I've been exchanging emails with Bluesky for a few months now trying to clarify whether or not sex workers are welcome to use the platform.
Bluesky is a social media platform that has recently become very popular with sex workers.
There's been a bit of a mass exodus of sex workers leaving Twitter (X) and Instagram and registering on Bluesky instead.
It seems we've reached a bit of a tipping point where the blatant discrimination we face on social media outweighs any benefit we might get from continuing to use platforms where most of us are shadowbanned anyway.
Here are the emails I've exchanged so far with Bluesky =
Can I please ask, are sex workers welcome on Bluesky? I ask because other social media platforms eg X and insta, have made billions thanks to content created by sex workers but at the same time they like to shadowban, or outright ban, us with no warning or explanation. If we are welcome here, that is a big deal, I'm sure you're aware, there's a large exodus of sex workers curenly, leaving those other platforms and coming here to Bluesky Do you want this to happen, or not? If you do, then I would like to do everything in my power to encourage sex workers to leave the platforms where we are not welcome and come to Bluesky instead. If we are welcome here, could someone from Bluesky please do an AMA on the /r/sexworkers subreddit where I'm a moderator? I'm/u/aussiemaleescort, /r/sexworkers has 320,000 members. If you'd like to do the AMA, please let me know a day and time that suits you and I'll set it up.
I received this reply =
Hi Oz, thanks for reaching out.
Bluesky allows adult content, and actually, adult content creators were one of the earliest communities to join the app, back when we were still in our beta phase. We encourage users to set their adult content filters according to their own preferences. Additionally, when you share an image to Bluesky, you're able to add your own labels, such as for nudity. We highly encourage adult content creators to label their images so everyone's content preferences are respected.
Unfortunately we don't have capacity right now to do a full AMA, but I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have over email here. Thanks for your understanding!
This is great if you're a content creator but what about other sex workers eg in person providers?
If you are really an ally, can you please ensure that all sex workers are welcome on Bluesky?
The reply tells me to read the community Guidelines. Unfortunately there's no mention of sex workers in their guidelines.
Thank you for your inquiry about Bluesky's Community Guidelines.
We appreciate your interest in understanding our policies to help maintain a safe and respectful environment on our platform.
Bluesky's Community Guidelines can be found at the following link: https://bsky.social/about/support/community-guidelines
Our Community Guidelines outline the types of content and behavior that are not allowed on Bluesky.
We encourage all users to familiarize themselves with these guidelines to help create a positive and inclusive community on Bluesky. If you come across any content that violates these guidelines, please report it to our moderation team for review. This can be done in app or on the site via the menu under each post (three dots), and clicking report post. Select the violation category, and provide details and our moderators will review.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Regards!
Bluesky Customer Support
I tried again =
Hi,
Thank you for replying.
Your community guidelines say "Do not use Bluesky Social to break the law."
Can I please ask, which law?
USA law?
I'm based in UK where sex work is legal.
So can I use Bluesky?
What about the hundreds of millions of sex workers worldwide working in countries that criminalise consenting adults?
It would be great if you would make an unequivocal statement to the effect of "all sex workers are welcome on Bluesky".
No other social media platform has done so, apart from Switter, which sadly doesn't exist any more.
Having a platform online that we can use without fear of bans or shadowbans is a big deal for sex workers. The existence of which, makes us safer. If we are not welcome online, we have to work offline. ie on the streets. Which is much more dangerous. If you can make a statement that you will not discriminate against us, you are saving lives.
I know your press team and legal team will say "just ignore this question and hope it goes away."
In the short term it is a better business model for you to ban or shadowban all sex workers but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
Disregarding the human rights of your own users in favour of maximising profit is how you become twitter (insta, Facebook, Google etc). Those big tech companies are blatantly evil. Can bluesky do better? I think you can.
Regards,
Oz
I got a reply but it's just their previous email almost word for word so maybe a bot has taken over the chat.
Apologies for the delay in our response. We're actively working to improve our support response times and are confident you'll see quicker responses from us moving forward.
We appreciate your interest in understanding our policies to help maintain a safe and respectful environment on our platform.
Bluesky's Community Guidelines can be found at the following link: https://bsky.social/about/support/community-guidelines
Our Community Guidelines outline the types of content and behavior that are not allowed on Bluesky.
We encourage all users to familiarize themselves with these guidelines to help create a positive and inclusive community on Bluesky. If you come across any content that violates these guidelines, please report it to our moderation team for review. This can be done in app or on the site via the menu under each post (three dots), and clicking report post. Select the violation category, and provide details and our moderators will review.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Regards!
Bluesky Customer Support
I've asked for a human to please reply to my question. Fingers crossed. I'll update here if I do get an answer.
Hi,
Thank you for replying.
Unfortunately, I think my question might have gotten lost in translation.
Or misunderstood by a bot.
Could a human please reply?
My question is = Are sex workers welcome on Bluesky?
I mean all sex workers. Not just content creators. In person providers too.
The link you sent me, does not answer this question.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
It would really mean a lot to myself and I think to all sex workers to get a clear answer to this.
Sex workers are blatantly discriminated against almost everywhere on the internet.
Just one ally would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Oz
If I can get confirmation that sex workers are welcome on Bluesky, I'll do everything I can to encourage anyone who will listen to delete their X and Insta and use Bluesky instead.
This is my Bluesky account Oz Bigdownunder. Ideally I'd like to delete my Insta, which is shadowbanned and essentially useless and also delete my twitter accounts for Sex Worker Search, OZ and Elust, all of which are shadowbanned so none of my tweets appear in search results on twitter. My tweets don't appear on anyone's twitter feeds. Even if you search for those accounts by name, they won't appear in search results unless you're already following them.
So far Bluesky doesn't shadowban but my concern is that when they try to monetise and discover that credit card companies, advertisers and payment portal providers don't want to touch anything promoting sex work, then they'll shadowban us.