Using Bluesky Labelers To Show Campaign Funding Data
So lately I've been making a lot of things for Bluesky. Like everyone has said a thousand times already, it just reminds me of the early days of Twitter. Being on an open platform is inspiring and sparks creativity within the community.
So far I've made a few things:
You might be asking yourself, "What is a labeler?"
To me it's one of the most interesting parts of Bluesky. Simply put, a labeler is a tool that lets you label content or users on Bluesky. It's a part of their stackable moderation approach.
With labels you can do things like:
- Label posts that are hateful, ai generated, and many other things
- Label accounts that have been flagged by certain communities
- Label yourself to show you are part of a certain community
This in combination with custom feeds and blocks lists start to form a toolset that lets anyone carve out their own space on Bluesky. One of the most interesting current examples of this is Blacksky. With the tools at their disposal they can create their own community that both connects them to each other and protects them from hate.
Stepping back though we've all seen this joke on thie internet:
...what if we could make that an actual thing? With labelers we can!
In the US campaign finance law means it all has to be public (mostly), so in theory we could use that data to list the entities that fund our politicians.
So that's what I did.
My labeler uses data from Open Secrets to add labels to politicians on Bluesky. While the data isn't perfect, you have to understand the "companies" are for donation by individuals and not the companies themselves, I do believe that more transparency is better. The data might not be perfect now but it's a start.
Democracy dies in darkness, so let's shine a light.
This is just the start for what's possible on Bluesky. Everyday I'm more excited for what a more open social web looks like. I hope you're there to be a part of the conversation.
And as always, the code is open source.