Bluesky, a social networking startup, has blocked access to its service in Mississippi to avoid complying with the state’s new age assurance law, HB 1126, citing limited resources and privacy concerns.
The decision was announced in a blog post by the company, which highlighted that HB 1126 mandates age verification for all users of social networks operating within Mississippi. The U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked an emergency appeal seeking to prevent the law from taking effect while legal challenges are ongoing, leaving Bluesky with the decision to either comply or withdraw service from the state.
Bluesky emphasized that the law requires age verification of all users, not just those accessing age-restricted content, and necessitates parental consent for users under 18. The company also highlighted the significant penalties for noncompliance, which could reach up to $10,000 per user. According to Bluesky, the law extends beyond child safety measures and creates barriers to free speech, disproportionately affecting smaller platforms and emerging technologies.
Complying with the law would require Bluesky to collect and store sensitive information from all users, including detailed tracking of minors, a practice they consider different from complying with other age verification laws like the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA), which only requires age checks for certain content and features. “Unlike tech giants with vast resources, we’re a small team focused on building decentralized social technology that puts users in control,” the company stated in its blog post.
“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.”
Following Bluesky’s decision, some users outside Mississippi reported access issues due to their cell providers routing traffic through servers located in the state. Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee addressed these concerns on Saturday, stating that the company is “working to deploy an update to our location detection that we hope will solve some inaccuracies.”
Bluesky clarified that its decision to block service only applies to the Bluesky app built on the AT Protocol, leaving open the possibility that other apps utilizing the protocol may adopt different approaches to compliance.
