Decentralized social network Bluesky, a competitor to X and Threads, announced on Wednesday that it will make further changes to its moderation process. Specifically, the company said it is introducing new updates to how it tracks violations of its Community Guidelines and enforces its policies. This includes adding new reporting categories to the app, changing the “strike” system for violations, and further guidance for those who break the rules.
The moderation changes will be rolled out in the latest version (v. 1.110) of the Bluesky app. This also includes a dark mode app icon and a redesigned feature to control who can reply to your posts.
The company says the moderation updates are a result of Bluesky’s rapid growth and the need for “clear standards and expectations about how people treat each other” on the platform.
“At Bluesky, people meet, fall in love, are discovered as artists, and discuss niche topics in cozy corners. At the same time, some of us have gotten into the habit of saying things behind a screen that we would never say face-to-face,” the company explained about the change in an announcement.
But the news also follows recent uproar over moderation on the platform, where users were suspended for comments that Bluesky interpreted as threats of violence. Author and influencer Sarah Kendzior wrote in a post on Blue Sky, quoting a Johnny Cash lyric, “I’d shoot just to see the author of this article die.” It was a good choice of words, since she was commenting on an article about Johnny Cash that she didn’t like.
Brusky’s team said Kendzior was suspended because she expressed a “desire to shoot the author of the article,” a literal interpretation of her comments.
With the updated rules, Bluesky seems focused on ensuring the platform maintains a sense of community and doesn’t descend into X-fueled toxicity, where vitriol, dank, and hateful comments are commonplace.
First, Bluesky will expand reporting options on posts from six to nine, allowing users to report issues more accurately and moderators to act more quickly on important reports. For example, you can now report youth harassment, bullying, and eating disorders. This will help Bluesky address its need to comply with a number of new laws designed to protect minors online. Additionally, users will be able to flag potentially human trafficking content to meet the requirements of the UK Online Safety Act.
To help with this, Bluesky has improved its internal tools to automatically track violations and enforcement actions in one place. The system will also ensure that people have clear information about what happened and their position.
The company said it has not changed its enforcement, but has simply improved its tools to make enforcement more consistent and transparent.
As part of this, Bluesky’s strike system assigns a severity rating to content. This will help determine the actions to be taken. For example, content flagged as “high risk” will be permanently banned. Other content may receive lower, medium, or higher penalties. Users also risk a permanent ban rather than a temporary suspension if their account has repeated violations.
Additionally, the company says that if a user is subject to an enforcement action, they will be notified of the Community Guidelines they violated, the assigned severity level, the total number of violations, how close they are to the threshold for the next account-level action, and information about the duration and end date of the suspension. The company said the enforcement action could be appealed.
The changes follow Bluesky’s updated community guidelines published in October, which broadly focus on more aggressive moderation and enforcement on the platform.
But despite the company’s emphasis on stricter rules, some Bluesky users are angry that the company is still allowing users who have been widely criticized for their writing on trans issues to maintain accounts on the platform. The controversy flared up again in October, when Bluesky CEO Jay Graeber appeared to dismiss user criticism in several posts.
The root of the problem is how Bluesky wants to be perceived compared to what it actually is today.
The company doesn’t want to be known as just a left-wing or liberal version of Twitter. We want to be a home where different communities can network and thrive without the problems of centralized social networks. But many of the communities that adopted Bluesky did so because they no longer felt represented by Twitter/X, which has become more right-leaning under new owner Elon Musk.
In addition to wanting to shape its image, BlueSky must balance its goals with the growing number of laws and regulations that require social platforms to protect users from harm and potentially face serious consequences, including large fines. For example, BlueSky shut down its service in Mississippi earlier this year, saying it didn’t have the resources to meet the state’s Age Guarantee Act, which would subject networks to fines of up to $10,000 per user if violated.
