An overly broad age assurance law in Mississippi is leading to arguments about which platforms — Bluesky, Mastodon, or others — offer the best solution for avoiding crackdowns on internet freedoms.
The company that makes the Bluesky social app announced last week that it would block access to its service in the state of Mississippi rather than comply with the new age verification law. In a blog post, the company explained that, as a small team, it lacked the resources to implement the substantial technical changes required by the law, and it raised concerns about the law’s broad scope and potential privacy implications.
The law, HB 1126, requires platforms to implement age verification for all users before they can access social networks like Bluesky. Recently, the Supreme Court justices decided to block an emergency appeal that would have prevented the law from going into effect as the legal challenges it faces played out in the courts. This forced Bluesky to make a decision of its own: either comply or risk hefty fines of up to $10,000 per user.
Users in Mississippi soon scrambled for a workaround, which tends to involve the use o
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