Social networking platform Bluesky lifted its ban on sign-ups for heads of state over the weekend. This means various office holders can join the platform. Bluesky’s move comes ahead of major general elections in countries like the U.S. and India scheduled to be held this year.
Last year, during Bluesky’s invite-only period, the company stated that it didn’t allow heads of state to sign up and asked users to contact the startup before inviting prominent figures.
“We appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm in sending invitations, but our current policy is that we cannot accommodate heads of state to join us in our beta yet. This applies to recent/prominent heads of state as well,” the company had said at that time.
Notably, in February, the company opened up the platform for anyone to sign up for the service after staying in an invite-only mode for almost a year.
Bluesky faced moderation challenges early in its lifespan and battled issues like allowing racial slurs in handles. Separately, users have continuously pushed the platform to clamp down on hate speech.
Last December, Bluesky added moderation lists along with automated moderation tools. Last month, it announced the Ozone tool, which allows users to build their own moderation and labeling services.
With the social network now allowing political heads to join the platform, there could be new types of moderation issues that it hasn’t faced yet. And it will need to be prepared for different possibilities.
Bluesky’s rival Threads has distanced itself from actively recommending political content. However, Bluesky users don’t have to rely on a central algorithm to look at different kinds of political content, as they can subscribe to different feeds.
