Bluesky in trouble: Europe accuses it of violating EU rules
Bluesky’s user base has nearly doubled since Donald Trump won the election, with X’s owner, Elon Musk, becoming a “quasi-minister” to the new US president. This has caught the attention of the European Union, which has found that Bluesky is not in compliance with the Digital Services Act, or DSA.
The Financial Times quotes European Commission spokesman Thomas Regner as explaining why Bluesky does not comply with EU laws:
“All EU platforms should have a specific page on their website stating how many users they have in the EU and where they are legally based. That is not the case for Bluesky today. That is not being implemented.”
- Bluesky will have to comply with European laws.
According to the Financial Times, Thomas Regnier has asked the US government to search for traces of Bluesky offices, which has already become the main alternative to Elon Musk's X company. But they have not yet contacted the social network.
If this information is correct, it is incomprehensible that the European Commission would ask the US government to track Bluesky's offices, without first asking Bluesky itself.
Bluesky has no problem revealing their users, they do it every now and then on their official account. As for the headquarters, if they haven't got it yet, it seems like a logistical problem, because they're growing so fast.
In addition, Bluesky's user base is still far from the 45 million users required to enforce the Digital Services Act's censorship measures.
When Elon Musk bought X, Bluesky became an independent company. It grew slowly, but hit a “growth spurt” after Donald Trump won. Before Elon Musk endorsed the new US president, Bluesky had less than 10 million users. Today, it has 22.5 million, growing by a million every day. Many of them come from X.