Bluesky blocks Mississippi users over age verification law
Bluesky has blocked access in Mississippi, citing privacy and free speech concerns over a new law requiring all social media users to undergo age verification with fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
Its probably more difficult to block multiple mastodon instances than the single bluesky site.
The problem isn't that the state is blocking it; its that they threatened to impose a $10,000 fine for each user who can access the site without first proving their age.
You can afford that risk if you live outside the US. Not if you're a US corporation
Also, a detail but:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/supreme-court-lets-mississippi-age-verification-law-go-into-effect-for
It's considered likely to be unconstitutional.
The ruling now allows Mississippi to enforce its social media law while case continues in the lower court. In the ruling, Kavanaugh also cited several district court rulings opposing similar age-verification laws, concluding that "the Mississippi law is likely unconstitutional."
Don't think the constitution has mattered for a while, mate.
Didn't SCOTUS recently uphold one of these age verification laws?
For Porn sites only
when will we start calling it the us great firewall?
Because it’s not just the US pushing it.
Does this law apply to all social media/social media-type sites, or only social media websites under the umbrella of the NetChoice group?
The articles on this are all frustratingly vague. Bluesky is not under NetChoice so I assume all social media sites will eventually be blocking MS IPs?
My understanding is that it applies to every site which hosts any NSFW content, whether or not minors can access it
So I'm curious. If this law is in play in Mississippi now, are Mississippians being prompted for their ID on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc? I would check myself but my VPN doesn't have a Mississippi server.
If not, and they're not bothering, then why is Bluesky reacting like this specifically?
I kinda wish the big companies would do the same and just block the states that pass these laws. Like, the state just loses access to a big chunk of the internet as soon as the bill passes, prompting an uproar and a learning opportunity for those lawmakers.
Obviously that's probably unrealistic, but I can dream 🙂
I’m about ready to cancel my internet and buy a book. Maybe even go outside.
Extreme times, extreme measures...?
These laws will make Americans seek escape from empire monitoring through VPNs. Empire will coopt the VPNs and then democrats accessing Bluesky without identity verification will be charged with hacking crimes.
You know the law must be bad if they block Mississippi due to this, but not the UK.
With the UK, they can block content that's known to be NSFW. With Mississippi, they get fined if kids access the site at all if somebody else on there sees something NSFW.
Jesus christ, that's even worse.
Didn't some woman shoot up Google headquarters because of some age verification process on YouTube where she specifically made makeup videos geared toward children and lost all her revenue or subscribers?