Can You Wish Ill on J.K. Rowling On Bluesky?
After a confusing few days of moderation, the trans community on Bluesky fears they’re being targeted for posts wishing ill on the anti-trans billionaire.
by Valorie Van-Dieman
On Friday, August 15, trans director and writer Jessie Earl, also known on YouTube as Jessie Gender, made a post to Bluesky stating: “I also wish ill on JK Rowling”; for which they subsequently received a twenty-four hour suspension. Following Earl’s suspension, the queer community on Bluesky rallied around them in outrage over the suspension.
This was not the only suspension by Bluesky of a trans person for criticizing Rowling. The post that earned Earl the temporary ban was a quote post of trans author Gretchen Felker-Martin announcing that their account had been restored, who herself earned a suspension for stating "I hope someone splits her skull," in reference to J.K. Rowling.
While Felker-Martin’s original comment may have broken Bluesky terms of service, the post Earl quoted made no reference to the original wording, simply stating, “The reason Bluesky gave me for this was my wishing ill on J.K. Rowling.” This and another related suspension has touched off fears among trans Bluesky users that the company is targeting the trans community more harshly, or that posts referencing Rowling may be treated differently from other content. A comment from Bluesky to Assigned Media has only muddied the water further.
Following Earl’s post and suspension, dozens of accounts posted in solidarity also stating they wished ill on Rowling. Smaller accounts seemed largely ignored by Bluesky moderation, but some larger accounts, such as that of nonbinary author Dani Finn, received similar twenty-four hour suspensions for wishing ill on Rowling.
In a post to the Jessie Gender Youtube channel shortly after Earl's suspension, they shared a screenshot of Bluesky’s message about notifying them. In this message, Bluesky’s moderators claim that their post had engaged in “Threats of violence”, “Incitement of self-harm”, and “Wishes of harm.” It is, of course, worth noting that nothing more specific was said besides ill wishes.
Reached via email, Earl expressed confusion and concern. “My words were mild—especially compared to Rowling’s own rhetoric about trans people,” Earl told Assigned Media, “‘Wishing Ill’ is vague; it could mean anything from wishing her eternal torment to hoping her coffee’s lukewarm.”
These sentiments were echoed by Finn who wrote via email that wishing Rowling ill could be as simple as “having your TV show canceled due to your role in international transphobic policy.”
Bluesky’s community guidelines are currently undergoing a major revision, with new language promoting a culture of safety and respect for all users. The policy does not specifically prohibit wishing ill on others or mention J. K. Rowling individually.
Assigned Media reached out to Bluesky via email to ask about Earl and Finn’s account suspensions, Early Tuesday morning they responded, writing “we took action because the user stated that they wanted to ‘split the skull’ of another person, who they named. This violates our policy of explicit death threats.”
When Assigned clarified that we were referencing the suspensions of Earl and Finn, in addition to Felker-Martin, they followed up by saying “Still checking on other accounts but you can definitely say that Gretchen’s account is what I’m referring to - it violates our policy.”
Shortly after our request for clarification, the post Dani Finn had been suspended for was fully restored, with Bluesky issuing an update to Dani, saying that their post had been removed incorrectly. At time of writing it does not appear that Earl's nearly identical post has been restored.
Questions remain in the community about what these suspensions say about the moderation policies of Bluesky going forward, and whether criticism of J.K. Rowling will be treated differently from other critical sentiments. Assigned Media did not find evidence of the site’s moderation policies being applied quite so liberally in other cases.
Many Bluesky users have expressed their belief that a policy against wishing ill on Rowling or other public figures would be excessive. In the case of Rowling, she has frequently launched attacks from her platform on trans people and people she perceived as trans. “They ignore power dynamics and context. A trans person saying they wish a powerful, wealthy anti-trans bigot ill is an expression of anger and frustration from someone without power,” said Earl, “If Rowling said the exact same thing about me, it would carry an entirely different weight—leading to harassment and real harm to me directly.”
Bluesky censoring criticisms and negative feelings toward people in power, while allowing countless accounts to engage in espousing hateful rhetoric towards trans people and other minorities is deeply worrying, especially on a site built on the back of people moving to it to escape that very same thing on Twitter. “If their definition of “harm” includes “wishing ill,” words have lost all meaning and they can censor any criticism they don’t like,” Dani said, “if criticism of public figures is no longer allowed—then the clouds have truly covered these once blue skies.”
Valorie Van-Dieman (she/they) is a reporter and editorial assistant at Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social