Blacksky Algorithms
= "a project to build infrastructure and curation tools for Black users of the AT Protocol" (related to 'Black Twitter')
URL = https://blackskyweb.xyz/
Description
"Blacksky Algorithms helps create virtual third spaces where community members democratically govern the recommender algorithms and moderation policies. Founded by technologist Rudy Fraser in 2023, it began as a project to build infrastructure and curation tools for Black users of the AT Protocol, many of them previous users of the “Black Twitter” community. It soon expanded into its own data hosting server with independent terms of service, community guidelines, and open‑source infrastructure allowing users to leave other apps like Bluesky while keeping all of their followers/following, media, etc. This shift allowed users to migrate into an environment shaped by collective governance rather than corporate platforms.
Blacksky’s core tenets—self‑governance, self‑determination and communalism—are enacted through the People’s Assembly, a democratic polling system built on Polis. Any community member can propose new features, moderation labels, or policy changes, and the community’s vote determines how the platform evolves. This participatory model has guided major decisions, including expanding moderation categories beyond anti‑Blackness and misogynoir to address intercommunal harms and emerging forms of abuse.
The platform’s implementation has required intensive human labor: a global team of fewer than eight volunteer moderators manually reviewed more than 41,000 posts in a year. To support this work, Blacksky developed Acorn, a new community management platform that integrates emotional check‑ins for moderators, embedded policy definitions, escalation pathways, and structured session controls to protect moderators’ wellbeing.
As Blacksky’s Head of Community, Dr. Kay Coghill played a central role in expanding moderation labels, refining policy language, and shaping Acorn’s trauma‑informed design. Their contributions strengthened the platform’s ability to respond to harm while sustaining the people doing the work.
Blacksky’s evolution demonstrates that future conflict‑system design must be community‑driven, transparent, emotionally sustainable, and grounded in the lived realities of those most targeted by online harm."