Highlights:
- The anti racism feature will alert the user if the post he is about to upload seems racist.
- The company claims that their early “kindness reminder” feature has reduced the offensive posts by 30%.
- Former Google employee, Dan Clancy also joined Nextdoor in February 2014.
Introduction:
How many times do we post something and it comes across as racist post? Many times, right? Though it is not intentional, being racist directly or indirectly is a big no.
NextDoor has come up with a new feature called “anti-racism” notification. This feature allows the user to monitor their posts. The app checks to see if they are offensive in any way. Previously, it had “Kindness Reminder”. If a user’s post is objectionable or offensive in some way, the app would help the user modify it.
However, it is upon the user’s whim to ignore the warning and upload the post anyway. A blog post has put up an announcement for the feature of “anti-racism” alert.
More about the “anti racism notification”
According to Nextdoor, the “kindness reminder” has reduced “offensive posts” by a whopping 30 percent. And 30 percent is a huge number. It is difficult to predict whether the new feature will be of any help like the old one.
To elaborate on this, Nextdoor talks about an example. Someone may respond to a Black Lives matter post by mentioning that “all lives matter”. But then they may decide to hear the person out after receiving the “anti racism” alert. Well, they may not match up with their real life behavior.
And it seems that Nextdoor is very much aware of this fact. The company aims to spread awareness. The app alerts people before they violate a social media’s network policy. Nextdoor mentions this in their support page for the newly announced feature.
The announcement of the feature:
As per their announcement, the comments regarding white lives matter or black lives matter are under regulation. The new notification may not change some people’s thought process. It still aims to make the platform a better place for every user of the platform.
The concept behind the Nextdoor app:
Nextdoor is a hyperlocal social media networking platform for neighborhoods. You can reach out to people that stay in your neighborhoods. The app helps you identify the real people that stay in your neighborhood. The company was founded in 2008 in San Francisco, California.
History of the company:
Nirav Tolia, Sarah Leary, Prakash Jankiraman and David Wielsen are the co-founders of Nextdoor. But the platform has faced criticism for enabling racially profiled people of color. The early investors of the company are Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, Rich Barton.
Early Investors for Nextdoor:
Around July 2012, Nextdoor raised US$ 18.6 million in venture capital funding. In February 2014, the company had 80 to 100 employees. Dan Clancy, who worked at Google formerly, joined Nextdoor in February 2014.
