Banning controversy reveals Bluesky's decentralized aspiration isn't reality

Summary

When it launched in 2023 in private beta, Bluesky was pitched as a different kind of social network, one that placed openness and user-friendliness at its core. It came along at just the right moment as Elon Musk’s purchase and takeover of Twitter led millions of users head toward any type of exit.The initial destination for many was Mastodon, but its Linux geek ethos and system of numerous “federated” servers that communicate via the open-source ActivityPub protocol proved to be too complicated for people who just wanted to crack jokes. Acting on the opportunity, Bluesky opened up to the public in February 2024 and saw a rapid influx of users.Besides being easier to sign up and use than Mastodon, Bluesky offered a different approach to content moderation that was more flexible and user-driven. In addition to making its software source code available under open licenses, Bluesky wanted to put moderation decisions in the hands of its users, encouraging them to make lists of accounts that could be automatically blocked or labeled—and thereby removing itself as much as possible from moderation decisions that have plagued discussion group administrators since the days of Usenet newsgroups.Millions of people flooded in after Bluesky opened its doors to the public. By November of 2024, there were nearly 1.5 million daily posters, most of them anti-Musk Twitter refugees who were eager to get away from Musk’s right-wing makeover of the site into X.However, as time has gone by, Bluesky’s traffic has declined (X’s has as well) and some of its users have become increasingly upset at its moderation decisions, including allowing U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and anti-trans writer Jesse Singal to remain as users of the platform. Singal became a particular target, prompting a petition with more than 28,000 signatures urging Bluesky to “enforce its Community Guidelines” against him that has not been successful, although he has been temporarily banned.Accusations of indifference to...