon sentiment, only to foster a community with baked-in bigotry that harnesses the language of trust and safety. What I know for sure is that we need not wonder any longer how the Jewish Holocaust would have played out in the age of social media: we’re living it.
Please visit Gaza Funds for a list of campaigns to help Gazans:
Twitter/X: x.com/gazafunds
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gaza.funds
Bluesky: @gazafunds.bsky.social
Here is a direct link to my friend Jamal’s gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sspqf-10k-run-for-gaza. Others can be found in-text above.
