Update: After this article was published, Bluesky restored Kabas’ post and told 404 Media the following: “This was a case of our moderators applying the policy for non-consensual AI content strictly. After re-evaluating the newsworthy context, the moderation team is reinstating those posts.”

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.net
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    2 months 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

    • Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      It’s just premusk twitter at this point.

      I mean, given that Jack Dorsey founded it as basically the “not Twitter Twitter” after musk bought the main one, I don’t think it’s surprising to see it face basically the same moderation issues in the name of being “even-handed”

  • bean@lemmy.world
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    2 months 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 🤣

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        Yeah. I think it was hilarious to “hack” government displays to show this in protest.

        I am REALLY uncomfortable with sharing it on a wider basis. Because, at the risk of sounding like DNC leadership, it is opening a huge can of worms. Imagine if instead this was musk posting a deepfake of him and AOC similar to how he offered to rape taylor swift a while back?

        • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          oh it WILL happen on both sides. it’s just going to be part of our lives now, and social media is fully justified in removing it from their platforms.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          If it’s actual satire, it should be allowed, but to be satire, it needs to criticize something instead of just being offensive. Satire is free speech, the latter is defamation or libel (not a lawyer, so not sure which it is).

  • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    Correct. this is indeed the correct decision to remove the thing. BUT i have a feeling that this quick reaction does not compare to the speed of decision for normal people, especially women who get this kind of stuff made about them.

    Also, note that I’m not saying it was bad to make the video, or have it run in public on hacked screens.
    That is perfectly fine political commentary, by means of civil disobedience.

    Just that Bluesky is correct in it’s action to remove it from their service.

  • OldChicoAle@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’m not here to discuss how we need to be ethical in response to a fascist takeover. So we gotta play by the rules but they don’t?

    • Renat@szmer.info
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      2 months ago

      I made account on bluesky to post drawings and no seeing AI slop. I hate Elon Musk, but I don’t consider seeing AI generated lemon party as funny thing. It’s one of the reason why I don’t use Twitter anymore.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    2 months 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.

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      2 months 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.

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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        2 months ago

        You can just move to another server and repost it.

        With blue sky there is no “another server”

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Mod actions propagate though, no? So you’d have to post to a separate community, not just another server. I guess your admin could override a mod, but that’s quite rare.

          • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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            2 months ago

            I was more thinking about mastodon, since it’s the closest competitor to bluesky, but yeah here you would want to post it in a community on another server.

    • db2@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      First part yes, upload it anywhere and everywhere. Second part no, they’re not required to leave it up and accept any legal liability, so just keep putting up new copies expecting they’ll get removed.