Bluesky not complying with EU laws, says European Commission
The rapidly growing social media platform Bluesky is violating EU regulations by failing to disclose important details, a European Commission spokesperson told reporters during a daily briefing on Monday. A number of mandatory legal notices are missing from its website.
Bluesky experienced a major growth in recent weeks and there currently are about 22 million users active on the social media platform. Last week, there were several days when the user base grew by one million in 24 hours. But according to a European Commission spokesperson, Bluesky is not complying with European legislation.
“All platforms in the EU, even the smallest ones, have to have a dedicated page on their website where it says how many user numbers they have in the EU and where they are legally established,” the spokesperson said. “This is not the case for Bluesky as of today,”.
Bluesky's privacy page does not provide any company information, reported newspaper De Morgen. The privacy statement does mention an e-mail address, but that’s not sufficient for the Commission.
The European Commission spokesperson also stated that, since Bluesky is currently not classified as a Very Large Platform under the EU's Digital Services Act, the commission has not yet reached out to the company. Instead, it has contacted the EU’s 27 national governments to check "if they can find any trace of Bluesky”. News agency Reuters asked Bluesky for a comment, but the company did not yet respond to questions.
Bluesky began in 2019 as a research project at Twitter, when the platform was still led by Jack Dorsey, and became an independent company in 2021. Since the US presidential election, Bluesky has been gaining popularity. Internet users are looking for an alternative to X, which has been owned by billionaire Elon Musk since late 2022. The businessman backed Donald Trump during the US presidential election and gave financial support to his campaign.
Logo of the social media app Bluesky on the screen of a mobile phone © BELGA PHOTO Davide Bonaldo/Sipa USA
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