Bluesky Halts Services in Mississippi Over Age Verification Regulations

The social networking startup Bluesky has decided to limit access to its platform in Mississippi instead of complying with a new age verification law.

In a blog post published on Friday, the company explained that due to its small size, it lacks the resources for the extensive technical changes such legislation demands, raising concerns about the law’s broad implications and privacy issues.

Mississippi’s HB 1126 requires platforms to perform age verification for all users before they can use social networks like Bluesky. On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court justices opted to reject an emergency appeal intended to stop the law’s enforcement as legal challenges are considered in the courts.

As a result, Bluesky needed to decide how to respond regarding compliance.

Unlike laws that only require age verification for access to age-restricted content, this statute demands verification from all users. Thus, Bluesky would have to verify the ages of every user and obtain parental consent for those under 18. The company highlights the significant penalties for noncompliance, which could reach up to $10,000 per user.

Bluesky suggests that the law goes beyond child safety, creating “significant barriers that infringe on free speech and disproportionately affect smaller platforms and emerging technologies.”

To comply, Bluesky would have to collect and store sensitive information from all users and monitor minors closely. This approach differs from its expected adherence to other age verification laws, such as the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA), which requires age checks only for certain content and features.

According to Mississippi’s law, anyone must submit personal and sensitive information to access the platform.

“Unlike large tech companies with ample resources, we’re a small team focused on creating decentralized social technology that empowers users,” stated the blog post. “Implementing age verification systems requires extensive infrastructure, significant developer time, complex privacy safeguards, and ongoing compliance monitoring — costs that could easily overwhelm smaller providers. This scenario strengthens the dominance of established big tech companies while curbing innovation and competition that ultimately benefits users,” it added.

Some Bluesky users outside of Mississippi have reported access problems due to their cellular providers routing traffic through servers located in the state. CTO Paul Frazee indicated on Saturday that the company is “endeavoring to roll out an update to our location detection that we hope will correct some inaccuracies.”

The blog post notes that this decision specifically pertains to the Bluesky app built on the AT Protocol, and other applications may pursue alternative strategies.

This post has been updated to include information about user issues outside Mississippi and Bluesky’s response.

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