#2503 Flashes: A Concerning Debut of New App in Bluesky Ecosystem

By Maciej Lesiak

January 19, 2025 - 4 minutes read - 773 words

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#2503 Flashes: niepokojący debiut nowej aplikacji w ekosystemie Bluesky

What's in this article

In the Bluesky ecosystem, a decentralized social platform based on the AT protocol that I recently wrote about, a new visual content sharing app is preparing for launch. However, even during its initial presentations, Flashes is already stirring controversy due to concerning content appearing in its promotional materials.

Disturbing Semantics Referencing Political Violence

During the official app presentation, I couldn’t help but notice the scrolling stopping on a story allegedly from Alejandra Caraballo - a civil rights attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic. The post contained the hashtag #KillMoreCEOs along with criticism of corporate influence on American politics. In the context of Brian Thompson’s recent murder, the UnitedHealthcare CEO, using content attributed to a well-known content moderation expert in an official presentation takes on a particularly disturbing significance.

As Tomasz Stawiszyński notes in his analysis of the Mangione case, there’s a growing trend in the internet space glorifying political violence under the guise of fighting the system. The presence of such radical content in an official app presentation raises questions about moderation mechanisms in decentralized social platforms.

#KillMoreCEOs Big Oil buys off Congress. No action on climate. The NRA buys off Congress. No action on guns. Insurance companies buy off Congress. No action on health care. The list goes on and on. Money in politics is the root of our dysfunction. flashesapp.bsky.social

What is Flashes?

The app is created by independent developer Sebastian Vogelsang. Flashes will allow users to publish up to four photos per post and videos with a maximum length of one minute. All content will be automatically synchronized with the main Bluesky platform, including comments and direct messages.

While seemingly inspired by Instagram, the app aims to be its decentralized alternative, focusing on simplicity and effective visual content sharing. Flashes is not an official Bluesky team project but rather an independent initiative utilizing the open AT protocol.

Even if I disagree with Stawiszyński on matters of faith (sic!), his analysis of the Maglione case and political violence is spot-on. The hypocrisy and winking at people promoting conspiracy theories is extremely dangerous - that’s exactly what I wanted to show in this text. We cannot simultaneously promote violence and radicalism while pretending to be human rights defenders. This dualism is particularly disturbing in the context of new social media platforms that are supposed to be an alternative to toxicity.

UPDATE (01/20/2025):

After publishing the article, I managed to track down the original posts used in the Flashes presentation. It turned out that the presented material was significantly manipulated through the way content is displayed. The post that raised my concerns originally came from Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) link to post, an LGBT activist and cybersecurity law expert, who was actually warning about the growing radicalization of youth and the dangers associated with political violence.

The way the Flashes app presents content from Bluesky significantly alters its context. The app’s design pulls images to the top under the account name, while the original comment text is pushed lower and displayed in a smaller font. In Caraballo’s post, this led to a situation where only the controversial hashtag #KillMoreCEOs and a fragment of text were visible in the foreground, while her critical analysis of the phenomenon was hidden beyond the visible screen area.

This case demonstrates how seemingly cosmetic changes in content display can lead to serious distortions of the message and reinforce cognitive biases. Flashes is therefore not just “another photo-sharing app” - its design can actively contribute to disinformation through the decontextualization of content.

I fell victim to this mechanism myself, initially interpreting the activist’s post as promoting radical slogans, when in reality it was a warning about the rising wave of political violence. This shows how easy it is to be manipulated when content is taken out of its broader context.

Freedom or Threat?

The emergence of controversial content during the product’s presentation stage raises fundamental questions about the future of decentralized social media. Will the lack of central content control create space for the radicalization of public discourse? How can freedom of expression be balanced with responsibility for promoted content? Will Bsky become a safe haven for radicals?

Flashes is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks, preceded by a beta testing phase available through TestFlight. However, it’s worth considering now whether the platform can develop mechanisms to protect against the spread of dangerous content while maintaining the idea of decentralization.