Bluesky in violation of European legislation, no action taken thus far

The rapidly growing social media platform Bluesky is violating European regulation by failing to disclose important details.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the European Commission told Reuters during a daily briefing that Bluesky doesn’t inform the Commission how many users it has.

“All platforms in the EU, even the smallest ones which are below the threshold, which is the case for Bluesky,  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. This is not the case for Bluesky as of today,” the spokesperson said.

In addition, he stated that the European Commission hasn’t reached out to the company because it isn’t classified as a Very Large Online Player or VLOP under the Digital Services Act.

The Digital Services Act or DSA was adopted in 2021 to improve the protection of European consumers and internet users against the dominance of large and powerful tech companies.

According to the DSA, companies with more than 45 million active monthly users and an annual turnover of €7.5 billion in the EU, are considered Very Large Online Players (VLOPs). They are required to combat the distribution of potentially harmful content and disinformation. They are also obliged to have an office in Europe.

As of writing, Bluesky doesn’t have 45 million active monthly users in the EU. That’s why the European Commission hasn’t been in contact with the social media platform regarding its violations.

Bluesky was founded in 2019 and has its roots in a project that was founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Along with a team of developers, Dorsey conceived Twitter to build an open, decentralized network. That network was to separate users from steering algorithms and give them more control over what posts they got to see. Instead of a single owner, anyone could connect a server with its own rules to Bluesky.

“One of the things that I was hyperaware of was just the risks of centralization because one thing I always like to say is the captain can always sink the ship,” Jay Graber, owner and CEO of Bluesky, told The Verge in an interview earlier this year, explaining why she thought Bluesky should be a separate company from Twitter.

As of now, Bluesky has more than 20 million users. Most new members are switching from X to the new social media platform.