JACKSON, Miss.—Bluesky, an alternative platform to Elon Musk's X, on Friday announced that users from Mississippi IP addresses will be blocked due to compliance issues with a controversial social media age verification law.
"We’ve invested a lot of time and resources building moderation tools and other infrastructure to protect the youngest members of our community," reads the announcement from Bluesky. "Our mission is to build an open and decentralized protocol for public conversation, and we believe in empowering users with more choices and control over their experience.
"We work with regulators around the world on child safety—for example, Bluesky follows the UK's Online Safety Act, where age checks are required only for specific content and features," the statement adds. "Mississippi's approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky."
What the company refers to is the fact that Mississippi's age verification statute, adopted under House Bill (HB) 1126 in the previous legislative session, requires internet platforms to implement age verification for all users before they can access services and content offered by sites like Bluesky. The law applies to all social media sites.
This means that Bluesky must verify every user's age and obtain the parental consent of anyone under 18 years of age who wishes to have an account. Penalties for any failures and non-compliance are potentially substantial. Up to $10,000 can be fined per user under House Bill 1126. Instead of complying, Bluesky will show a note to any user accessing their app from Mississippi, telling them they can no longer access the app in the state without the use of a proxy or virtual private network (VPN).
Such a tactic is similar to what companies in the adult entertainment industry have opted for, including Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com. Aylo has gone as far as blocking entire U.S. states that have similar age verification laws that specifically target adult entertainment.
"Building the required verification systems, parental consent workflows, and compliance infrastructure would require significant resources that our small team is currently unable to spare as we invest in developing safety tools and features for our global community, particularly given the law's broad scope and privacy implications," the Bluesky statement added. HB 1126 is a flashpoint in ongoing federal litigation between a trade group called NetChoice and the state's attorney general, Lynn Fitch, a Republican.
NetChoice represents mainstream tech industry stakeholders, such as the parent companies of platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit and others. The trade group asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the enforcement of HB 1126 during litigation, but the high court chose to allow it to enter force. As AVN already reported, concurring with the decision not to grant NetChoice its emergency stay, Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the conservative majority was alarmed at HB 1126's overreach.
“To be clear, NetChoice has, in my view, demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on the merits—namely, that enforcement of the Mississippi law would likely violate its members’ First Amendment rights under this court’s precedents," Kavanaugh wrote.
This runs counter to Kavanaugh's support for a Texas age verification law that specifically targets adult entertainment content. In that case, Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton, he joined the five other conservatives of the Roberts court in affirming that the state has a right to suppress free speech rights if it regulates online pornography.
"We do not take this decision lightly," Bluesky added in its statement. "Child safety is a core priority, and in this evolving regulatory landscape, we remain committed to building an open social ecosystem that protects users while preserving choice and innovation. We’ll keep you updated as this situation develops."
Bluesky has become popular among adult content creators and studios due to its lax policies on nudity and sexually explicit material.
