Anyone who has spent a lot of time on Nextdoor knows that it is riddled with cases of racial profiling, with . The company even had to due to racist reports. CEO Sarah Friar has that the company is trying to curb racism on its platform, especially in light of the rise of Black Lives Matters protests last year. Today, the company is taking a step in this direction by introducing a new “anti-racism notification” aimed at preventing discriminatory language.
In a blog post, Nextdoor indicates that the notification will appear if it detects phrases such as “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter”, and will prompt the author to reconsider the use of that language. That doesn’t stop them from posting it, but the company hopes it will help raise awareness that the terms are “offensive to people of color.” Incidentally, these two sentences are in fact explicitly prohibited on Nextdoor “when used to undermine racial equality or the Black Lives Matter movement.”
This is not the first time the company has introduced such prompts. In 2019, Nextdoor also launched a “Kindness reminder»That detects offensive language and prompts users to edit the post. The company said this resulted in a 30% reduction in “uncivil content.”
Nextdoor also relies on human moderators to control its forums. In an interview with Wired, Friar said the company tried to its local moderators are also volunteers.
The anti-racism notification will roll out this week across the web, iOS and Android.
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