Bluesky stumbles upon former Twitter/X Trust & Safety CEO cut by Musk

Decentralized social network startup and X competitor Bluesky just landed a prominent former Twitter leader as its new head of trust and safety. The company announced Wednesday that it has appointed Aaron Rodricks, who recently co-led Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, to the new position.

Although leaders below the C-Suite don’t typically make headlines, Rodricks has become more publicly known after becoming the target of a right-wing campaign on . For the upcoming 2024 elections.

Its callout asked users who have a “passion for protecting the integrity of elections and civic events,” which means It caught the attention of right-wing figures Like Chaya Raichik (Libs of TikTok) and former Trump State Department official Mike Benz — the latter of whom pointed out that Rodericks was a former colleague of Yoel Roth’s and was “somehow” still at X. (Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, has left The company just two weeks after Elon Musk acquired it, Musk initially defended Roth, but after his departure, he attacked the CEO on X. Then Roth had to flee his home After receiving death threats.)

Last fall, Rodricks lost his job at Company X when Musk cut half of his election integrity team after promising to expand the team, The Information reported. mentioned on time. musk Certain Cuts on

With Rodricks’ appointment, Bluesky is sending a signal to its potential users. This is an indication that the network will handle trust and security similarly, if not better, than Twitter did before, before Musk’s takeover.

It’s a timely choice for the fledgling startup given that it has already seen high-profile missteps in the space even before it opened its doors to the public. The network had previously strained its relationship with black users after changing its moderation policy that followed a death threat against a user, raising many questions about whether the platform was safe for marginalized communities. In another incident, Bluesky came under fire for allowing usernames with racial slurs to bypass moderation efforts. Plosky then randomly addressed the issue with personal apologies in emails to those who reached out, but said nothing publicly.

Since Bluesky has now opened up to the public, there is a need to enhance trust and security on its network, despite its decentralized and moderated ethos. As the operator of what will become Bluesky’s main server, even after the federation begins, Bluesky is responsible for meeting the moderation needs of its now more than 5 million users. Unlike centralized platforms like Twitter/X and Meta’s Threads, moderation on Bluesky involves several layers. Server operators, like the company itself, can set rules for their own servers, but these can be supplemented with other tools such as moderation services and more community-driven banlists.

“There is an urgent global need for a social network that can safely and effectively meet the needs of communities and individuals,” Rodricks said in a statement about his appointment. “People expect social media to provide a healthy level of built-in moderation, with clear rules that are consistently enforced. However, we have seen that this alone is not enough. Communities also need to be able to self-organize around more opinionated moderation principles, and to have the tools to To keep these efforts sustainable, he added: “I’m excited that Bluesky is taking these two layers seriously, and I believe its new approach to user choice with stackable moderation will become a key part of driving and growing healthy conversations online.”

Bluesky says Rodericks will lead a moderation team that provides 24/7 coverage to support Bluesky’s community guidelines and promises reports are reviewed in less than 24 hours. Soon, Bluesky will allow users to subscribe to standalone moderation services that will be implemented in addition to their existing moderation service.

Before working at Twitter, where he dealt with issues such as hate speech and harassment, Rodricks worked to develop capabilities within the Canadian federal government to analyze social data in unstable countries, along with research into extremist activity that helped launch the Twitter campaign. The global coalition against ISISBluesky noted.

“I’m passionately interested in how our users can better control their online social spaces,” said Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. “Aaron’s experience in global trust and safety provides invaluable expertise to our moderation team. His interest in improving the foundation of public conversations will help us design flexible, customizable moderation systems that allow users to build vibrant, personal communities,” she said.