The decision to limit the spread of nudity may have been affected in part by Bluesky’s potential future growth as it attempts to emerge from its beta phase and become a viable alternative to Twitter, according to Are, who believes the Bluesky team might well be asking questions like: “If we want to grow and there are a lot of people complaining about seeing ass, will we grow if we continue to allow that?”
In many ways, Bluesky faces a fundamental question early in its development that every platform or online presence must ultimately answer. Sexual expression is a growth driver for online platforms, while also being the first thing people latch onto as unacceptable once a platform reaches critical mass.
“My opinions on this boil down to: ‘Yeah, I’d rather not see it’ or have it easily accessible,” said one Bluesky user who raised questions about why there had been negative reactions to the ban and who requested anonymity because he had previously suffered retaliation from other Bluesky users for expressing their opinion. “Tons of people in my life have struggled with sex and porn addiction, and being available behind a quick-change on/off switch doesn’t really help,” he says.
The anonymous user suggests that Bluesky could follow an approach taken by Reddit, which allows users to block access to any subreddits correctly labeled “not safe for work” (NSFW). “Bluesky currently has an ‘opt-out of explicit content’ system, but you fall into the problem of explicit labeling,” he says. Additionally, he says the current system labels some content as nudity when it isn’t, while missing some that is.
For Sarah T. Roberts, faculty director of the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry at UCLA, Bluesky’s difficulties in combating the nude surge highlight the naivety of user behavior. “Once again, a platform comes into the market and is surprised when users try to play and break things, and when they post nudity,” she says.
This lack of preparation for what Roberts thought was inevitable could derail Bluesky’s future growth. “Content moderation decisions made after the fact, regardless of the level of permissiveness chosen, are costly, both from a financial and public relations perspective,” she says. “Surely it wouldn’t have taken a genius to predict this turn of events. So why is this once again a surprise and not an inevitability?
