Jack Dorsey, Bluesky, decentralised social networks and the very common crowd

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses Jack Dorsey's involvement with the Bluesky social network and his views on content moderation and decentralization in social media platforms. It also compares Bluesky to the existing Mastodon network and criticizes Dorsey's approach.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Jack Dorsey's Involvement with Bluesky

1. What was Dorsey's role in the creation of Bluesky?

• Dorsey got Bluesky started, originally as the reference implementation for a distributed protocol to serve as a new backend for Twitter.
• He supplied a pile of cash and hired the original team.

2. What was the main issue that upset Dorsey about Bluesky?

• Bluesky users demanded moderation, and Bluesky put it into place. This was the whole issue for Dorsey, who is obsessed with the idea of a social media platform that nobody can be kicked from.

3. What was the composition of the Bluesky staff that Dorsey hired?

• Dorsey hired a collection of LessWrong rationalists, neoreactionaries, VibeCamp anti-wokeist race scientists, and crypto developers for the Bluesky staff.

[02] Comparison to Mastodon

1. How does the Mastodon network differ from Dorsey's vision for Bluesky?

• Mastodon is a decentralized social network with a few large nodes and thousands of smaller, personal nodes, implementing the shared ActivityPub protocol.
• Mastodon has implemented a server covenant that helps exclude far-right extremists through a social process, unlike Dorsey's vision for an uncensorable platform.

2. Why does the article suggest that Mastodon is a better example of a decentralized social network than Bluesky?

• The article argues that Mastodon is a real-world example of a genuinely decentralized social network, unlike Bluesky, which has a centralized relay node and identity server.
• The article suggests that Dorsey and Pirate Wires are not interested in Mastodon because they only care about their assumed right to force people to listen to their "free speech", even if it includes awful content.

[03] Dorsey's Views on Content Moderation

1. What is Dorsey's stance on content moderation and banning users?

• Dorsey is obsessed with the idea of a social media platform where nobody can be kicked off, even for posts that would have led to anyone else being banned.
• When he was CEO of Twitter, he directly intervened to ensure that Donald Trump and the neo-Nazi Richard Spencer would not be banned.

2. How does the article criticize Dorsey's approach to content moderation?

• The article argues that Dorsey's vision for an uncensorable platform is not what ordinary users want, as they prefer a social network with effective content moderation to avoid wading through "poop".
• The article suggests that Dorsey only cares about his assumed right to force people to listen to his "free speech", even if it includes awful content.