Aaron Rodericks brings over a decade of expertise in maintaining information integrity
SEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Bluesky, the open social network, has appointed Aaron Rodericks as its new Head of Trust and Safety. Rodericks brings over a decade of expertise in building safe online spaces and defending information integrity in both the private sector and in government, most recently co-leading the Trust and Safety team at Twitter.
"There is an urgent global need for a social network that can safely and effectively meet the needs of communities and individuals," said Rodericks. "People expect social media to provide a healthy level of built-in moderation, with clearly stated rules that are applied consistently. However, we've seen that this alone is not enough. Communities also need the ability to self-organize around more opinionated moderation principles and have the tooling to keep these efforts sustainable. I'm excited that Bluesky is taking both of these layers seriously, and I believe that their fresh approach to user choice with stackable moderation is poised to become a key part in guiding and growing healthy online conversations."
Bluesky recently hit 5 million users after opening its doors to the public in early February. Aaron is leading the moderation team at Bluesky that provides 24/7 coverage to uphold Bluesky's community guidelines. Reports are reviewed in under 24 hours, and appeals are reviewed and responded to by a globally dispersed moderation team covering multiple languages with follow-the-sun coverage across time zones.
In addition to its foundational moderation service, Bluesky is investing in new ways for users to have control over their experience, allowing users to install custom feeds and for developers to host their own data. The same way Bluesky lets users subscribe to custom feeds today, it will soon allow users to subscribe to independent moderation services as easily as following a new account. These moderation services on the app will be applied on top of the moderation service provided by Bluesky and are not a replacement for it, though different apps may configure their own defaults.
Rodericks has dedicated his career to ensuring the integrity of information, driven by his commitment to protecting democracies from misinformation and disinformation. His previous experience includes co-leading the Trust and Safety team at Twitter, advising leadership on how to protect users from online harms, such as hate speech and harassment. He led teams that secured the integrity of elections, detected nation state adversaries, and combated online threats.
Before joining Twitter, Rodericks developed capabilities within the Canadian Federal Government for social data analytics in destabilized states, along with researching extremist activity that helped launch the Global Coalition against Daesh.
"I'm deeply invested in how our users can best control their social spaces online," said Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky. "Aaron's expertise in trust & safety at global scale brings invaluable experience to our moderation team. His interest in improving the foundation for public conversations will help us design customizable and resilient moderation systems that will let users build vibrant, personalized communities."
For those interested in joining Bluesky, follow the sign up link available here: https://bsky.app/
About Bluesky
Bluesky is building the AT Protocol as the foundational standard for decentralized social applications. Through its flagship client, Bluesky prioritizes user choice and aims to provide a fun and engaging online environment. The company is developing and driving large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversations. To learn more about Bluesky, visit https://bsky.social/about.
Media Contact
Bluesky PR Team, Bluesky, 7072362177, [email protected], https://bsky.social/about
SOURCE Bluesky
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