Many people have been upset by the way the Raspberry Pi has handled criticism on social media. Among them is James Spencer, a London-based developer. “In my head, they’ve always been this grassroots company just trying to do computer stuff with makers and hackers,” he said via Twitter DM.
spencer raised his concerns about hiring Robert directly with Raspberry Pi at Mastodon; the brand told him to “calm down” then he blocked it. Spencer described the company’s reaction as “toxic” and “indicative of how they’ve grown as a company.” He added: “A social media manager for the company doesn’t have to be technical, but at their base, they clearly don’t know their audience.”
Upton said he believes much of the backlash to Roberts’ hiring is not genuine. “Toby was in the police force for 30 years in the UK,” he said. He is a decorated officer. He worked in organized crime, getting drugs out of schools. He is not a bad person, and this is not America. I think there are people trying to perpetuate a culture war against Mastodon. And I’m not sure their motives are necessarily benign.
Upton got down to business about why Spencer had been banned by the official Raspberry Pi account on Mastodon. Confronted with the messages and the account’s response, she said it was likely Spencer was banned for “concern trolling” because she wrote: “You’ve basically written that this guy specializes in surveillance and now works with our computers, good! “.
Later in the interview, Upton said that the social media manager had possibly received death threats at the time Spencer responded to his post and may have been shaken. “If he made a mistake and blocked someone who shouldn’t have been blocked, people should give him the benefit of the doubt given what just happened to him,” Upton said.
Asked if the Raspberry Pi had handled the situation well as an organization, Upton replied, “I think we’ll talk about something else next week.” She also said that as a Chinese woman, she has had bad experiences on the Internet for a long time. “Your features aren’t necessarily visible, but Toby is an ex-cop. This is how he identifies himself. He is what he is. When she was asked if she was trying to equate being a police officer with being a Chinese woman, Upton replied: “No, no, no, no, absolutely not. But I’m saying that people will hold on to things to jump.”
Hills, the game’s developer, thinks it’s quite possible that people overreacted to the hiring because of what they thought the Raspberry Pi stood for, and what they thought Roberts did. “Maybe people are getting overworked on social media,” he said. “They see the word ‘police’ and have shot themselves with one. The guy could be a lovely guy.
