Bluesky: First Transparency Report Shows Strong Growth and More Moderation

According to Bluesky's first comprehensive transparency report, the user base of the decentralized social media platform grew from just under 26 million to over 41 million accounts in 2025. Correspondingly, there was significantly more activity: users created around 1.4 billion posts, which corresponds to about 60 percent of all posts ever written on the platform.

With the growing user numbers, the number of reports also increased by over 50 percent. Misleading content topped the list of user reports. According to Bluesky, this primarily comprised spam. In second place was the complex category of "harassment" with almost 2 million reports. While specific violations such as hate speech, targeted harassment, and trolling accounted for a portion of this, a large part of the reports, according to Bluesky, fell into a gray area.

Bluesky also reported a significant increase in legal requests – there were almost 1500 of them last year. The platform precisely distinguishes between requests for user data disclosure (e.g., through court orders), official deletion requests (based on laws like the EU's Digital Services Act), and requests for data preservation for later proceedings. The majority of these requests originated from Germany, the USA, and Japan.

User Control Instead of Bans

Similarly, the transparency report also provides insights into Bluesky's moderation strategy. The focus is on user control and labeling rather than bans. The company wants to preserve content, and with labeling, it gives users control, according to Bluesky. Depending on their comfort level, they can hide or display content. The platform is confident that by further developing its systems, it ensures greater diversity of opinion while simultaneously reducing unwanted content.

Bluesky also aims to back up this approach with numbers. After the introduction of a new filter that hides toxic replies behind an additional click, daily reports of antisocial behavior decreased by around 79 percent.

Nevertheless, the focus on labeling does not mean an end to bans. The report clarifies that there is a zero-tolerance policy for certain offenses, where the platform consistently takes action with immediate and permanent account suspensions. This applies to organized spam networks, circumventing bans, or severe violations such as the distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Particular attention was paid to so-called coordinated influence operations, which led to the suspension of almost 3600 accounts. Bluesky defines these as organized campaigns that attempt to deliberately manipulate public discourse through a network of fake or misleading accounts. According to the report, most of these accounts were linked to foreign, state-aligned actors – primarily from Russia.

Verification and Youth Protection as Work in Progress

To strengthen trust in the authenticity of accounts, Bluesky also introduced a verification system in 2025. It is based on direct verification by the platform and a network of "Trusted Verifiers." This allows independent organizations such as newsrooms or universities to confirm the authenticity of accounts in their respective fields. This decentralized approach reflects the company's conviction that trust does not only arise centrally, "but also comes from the communities themselves," as stated in the report. By the end of 2025, around 4300 accounts had been verified.

The platform also names the introduction of age controls as one of its greatest challenges. Bluesky responded to new laws in Great Britain, Australia, and several US states with this. Bluesky describes this as a difficult balancing act that required "significant technical and operational investments."

The report particularly highlights this with the example of the US state of Mississippi. Initially, they decided to completely block access to Bluesky because the technical capabilities to implement the local law were lacking. Only after the systems were developed for other regions could they offer a solution for adult users in Mississippi as well.

(ssi)