Matt BinderJul 17, 2023

bluesky is experiencing major community backlash after the platform allowed users to register handles with racial slurs

but it's about more than just that

i spoke to bluesky users to find out what's going on: https://mashable.com/article/bluesky-racism-username-anti-blackness

Bluesky let users register usernames with racial slurs. The community feels betrayed.

The decentralized Twitter alternative is experiencing a major fallout.

Mashable
Show threadJazmanJul 17, 2023
@MattBinder How odd considering how bluesky has become elitist. They just got an $8M new round of funding and they are still in beta.
Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 17, 2023
@Jazman Why do people keep calling Bluesky elitist? MANY of its users are POC, trans, queer, and/or disabled.
Show threadMisuse CaseJul 17, 2023

@jillianne @Jazman The users are, sure. But the people running it are a different story. Dorsey isn’t the CEO but he’s on the board and is the front man for the company…and he is, infamously, a Nazi-friendly billionaire.

The interests of the people who run and control the platform are much different from the interests of its userbase. (That’s an understatement, their interests are often directly in opposition to each other.)

Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 17, 2023

@MisuseCase @Jazman Dorsey hasn't posted on the platform in a month. As far as I can tell, none of the users actually like him. It's far from a Musk/Musk fanboy situation. I know he's a piece of shit but so far he hasn't made trouble so I am holding out hope he'll just keep his mouth shut.

It's still a better option to Twitter or Threads.

This is the part where people jump in and exclaim "BUT WHAT ABOUT MASTODON?"
I tried so hard to get my people on here but I'm a techy person. Many are not.

Show threadMisuse CaseJul 17, 2023

@jillianne @Jazman I know people aren’t on there because they like Dorsey, but Dorsey is probably driving a lot of the decisions there, including “let’s use federation so we don’t have to do actual moderation” (something they backpedaled on, badly) and “why *shouldn’t* we let users name themselves slurs?”

Just because he’s not posting doesn’t mean he’s not setting policy over there.

Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 17, 2023
@MisuseCase @Jazman I specifically meant actively allowing Nazis on.
I think they have some kind of AI moderation set up as well but I don't know how well it's working. Probably not great.
As for moderation, I don't know what the solution is. Facebook mods have PTSD from the shit they're paid to watch but regular users shouldn't have to deal with it either. So I don't know.
Show threadMisuse CaseJul 17, 2023
@jillianne @Jazman Facebook mods have PTSD because they are under time pressure to process a certain number of moderation decisions in an hour and they don’t get sufficient downtime or therapy. There are ways to have moderators do their job without burning them out or giving them PTSD but they’re not cheap so Facebook, Twitter, OpenAI, etc. (they all use the same contracting company in Nairobi) don’t do it that way.
Show threadMisuse Case

@jillianne @Jazman it’s not that the problem is unsolvable it is that these companies don’t want to solve it because they want to spend as little money on moderation as possible.

Also letting users on your platform register handles with the N-word in them is not an accident and it’s definitely not a difficult moderation problem to solve. That’s a choice and it says what your values are and what you will permit on your platform.

Jul 17, 2023 at 4:20pmWeb
Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 17, 2023
@MisuseCase @Jazman They fixed the handles issue very quickly. I do not believe someone specifically said and decided "Yes, allow users to use slurs in usernames."
Even if moderation teams were paid enough for their work… how could it NOT harm someone emotionally? Has any social media company successfully done this?
Show threadMisuse CaseJul 17, 2023
@jillianne @Jazman Volunteer moderators in healthily managed communities (e.g., subreddits) do not have these same issues even though they certainly See Some Things and a lot of it is because they have more autonomy and control over their time.
Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 17, 2023
@MisuseCase @Jazman oh yeah, I guess I forgot about Subreddits. Good point.
Show thread@MattxMercyJul 18, 2023

@MisuseCase @jillianne @Jazman I really don't think free, volunteer moderation is something we should promote.

People should be paid for their time. These companies have the money to pay first-world living wages to do this shit.

Show threadMisuse CaseJul 18, 2023

@TheMattMercy @jillianne @Jazman You are posting this on a platform where all the moderation is done by volunteers.

But that aside, what I mean is that it’s possible to have people do moderation work and not burn them out. Just give them adequate decompression time and control over their jobs.

Show threadJillianne HamiltonJul 18, 2023

@MisuseCase @TheMattMercy @Jazman I don’t think comparing moderation on Mastodon to another platform is comparing apples to apples. Mastodon is not an *everyman* platform like Twitter, Threads or Bluesky.

Besides, some mods *are* paid for their time by user donation.

Show threadMisuse CaseJul 18, 2023
@jillianne @TheMattMercy @Jazman That’s definitely the case with many Discord servers, subreddits, etc. as well though. And keep in mind that there are a lot of organizations with Patreons, paid memberships, etc. that have volunteer-moderated communities on multiple platforms including Mastodon. 1/2
Show threadMisuse CaseJul 18, 2023
@jillianne @TheMattMercy @Jazman The instance I belong to, which is associated with a podcast network (This Week in Tech or TWiT  ) is an example. They have a Mastodon instance and a Discord server (I don’t use the Discord). They have paid memberships and also advertise on the podcasts. They definitely pay their moderators here and on Discord. 2/2
Show thread@MattxMercyJul 18, 2023

@MisuseCase @jillianne @Jazman I mean, I categorize Mastodon in the same field as discord - servers are private & it's for tech-oriented folks, as jillianne said

Twitter, has maybe 400mil users. Discord has half of that, and Reddit ~¼

And those last 2 still have a trust & safety team that shut down servers

But something like Facebook, Twitter, & BlueSky, imo need to pay 1st-world living wages if they want to avoid media controversies that tank their stock 🤷🏻‍♀️

Jack needs to eat regularly, lol

Show threadMisuse CaseJul 18, 2023

@TheMattMercy @jillianne @Jazman Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky and others pay $3-4 dollars an hour to these contractors in Nairobi who have to work extremely fast to hit performance targets.

That’s a living wage for Nairobi but the hours and the pace of the work is punishing for them. It’s only just getting media attention and hasn’t really affected these companies’ stock prices (the workers unionizing has affected them more). Search “Nairobi moderators.” 1/2

https://time.com/6147458/facebook-africa-content-moderation-employee-treatment/

Inside Facebook’s African Sweatshop

At an external Facebook content moderation facility in Kenya, employees are paid as little as $1.50 per hour for traumatizing work

Time
Show threadMisuse CaseJul 18, 2023

@TheMattMercy @jillianne @Jazman These moderators know what would make their working conditions equitable - more reasonable quotas that don’t have them trying to drink from a firehose, more input into the moderation policies they are supposed to enforce, and mental healthcare services as a job benefit.

Most of the people who do volunteer moderation have the first two things (which is what I’m saying all moderators ought to have, not that they should all be volunteers). 2/2