Bluesky Still Has a Death Threat Problem

Last December, Jesse Singal wrote a post for the Free Press titled “Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem.” It was basically Singal’s story about what happened when he joined Bluesky.

On December 6, I made my first post on Bluesky—which was actually launched by Twitter in 2019, before becoming an independent company two years later. As I soon found out, it is an exceptionally angry place. And in part because of a widespread culture of impunity when it comes to violent threats among some of its users, it comes across as a potentially dangerous one—in a way X, or Twitter, never did for me in my decade-plus of actively using that platform. Bluesky has either made a conscious decision to take a laissez-faire attitude toward serious threats of violence, or its moderators are incapable of guarding against them, or both…

When I arrived, I was bombarded with messages from people telling me to kill myself, or expressing their opinion that I should be killed. When a Change.org petition signed by 25,000 people failed to get me booted off the platform—likely due to my having never come close to violating any rule—the anger only spread further…

Bluesky’s norms surrounding violent threats, meanwhile, seem to be far weaker than Twitter’s. A handful of those directed at me were lurid and specific enough to worry me a bit. For example, on December 10, a user named @billkezos.bsky.social (a spoonerism of “Kill Bezos”), with about ten thousand followers, posted “Jesse Singal. 2 to the chest. 1 to the forehead a little less than [an] inch above the nasal bridge.”

Here we are 9 months later and it seems clear that Bluesky still has a problem with death threats. Last week the company had to issue a warning to its users, telling them that celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk violated terms of service and could result in consequences.

Social media platform Bluesky has been forced to warn users that “glorifying violence” is against its rules in the wake of a spate of posts celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk.

…Numerous posts shared this week have glorified the shooting of conservative commentator Kirk in Utah…

“Rest in piss,” wrote one user. “Go get Trump next.”

Another added: “I’m glad that guy died but they’re going really hard on the ‘Ohh this is a dark day for America’ about a guy I had never heard of until he was shot. Can we get JK Rowling next? The UK would be unbearable about it but it’s for the greater good of trans people.”

But there are signs that some users didn’t get the message that death threats would not be tolerated. Last week, a Canadian man was arrested for making a credible death threat against singer-songwriter Morrissey on Bluesky.

Court documents allege Noah Castellano made the threat against the English singer-songwriter via the Bluesky social media service on Sept. 4.

A Bluesky post dated Sept. 4 under the account name “guy who gets shot in the head one hundred thousand times a day” matches the description of the post included in the court documents. Referring to the performer by his birth name, it reads: “Steven Patrick Morrissey when you perform at TD Place here in Ottawa next week on the evening of September 12th, 2025 at about 9pm, I will be present at the venue in the audience and I will attempt to shoot you many times and kill you with a very large gun that I own illegally.”

Castellano was arrested and later released on bail. The show he had specifically threatened in Canada went on as planned but in response Morrissey had decided to cancel two upcoming shows in the US.

British rockstar Morrissey has canceled upcoming concerts in Massachusetts and Connecticut after reported threats against his life.

Morrissey, the former frontman of The Smiths, said in a post on Instagram on Friday that he cancelled shows at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, Friday night and at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston on Saturday.

“Due to recent events and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of both the artist and band, the upcoming shows this weekend at Foxwoods and MGM Music Hall have been cancelled. All tickets will be refunded automatically at your original point of purchase,” the post read.

It’s probably not a coincidence that Bluesky has just announced plans to toughen up moderation and enforcement on the site.

It sounds like Bluesky is getting serious about giving some users the boot, with the company saying it will be doing more to “enforce our moderation policies to better cultivate a space for healthy conversations.”…

“After considering this feedback, and in a return to our experimental roots, we are going to bring a greater focus to encouraging constructive dialogue and enforcing our rules against harassment and toxic content,” the company said. “For starters, we are going to increase our enforcement efforts.”

As part of that enforcement, Bluesky said that it will “more quickly escalate enforcement actions towards account restrictions.” When asked for more details, a Bluesky spokesperson told TechCrunch that moving forward, users who violate the guidelines will be getting fewer warnings before their accounts are deactivated.

Who knows what this means in practice. Users who make death threats now only get 2-3 chances to self-correct instead 5-6 chances? My guess is this enforcement won’t make much difference. Once the heat is off, Bluesky will go back to being the toxic left-wing hate site its users seem to want.

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