BlueSky Social Media Platform Criticized For Permitting Racist Language In Usernames

Jack Dorsey’s BlueSky app, which is being positioned as a major competitor to Twitter, is facing criticism for reportedly permitting usernames containing racial slurs. In recent days, numerous users have highlighted that BlueSky has allowed the use of usernames containing the n-word, raising concerns about potential moderation problems on the platform.

According to Mashable, this is because BlueSky is unable to prevent users from retaining certain usernames. And when the company first received reports of the abuse on Wednesday, BlueSky took 40 minutes – after the first notification – to delete the account, and the code that was said to have allowed it to happen was fixed.

The company told Mashable: “The following day, we continued to work on a more comprehensive technical solution that uses a combination of banned words and human review during account creation.”

It added: “We will continue to invest in moderation and support systems that scale with the number of people on the app to ensure a rapid response to future incidents.”

The company has also been accused of having an “anti-blackness” problem. Data Mesh radio host Scott Hirleman said in a LinkedIn post that BlueSky CEO Jay Graber and his team “have an incredibly bad anti-blackness problem.”

“It says you’re hiring. Where’s your Director of Trust and Security? Why does this seem to be such a big issue every week or two? If you don’t want to maintain a social media platform, split the company in half and focus on the protocol and fund the platform with another team that cares “, Hirleman added.

BlueSky currently operates on an invite-only model, likely implemented to prevent an influx of new users as it seeks to scale its systems and improve user protection from bad actors. However, as the platform grows, problems emerge, including problems involving usernames.