EU Commission: Bluesky violates DSA rules

The short message service Bluesky is increasingly coming under scrutiny from the EU Commission. According to the Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms such as Bluesky are subject to certain disclosure obligations, which the EU Commission believes the provider has not yet complied with. The Commission itself does not yet want to get involved and is sending the DSA coordinators of the member states forward.

According to the DSA, foreign platforms in the EU are also obliged to provide information on the operator and user numbers, for example, and to have a contact person in the EU. "Even the smallest platforms must have a dedicated page on their website that provides information on the number of users in the EU and the company's legal domicile," said a Commission spokesperson in Brussels on Monday. In the case of Bluesky, this was "indeed not the case".

DSA coordinators sent out

"It is not up to the Commission to enforce the DSA rules here. That is a matter for the national DSA coordinators", explained the Commission spokesperson. "Aware of the issue, the Commission has asked the DSA coordinators to investigate at national level whether there is a trace to Bluesky." In Germany, this is the Federal Network Agency.

At just over 20 million, the total number of Bluesky users is still well below the threshold above which the DSA rules for particularly large platforms apply. With regularly more than 45 million users in the EU, a service is considered a "very large online platform" (VLOP) – and is then subject to stricter regulation. Because Bluesky has not yet crossed this threshold despite the significant increase in user numbers following the US election, the Commission's hands are initially tied.

Bluesky was founded in 2019 and has its roots in a project for a new decentralized social network initiated by then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The original Twitter project was spun off as a separate company at the end of 2021. Bluesky is registered as a non-profit company in Seattle (US state of Washington). It is not entirely clear how the company is financed.

Non-profit company

Dorsey, who provided the initial funding as Twitter CEO, was a shareholder and member of the board, but has since withdrawn from Bluesky. According to media reports, most of the company's shares are held by CEO Jay Graber. Officially, the company belongs to Graber "and the Bluesky team". Bluesky's declared aim is to create a "social application" that is "not controlled by a single company". The platform has been open to all users since the beginning of 2024.

So far, companies such as Google (Play Store, Maps, YouTube), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Microsoft (Linkedin), Booking and retail platforms such as Amazon or Temu as well as porn portals have been classified as VLOPs by the EU. Wikipedia is also on the list. Some of the companies – Amazon, Pornhub and Zalando – are taking legal action against the classification and the DSA requirements. The proceedings are still ongoing.

See also: heise online on Bluesky

(vbr)