Social media company Bluesky, a platform once funded by Twitter before becoming a direct competitor when Elon Musk took over Twitter and turned it into the laxer X, has decided to temporarily shut down its service in Mississippi over an age verification law.
On Aug. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court refused for the time being to block enforcement of a state law aimed at regulating the use of social media by children, one that requires major platforms to require users to verify they are older than 18 or have parental permission if using social media as a minor.
The law was passed by the state legislature in 2024 and signed by Gov. Tate Reeves after a teenager by the name of Walker Montgomery took his life after falling victim to sextortion.
While Bluesky noted in a Friday announcement that Mississippi’s law is “intended for child safety,” company officials more so believe it “poses broader challenges and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and harm smaller platforms like ours.”
With legal challenges to the law pending, Bluesky said it cannot justify building costly infrastructure needed to track users’ ages and monitor compliance. The company also mentioned concerns over privacy implications, including the collection and storage of personal information from all users – even if above the age of 18.
“We believe effective child safety policies should be carefully tailored to address real harms, without creating huge obstacles for smaller providers and resulting in negative consequences for free expression,” the Bluesky Team wrote. “That’s why until legal challenges to this law are resolved, we’ve made the difficult decision to block access from Mississippi IP addresses. We know this is disappointing for our users in Mississippi, but we believe this is a necessary measure while the courts review the legal arguments.”
For the time being, users who try to access Bluesky from a Mississippi IP address will see a message saying the app is not available to them and explaining why the block is in place.
“We do not take this decision lightly. Child safety is a core priority, and in this evolving regulatory landscape, we remain committed to building an open social ecosystem that protects users while preserving choice and innovation. We’ll keep you updated as this situation develops,” the announcement concluded.
Bluesky has over 38 million users globally but has not grown as projected after seeing a user-base surge in late 2024 and early 2025, after Musk made changes to X, including a new verification process and loosened moderation guidelines for content. Bluesky currently ranks as the No. 54 social networking app on Apple’s App Store.
