As protests continue against systemic racism around the world, the tech industry are beginning to wake up and address practices within their own communities that contribute to inequality. Yesterday, Instagram led the charge, announcing it would launch an investigation into whether its algorithm suppressed Black voices. In a blog post entitled “Ensuring Black Voices Are Heard”, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri wrote: “We need to better support the Black community within our own organization, as well as on our platform,” outlining key strategies on targeting harassment, algorithmic bias, account verification and how content is filtered through the app’s Explore page.
Today, Depop is joining the fray with an announcement and an admission that their policies have not done enough to platform Black and POC sellers, something they will now be addressing. In a similar blog post the platform wrote: “Depop exists for people pushing for change. It’s a space where style and self-expression thrive naturally. With a community that believes in working together to make things better – and speaking up when things aren’t going that way.
“Diversity has always been fundamental to Depop,” it continues, “but it hasn’t been represented fully on our platform and we’re changing that.”
Depop also announced their commitment to the Black and POC community with an Instagram post, which promised to make it easier to shop and discover a more diverse range of sellers via the Explore page, as well as increase the number of Black and POC Depop vendors overall. While the commitment is a great start, many Instagram users pointed out that the pledges do not contain information of how Depop will undertake these structural changes. For now though, it’s a start.