A user was banned for making a Johnny Cash reference. Where’s the dividing line between serious threat and jokey pop culture reference?
Bluesky recently suspended the account of author and liberal influencer Sarah Kendzior, leading to confusion on the left-leaning social media platform about what she did. According to Bluesky, Kendzior was suspended for, “expressing a desire to shoot the author of an article,” a pretty shocking allegation. Until you learn the context, sparking its own debate about where platforms should draw the line when it comes to moderation.
“The post, made 11/10, stated: ‘I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die‘,” a spokesperson for Bluesky explained to Gizmodo in an email Wednesday morning.
“The account owner was immediately notified of the reason for the content takedown and engaged back and forth with our moderation team. Our community guidelines prohibit content that threatens or wishes harm to others,” the spokesperson continued.
Bluesky’s safety team also shared a similar statement online Wednesday, not long after Gizmodo received its statement via email. But Kendzior, who’s based in St. Louis and has written political books like The View From Flyover Country (2018) and Hiding in Plain Sight (2020), told Gizmodo there’s more to the story.
“I posted that line as a quote tweet above a terrible article about Johnny Cash,” Kendzior said. “My post references the famous lyric from his song Folsom Prison Blues: ‘I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.’”
Kendzior was quote-posting a reference to the Wall Street Journal’s article from Oct. 9 about Johnny Cash, which was widely mocked for being out of touch. Titled, “It’s Finally Time to Give Johnny Cash His Due,” social media users poked fun at the idea that Cash, one of the most well-respected musical artists of the 20th century, had not received proper recognition.
Kendzior pointed out that Bluesky made no mention of the Johnny Cash lyrics: “Notably, they did not send you a screenshot of my full quote-tweet, but only that one line, isolated from the Johnny Cash context.
