Bluesky, a decentralized-ish Twitter clone for people who liked Twitter before Elon Musk turned it into a Nazi bar, is no longer accessible in Mississippi. The state's "age verification" law–a mass-surveillance program posed as "think of the children" safety regulation (previously)–went live and Bluesky has chosen to suspend service there rather than bear the costs of compliance.
The Supreme Court's recent decision leaves us facing a hard reality: comply with Mississippi's age assurance law—and make every Mississippi Bluesky user hand over sensitive personal information and undergo age checks to access the site—or risk massive fines. The law would also require us to identify and track which users are children, unlike our approach in other regions. We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms and emerging technologies.
Age verification laws may benefit those who can absorb the costs of compliance and the overwhelming legal risks. U.S. tech giants Meta and Snap favor such laws, Apple and Google not so much.
Unlike tech giants with vast resources, we're a small team focused on building decentralized social technology that puts users in control. Age verification systems require substantial infrastructure and developer time investments, complex privacy protections, and ongoing compliance monitoring — costs that can easily overwhelm smaller providers. This dynamic entrenches existing big tech platforms while stifling the innovation and competition that benefits users.
Bluesky is complying with the U.K.'s similar new law, which it finds not so burdensome. Mississippi's, "by contrast, would block everyone from accessing the site—teens and adults—unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children."
Previously:
• YouTube to impose AI-powered age verification
• Brits getting around age verification using animated game faces
• Kansas classifies homosexuality as adult content in extreme age verification law
• Pornhub and other sites block Texas over age verification law
