The Nextdoor app takes pride in trying to push the narrative that they create a caring environment for neighbors to share information and help each other. However, this is far from the truth. Over the years there have been constant complaints and reports to the Nextdoor corporate location in California regarding everything from racism to bullying, and some of this is done by the very leads that they give power to. While the leads are a volunteer group, they have the ability to vote on whether a particular comment should be removed, even when it is harmless or generic. In some cases, the leads themselves are posting articles that drip with hate and Nextdoor lets them do anything that they want.
I have written articles about the horrors of Nextdoor and you only have to go to feedback forums such as Sitejabber, that have reports on Nextdoor and even Nextdoor’s own Facebook page to see the reams of people complaining about being banned or removed, as well as bullying and racist leads that they empower.
With the escalation of peaceful protests supporting the attention on police brutality in the Black American community, the microscope is now on platforms such as Nextdoor that has been a harbor for racist behavior. Things seemed to finally explode when Nextdoor put a post on their Facebook page regarding support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and all hell broke loose. Comments about the racist behavior of their leads ActionNetwork.org to create a petition requiring that all leads take an anti-racist and bias instruction course. As per their website page:
Require Implicit Bias & Anti-Racism Training for EVERY Nextdoor Lead
“The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor ignited conversations across the county on structural and institutionalism racism in our communities. It’s a critical conversation — one that our neighbors should be having, but many cannot, due to censorship on Nextdoor, the world’s largest neighborhood social network.
Many Nextdoor users reported that posts in support of Black Lives Matter were being removed by moderators, also known as Neighborhood Leads — despite the company itself publicly tweeting support for the movement.
