Bluesky has deleted the most viral post reporting on an internal government protest agains the President of the United States and the world's richest man.

Bluesky deleted a viral, AI-generated protest video in which Donald Trump is sucking on Elon Musk’s toes because its moderators said it was “non-consensual explicit material.” The video was broadcast on televisions inside the office Housing and Urban Development earlier this week, and quickly went viral on Bluesky and Twitter.

Independent journalist Marisa Kabas obtained a video from a government employee and posted it on Bluesky, where it went viral. Tuesday night, Bluesky moderators deleted the video because they said it was “non-consensual explicit material.”

Other Bluesky users said that versions of the video they uploaded were also deleted, though it is still possible to find the video on the platform.

Technically speaking, the AI video of Trump sucking Musk’s toes, which had the words “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING” shown on top of it, is a nonconsensual AI-generated video, because Trump and Musk did not agree to it. But social media platform content moderation policies have always had carve outs that allow for the criticism of powerful people, especially the world’s richest man and the literal president of the United States.

For example, we once obtained Facebook’s internal rules about sexual content for content moderators, which included broad carveouts to allow for sexual content that criticized public figures and politicians. The First Amendment, which does not apply to social media companies but is relevant considering that Bluesky told Kabas she could not use the platform to “break the law,” has essentially unlimited protection for criticizing public figures in the way this video is doing.

Content moderation has been one of Bluesky’s growing pains over the last few months. The platform has millions of users but only a few dozen employees, meaning that perfect content moderation is impossible, and a lot of it necessarily needs to be automated. This is going to lead to mistakes. But the video Kabas posted was one of the most popular posts on the platform earlier this week and resulted in a national conversation about the protest. Deleting it—whether accidentally or because its moderation rules are so strict as to not allow for this type of reporting on a protest against the President of the United States—is a problem.

  • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.netEnglish
    0·
    54 minutes ago

    Their moderation has been garbage lately. They’re wrongly banning people for things they didn’t do. It’s just premusk twitter at this point. The real fediverse is a better vet medium and long term

  • bean@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 hours ago

    Put it on Facebook! Ol’ Zuck decided all the guardrails pretty much needed to go so. Post and do whatever. Plus, the people who should see it most are those still hanging around on Facebook 🤣

    • Hack3900@lemy.lolEnglish
      0·
      6 hours ago

      I do not understand why people use BlueSky We already had the alternative!!! It was here first and many had already created accounts… Then just went back to Twitter

      • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 hours ago

        because there is zero marketing for mastodon. zero sex-appeal to mastodon.

        bluesky was a better car salesman selling the same old car twitter had.

      • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 hours ago

        It was far faster and easier to build up a feed of enjoyable content on BlueSky. My Mastodon feed has sat almost completely empty, and I’ve only been able to find a few news-reposters there.

        And I’m tech-savvy. Imagine how it is for other social media users.

        • Excrubulent@slrpnk.netEnglish
          0·
          3 hours ago

          Yes, exactly this. Like something might be technically better but unless it’s doing its main job of actually connecting people it’s not going to work.

          I wish more FOSS nerds understood this.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            1 hour ago

            I don’t agree that Mastodon is technically better, but it was first so it should have first mover advantage.

            I think it largely comes down to marketing. Mastodon is marketed by word of mouth, and BlueSky has an actual marketing team.

      • MysticKetchup@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 hours ago
        1. Bluesky is more easily usable
        2. More people they want to follow are on Bluesky

        Instead of complaining we need to work on making Masto more welcoming to new users and amplifying the advantages it has over Bluesky

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          3 hours ago

          Honestly, that ship has sailed, I think. When Musk first took over Twitter and everyone was bailing, if Mastodon was a viable alternative it could have taken off.

          Now that Bluesky has overtaken them, and is seen as the alternative to Twitter, I think the opportunity has been lost.

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            3 hours ago

            That’s quite a good point. Here’s a little thought experiment, though: If we woke up tomorrow and Mastodon looked just like Bluesky (but with a different color scheme) and featured 100% two-way integration with Bluesky…

            Essentially, if Mastodon became hands down the most user-friendly and engaging option—would that be enough to make a meaningful difference in its adoption curve?

            • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
              0·
              2 hours ago

              Possibly, although anyone who already has an account on Bluesky would likely stay there, and Bluesky has the upper hand in name recognition, and there is the uphill battle of explaining the concept of federation to people who have little interest in technology.

              And that’s if, hypothetically speaking, Mastodon was as easy to use.

              It’s not happening. Also, if it’s anything like here, the non stop Linuxposting would probably annoy people.

  • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 hours ago

    Where can I download a copy? I would upload it again, hate any sort of censorship?

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    8 hours ago

    fwiw they restored the post and blamed it on a moderator being too strict in applying a policy regarding non consensual ai porn. It’s objectively good they have policies banning such things but it was completely obvious from context that this was not meant to be pornographic at all

    As such, one could easily read it with cynicism as responding to backlash as they only reviewed said moderators actions after this article came out and the associated clamor

    • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 hours ago

      I don’t think anyone claims BlueSky is decentralized, just more fair about moderation. I’d probably be fine with using Twitter if Elon Musk hadn’t completely corrupted it.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 hours ago

    At least in the US, protest falls under protected speech and has additional legal protections beyond ordinary speech similar to satire. IANAL but this is not a legal matter. It’s clearly an internal policy issue.

    This is the problem with any social media being centralized.

    BlueSky is just as centralized as Twitter or Facebook.