Bluesky to Block Mississippi Users Due to Age-Verification Law
Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses rather than comply with a Mississippi age-verification law that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to stand last week (see 2508140048), the social media company said in a statement Friday.
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“We believe effective child safety policies should be carefully tailored to address real harms, without creating huge obstacles for smaller providers and resulting in negative consequences for free expression,” said Bluesky. “That’s why until legal challenges to this law are resolved, we’ve made the difficult decision to block access from Mississippi IP addresses. We know this is disappointing for our users in Mississippi, but we believe this is a necessary measure while the courts review the legal arguments.”
Bluesky noted that it complies with the UK Online Safety Act, “where age checks are required only for specific content and features.” The company announced late last month it would comply with the British law (see 2507100067).
However, “Mississippi's approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky,” said the social platform. It said the Supreme Court left Bluesky “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.”
Bluesky added that its smaller size compared to tech giants makes compliance harder. “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.”