Chanda Prescod-WeinsteinNov 23, 2022

Just briefly logged into mastodon and my mentions are mostly people debating my experiences here and whether I was entitled to tweet about them, and I just want to say, I was called slurs for days by people on *other instances* and received a death threat saying that they would do to me what was done to Emmett Till.

Anyone discussing any of this like *I* did something wrong, including by talking about it, is a fucking dipshit.

Have a fabulous fucking day.

Show threadChanda Prescod-WeinsteinNov 23, 2022

I’m disgusted that protecting the reputation of the platform is more important to some people — including some Black people, what the actual fuck — than making sure people are safe, physically and emotionally.

That’s some nasty shit.

And to the “it’s just growing pains/join the right instance” crowd: Black people shouldn’t need a fucking Green Book to navigate the physical or virtual world.

Show threadChanda Prescod-WeinsteinNov 23, 2022
But I hope everyone’s happy, I’ve said it here! Yay 😵‍💫
Show threadChanda Prescod-WeinsteinNov 23, 2022
It’s easy for a bunch of people to sit around and theorize about growing pains when you’re not the one who has to wonder about what that noise is outside your house
Show threadThe Other EconomistNov 23, 2022
@chanda it is not growing pains. Vile people seem to migrate everywhere. It is difficult to police unless it is policed in the real world. A decentralized system is guaranteed to have unenforceable rules. There just has to be one domain willing to let them pass either because they agree with them or they are understaffed as this is run by volunteers. As a planet, we need a better thought out virtual world.
Show threadjhambyNov 23, 2022

@economics @chanda You said it better than I could.

Dr. Prescod-Weinstein, you're probably not going to have the experiences you're looking for here, because people on the general Internet are awful and the real world is a white supremacist world. Also, you're a famous public figure, compared to the average person, with a large following, and in multiple groups that the far-right hates. This place isn't going to provide the experience you're seeking, because it can't. It may never be able to.

Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth GlasscoNov 23, 2022
@jhamby @economics @chanda if you’re right, and you may be, then despite its origin goals, Mastodon will not truly be the solution to an affirmative public sphere. It will just be another place where white people can put their heads in the sand and pretend like the non-white folks are the problem.
Show threadThe Other Economist
@Deglassco @jhamby I don't know. I have been surprised by the responses to posts. The problem needs technical expertise in sociology, media, race, religion, maybe anthropology, and computer science. It is a scaling problem. The village constables that monitored 10,000 people per day could not handle the new 1,000,000 people added in just one day. Also, as the audience changes, the problems will. It is a resources issue at its core.
Nov 24, 2022 at 6:12amWeb
Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth GlasscoNov 24, 2022
@economics @jhamby I appreciate what you’re saying but I think it’s more than just a technology issue. It’s a sociological one that, in many ways, mirrors those engagements in the offline world. An example would be the people who say the best solution to police brutality is to require officers to use bodycams and dashcams. But if the police bureaucracy deem even the most egregious acts justifiable, what good does technology do? We have to be able to look at the situation holistically.
Show threadjhambyNov 24, 2022

@Deglassco @economics I agree with everything you said. I think it is more of a sociological problem too. We could look back to Xbox Live and see how many moderators they've had to hire to deal with racist chat by teens and adults. White supremacy and misogyny in gamer chats is one of my biggest concerns.

I'm trying to discourage large accounts from coming here before the mods can handle non-famous people without 100k followings. I have no idea how this will scale, or if it indeed can.

Show threadjhambyNov 24, 2022

@Deglassco @economics There's one suboptimal option for people who get a lot of harassment and don't like to deal with random comments, whether racist, "whitesplainers", or whatever, which is to pay a human assistant to monitor your account and prefilter what you don't want to see. We don't have AI that's good enough to catch hate speech while also knowing about jokes, quoting to debunk, reclaiming slurs, etc..

Bill Gates doesn't read his own email from the public. He has an assistant read it.

Show threadThe Other EconomistNov 27, 2022
@Deglassco @jhamby yes, there is also the problem of a lack of shared values. Millions of people felt apartheid was morally positive. Likewise, there are hundreds of millions of people that would be offended by images of alcohol or women with crop tops. There almost needs to be a filter of "things that offend me" for people that want to avoid those things they find offensive. Harassment is another thing though.