Bluesky, the leftist echo chamber that has enjoyed explosive growth since the 2024 election, is now facing pressure by its users to ban progressive journalist and podcast host Jesse Singal over his skeptical views on transgenderism.
A large number of Bluesky users have been calling on the social media company to ban Jesse Singal — who joined the site just two weeks ago — over his views shared both on and off the platform, according to a report by TechCrunch.
Left-wing Bluesky users, who joined the alternative to X in search for a “safe space,” are demanding that the social media platform engage in the same censorship tactics once used on what was formerly known as Twitter.
Singal, who is now the most blocked user on Bluesky, has been targeted by GLAAD’s Accountability Project, which “catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.”
Users are now “demanding that Bluesky take a stand: It’s either a place that promises it won’t host bad actors, or it’s a place that promises not to inflate the reach of bad actors thanks to its various moderation tools. It cannot be both,” TechCrunch reported.
While Bluesky has tools available for users — such as block lists, layered moderation, custom feeds, custom algorithms, and labeling services, among others — users want more action to be taken by the social media platform. But for Bluesky to ban Singal, he would have to specifically violate the platform’s terms of service and guidelines.
Some users argue that he has already done so, pointing to the podcast host’s alleged history of harassing transgender people, and claiming he has engaged in targeted harassment on the platform.
“Jesse Singal has distributed private medical information on Bluesky without the consent of the patient,” a Change.org petition argues. “It is plainly obvious that Singal’s decision to use this platform to share private medical information is in violation of the first rule of Bluesky’s Community Guidelines.”
The petition — which at the time of this writing has garnered nearly 25,000 signatures, including left-wing pop star Lizzo — goes on to demand that Bluesky “permanently enforce its Community Guidelines against Jesse Singal.”
“We received more reports in two days than in all of last year, and have integrated new systems and quadrupled our moderation team to try and keep up. Sometimes, we have to work quickly to correct errors,” Bluesky said in a statement on Friday.
“The current controversies reveal weaknesses in the clarity of our Community Guidelines and failures in our communications. This has led to understandable confusion about how we interpret our guidelines,” the company continued. “We need to be more transparent — without revealing to bad actors how to circumvent our systems.”
Bluesky added, “Our growing moderation team needs clear evidence and well-defined rules to make decisions that can be consistently enforced, so they action accounts based primarily on content and behavior that appears in our app, where the context and authenticity can be directly verified.”
“We do not currently take action on accounts that share Bluesky screenshots with commentary, unless that commentary violates our Guidelines,” Bluesky explained, adding, “We will take action when someone’s private information is shared without their consent, but only when it is personally identifiable and verifiable in-app.”
“Our moderation team continues to monitor and review all received reports, and will action accounts based on in-app violations of our Community Guidelines,” Bluesky said. “We want our actions to be clear and consistent, recognizing that we have more work to do to make that happen.”
The company concluded, stating, “Moderation decisions draw intense public scrutiny from many places. That’s why Bluesky’s architecture is designed to enable communities to control their online spaces, independent of the company or its leadership. We will continue to work on empowering people with more control over their experience.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
