Fifi Lamoura on Nostr: · 1d Now, BlueSky was premised on whiteness as a consequence of its initial ...

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1d
Now, BlueSky was premised on whiteness as a consequence of its initial invite-only status. The folks who had access to the means of bringing people onto the platform were predominantly white users (whatever their other axis of marginalization) which shaped the initial habits of the platform.
‪Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)‬ ‪@shengokai.bsky.social‬
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1d
(To be clear, other axis of marginalization matter in the habits of early BlueSky formed, especially given the queerness of the initial population. However, it is a historical fact that BlueSky was massively white, and you'd be a fool to think that didn't shape the initial culture.)
‪Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)‬ ‪@shengokai.bsky.social‬
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Indeed, it took an intentional effort on behalf of Black users to bring more black users onto the site so that the initial environment was MORE diverse than what was allowed by the invite-only structure. That is, Black users sought to intentionally disrupt the ongoing patterns of recruitment.
‪Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)‬ ‪@shengokai.bsky.social‬
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Here, I'm not saying that this was an intentional decision to keep BlueSky white, it wasn't. It was a consequence of the ways that access to the spaces of technology, open source or otherwise, is still massively stratified along lines of race. White people have the privilege of early access.
‪Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)‬ ‪@shengokai.bsky.social‬
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To get back to the main point: user-driven moderation will not work at scale without a centralized backstop because whiteness and the colonial project run WAY ahead of a digital space. The habits of whiteness will shape moderation decisions and exercise an outsized force on how the tools are used.
‪Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)‬ ‪@shengokai.bsky.social‬
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1d
Mastodon is a good example of this, and I've said as much in print:
The Whiteness of Mastodon | TechPolicy.Press
A conversation with Dr. Johnathan Flowers about Elon Musk's changes at Twitter and the dynamics on Mastodon, the decentralized alternative.
www.techpolicy.press