Investors pressure Bluesky CEO Jay Graber to address racist incident in first major crisis.

Investors pressure Bluesky CEO Jay Graber to address racist incident in first major crisis.

Bluesky: Navigating Growing Pains and Building Trust in a Social Media Landscape

Image source: Fortune

Bluesky, the Twitter-like social media app, hit a rough patch when it faced its first major crisis earlier this year. An incident involving a user with a racist username caused outrage among investors and users alike. However, the response from Bluesky’s CEO, Jay Graber, left much to be desired, leading to growing tensions between the platform and its stakeholders.

Bluesky made headlines as an alternative to Twitter, offering an escape from Elon Musk’s controversial presence. With its beta launch in April, the app quickly gained popularity, amassing 400,000 users and a waitlist of 3 million people. Despite its rapid growth, Bluesky had fewer than 20 full-time employees, lacking dedicated heads for trust and safety or a communications department.

In the early days, Bluesky’s staff members actively engaged with the community, fostering a carefree and playful atmosphere. However, as the platform scaled, the team had to adapt to the demands of running a fast-growing social media service. This change in demeanor and engagement with users was considered a natural evolution by Graber.

Unfortunately, soon after Bluesky’s initial success, a user signed up with a racist handle that incorporated the N-word. Despite Bluesky’s commitment to creating a safe community, the offensive username remained on the platform for weeks without any action from the company. Both investors and users were left disappointed by Graber’s lack of response and demanded a sincere apology.

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Bluesky’s stakeholders felt that the incident not only exposed a moderation issue but also reflected an anti-Black sentiment within the company. The platform lost high-profile users who contributed to building the Black community on Bluesky. The absence of an apology added fuel to the fire, leading to a loss of trust.

After several days of silence, Graber finally issued a formal apology, acknowledging the extended silence and the impact it had on the situation. Graber committed to taking steps to rebuild trust and regain the departed users while continuing to grow the app.

Graber, as a part owner of Bluesky, has always taken a cautious approach to the platform’s growth. With a background in engineering and entrepreneurship, she understands the complexities of managing a social media app. She emphasizes the importance of incorporating the voices of different communities and advisors to develop an effective moderation strategy.

Bluesky’s playbook for handling moderation issues continues to evolve. While they have implemented measures like sending personalized apologies to users who submit reports, the process is a work in progress. The team encourages users to provide feedback through appropriate channels like GitHub or dedicated support channels.

Bluesky’s challenge lies in juggling two tech projects simultaneously—the user-facing app and an underlying protocol for creating social apps. The platform envisions a decentralized social web to address the issues faced by centralized social media companies. However, competition arises from other groups advocating for rival protocols.

Facebook’s Meta, for example, launched Threads, which aims to be compatible with Mastodon’s ActivityPub—a competing standard to Bluesky’s AT Protocol. Additionally, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey developed his own rival standard called Nostr. Dorsey has been critical of some of Bluesky’s decisions, emphasizing the need to address moderation issues effectively.

Despite the challenges, Graber remains committed to Bluesky’s vision of creating a healthy and safe community. Acknowledging the potential for mistakes, Graber understands the importance of building and maintaining trust. Bluesky’s decentralization plan allows users to switch to other apps based on the protocol if they become dissatisfied, providing accountability and options.

As Bluesky navigates growing pains and strives to fulfill its mission, the mistakes made today will have a profound impact on the platform’s future. The team is dedicated to learning from their missteps and ensuring a positive user experience as they work towards a decentralized social web.

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