Our Commitment to End Racial Profiling on Nextdoor - Nextdoor Blog

Racial profiling or discrimination of any kind is antithetical to this mission. It has been incredibly painful to hear that some of the messages neighbors are posting on Nextdoor are having a negative impact on people’s lives.

Even though these kinds of conversations are rare, even one occurrence is too many – and we are committed to ending this destructive behavior on Nextdoor. We will continue to work on ways to educate members about what racial profiling is, why it is harmful, and how it will always be unacceptable on Nextdoor.

Listed below are a number of product changes we have already implemented to end racial profiling on Nextdoor. We have seen an encouraging response to these changes, but realize that there is no easy or quick solution. This is just the beginning of our long-term commitment.

Changes to-date:

• Explicitly prohibit racial profiling in our “Nextdoor Guidelines on Neighborly Behavior.” Every member was emailed about this update. If a member posts a message that is flagged as racial profiling and violates the guidelines, the content will be removed and the member may be suspended from Nextdoor.

• A form for posting criminal activity to neighbors. The form is designed to prompt members that Crime & Safety posts should lead with criminal behavior and include detailed descriptions.

• A racial profiling flag with feedback from the member who flagged the post. When a post is flagged as “racial profiling,” it is immediately escalated to the Neighborhood Lead and Nextdoor Support Team so that offensive content can be removed.

• A mandatory warning screen that instructs members to “focus on behavior, not appearance” when initially posting in the Crime & Safety section.

• An explicit warning that racial profiling is prohibited in the Urgent Alerts post box.

• A help article explaining why racial profiling is so harmful that also details what police define as suspicious behavior.
• Training and education for our Neighborhood Leads on the issue of racial profiling. We will pilot this training in Oakland first.

Everyone at Nextdoor is taking this issue very seriously and we will not stop at the changes outlined above. We understand that the conversations on Nextdoor can have real impact in the world and are dedicated to making that impact as positive as possible.

If you have feedback or suggestions, we look forward to hearing them – you can contact us here.

The Nextdoor Team

Note: For testing purposes, some product changes may presently only be live in the Bay Area.