Bluesky — Regulatory Order
Executive Summary
Bluesky blocked all access from Mississippi IP addresses in response to Mississippi's HB1126 age-assurance law, which required age verification for all users and parental consent for minors, with penalties of up to $10,000 per user. Bluesky cited privacy concerns about collecting and storing sensitive personal data, and resource constraints as a smaller platform. In December 2025, Bluesky partially restored access for adults who completed age assurance.
What Happened
On August 22, 2025, Bluesky blocked access from all Mississippi IP addresses rather than comply with the state's HB1126 age assurance law, which took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it on August 14. The law required Bluesky to verify the age of every user before allowing access, obtain parental consent for users under 18, and maintain detailed tracking of minors, with penalties of up to $10,000 per user for noncompliance. In December 2025, Bluesky partially restored access by allowing Mississippi users aged 18 and over to use the platform after completing age assurance.
Who Is Affected
All Bluesky users attempting to access the service from Mississippi IP addresses were initially blocked from the platform entirely. Some users outside Mississippi also experienced access issues when their mobile carriers routed traffic through servers located in Mississippi. After the December 2025 update, adults in Mississippi who complete age assurance can access the platform, but minors remain blocked.
Why It Matters
This represents a rare case of a social media platform choosing to completely block access to an entire U.S. state rather than implement age verification requirements. Bluesky cited concerns that collecting and storing sensitive personal information from all users would compromise privacy and that the substantial infrastructure costs would disproportionately harm smaller platforms while entrenching larger tech companies with more resources. The company contrasted Mississippi's blanket age verification requirement with more targeted approaches like the UK's Online Safety Act, which only requires age checks for specific content and features.
What You Should Do
If you are an adult Bluesky user in Mississippi, you can complete the age assurance process that Bluesky deployed in December 2025 to regain access to the platform. If you are experiencing access issues outside Mississippi due to IP routing, contact Bluesky support or monitor their updates, as the company has indicated it is working to improve location detection accuracy. Users who built apps on the AT Protocol may have different compliance approaches, so you could explore alternative clients if available.
AI-Assisted
Event summaries are generated by Claude AI from verified sources and reviewed by humans before publication.
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