I Can't Go On BlueSky anymore.

[Haggard Celine]

I tried to read a post there that was linked from here. A page came up saying that the Mississippi legislature passed a bill making it illegal for BlueSky to operate in Mississippi unless they start checking people's ages. BlueSky decided not to deal with Mississippi anymore. Is this law constitutional? Do they put the same restrictions on Twitter? What content does BlueSky have that would make the legislature want to keep kids from looking at it? I guess I'm going to have to complain to my state rep and senators. Anybody else having problems like this?

[Mike Nelson]

1. Sounds political...

... I have not seen any, but BlueSky may have had pornographic images. I have seen the most on Twitter. Fully explicit images... "10" on a scale of how pornographic. I know the social media sites have "robot police" finding and deleting extreme sex and violence in images. FB will sometimes "delete" something in error, and people complain. BlueSky seems to be one of the "safer" sites for seeing explicit sex and violence. Of course, I should mention that my "feed" there is a few close friends and DU people from when there was a thread here suggesting we add DU people there.

[Haggard Celine]

5. Yeah, I think it is political.

It's more of that Project 2025, I think. They say they're making things safer for the kids, but what they really want to do is curtail speech that they don't like. If they didn't put age restrictions on Twitter, then this ought to be illegal. I'm thinking about consulting a lawyer. I've never sued anyone in my life, but I'm sick of this fundagelical Nazi shit happening in this country. We're all going to have to raise Hell. Not enough people in our government have stood up to Trump, so he's taken all of that silence to mean that we all approve of this shit. A lot of us are going to have to complain to our state officials as well.

[avebury]

2. Add a VPN app to your device. Then you can change

Your location o someplace outside Mississippi..

[Haggard Celine]

7. Thank you!

I don't know enough about computers and I was wondering if there was some workaround. I'm going to get one of those right away!

[Jerry2144]

27. Careful. There are some that are linked to Russia

Do some research on reputable computer sites to see what to use. I don’t run one, even though I should, so I can’t recommend one.

Check cnet, zdnet, and similar computer sites to help figure out which one is honest

[JCMach1]

3. Choose to use a VPN and add those security

Apps and be prepared for the crackdowns that are coming

VPN
orbot for TOR Access
Signal (ditch SMS and WhatsApp and the Apple Messages)

[Haggard Celine]

9. Yeah, it's coming.

I'm just waiting for that oh shit moment when something awful sets off this powderkeg. Trump's about to get that civil war he's been trying to start for years.

[JCMach1]

14. Keep them on your phone and computers and celebrate

If they gather dust.

Signal is really good, ask Hegseth.

Orbot makes TOR easy to use on your phone. You can also use a high security browser with TOR as well.

[Haggard Celine]

16. Looks like I'm going to be learning more about technology.

I can't stand having these assholes looking over my shoulder and deciding what I can read or post.

[Liberal In Texas]

4. RW censorship.

I have stumbled across some pretty sexual explicit posts by some people on BlueSky. I mean really hard core. This may have triggered some repub in Mississippi.

[piddyprints]

8. I have too.

They were all dick pics. (What is the obsession? ) I blocked them, of course.

I was never on Xitter, so I don't have anything to compare BlueSky to. It's hard for me to believe this problem is exclusive to BlueSky.

[obamanut2012]

17. Twitter has literal porn posted

And has for years.

[Trueblue Texan]

18. bet they're right wing saboteurs .nt

[Haggard Celine]

10. That sounds about right.

Somebody's little girl saw a picture of a naked man and now we all have to suffer. May God deliver us from his awful followers!

[BoRaGard]

11. RW cancel culture

[Beartracks]

19. If RWers have ever complained about something, it's something that RWers do. n/t

[Conjuay]

15. You report them and they're gone pretty quick.

My beef is with Facebook. Any post that links to FB pops up a window saying I have to scan a selfie and submit it.
Like that's going to happen.

[Scrivener7]

20. Nah. They like the porn. It's the truth they want to suppress.

[mucholderthandirt]

6. I use a VPN, so I avoid a lot of this crap.

I generally only look at the people I'm following on Bluesky, simply to avoid the chance of seeing erotica stuff, or the endless posts of someone who has a telescope. And any MAGA idiots that found their way there. Ew.

[Haggard Celine]

12. Yeah, I am registered at BlueSky, but I've never posted anything.

I read posts there that are brought to my attention here. It's no big loss, really, but it irks the hell out of me. We shouldn't be having to fight these old battles all over again.

[doc03]

21. I signed up for Blue Sky and never go there unless someone posts a

link here on DU. It is just the same people every day posting stuff about Trump, it really doesn't tell us or accomplish a damn thing
we don't already know.

[LeftInTX]

22. Can you see tweets?

Link to tweet

I think BlueSky chose to comply with their law, but they don't have the resources for age verification. Companies like X can fight the law in in court or don't give a shit etc.

Texas has a similar law that goes into effect on Jan 1st.
https://wng.org/sift/texas-adopts-social-media-age-verification-law-1748469927

[Haggard Celine]

23. Yes, I can see tweets.

I wish our legislature would just leave things alone. They need to stick to funding the schools and fixing the roads.

[LeftInTX]

24. I hear you! BlueSky chose to block Mississippi IP addresses, but twitter didn't.

It's probably because other social media companies have bigger pockets if they are sued.

https://www.theverge.com/internet-censorship/764697/bluesky-blocks-mississippi-age-verification-law

I don't see that TikTok or Nextdoor blocked users or required the age verification thing. Weird...

[Dave says]

25. I can't go on BlueSky either

But for different reasons. About 6 weeks ago they “suspended” my account for “suspicious activity”. They have not provided more information than that. I remain puzzled over what that activity might have been.

I may have posted once or twice. The posts were similar to what I post here. I realize you don’t recall reading any of them, but that’s because they’re pretty innocuous — thus my puzzlement over the suspension.

In over 2 decades of posting here (and in the old days also posting to Urban 75), this has never happened to me.

I’ve checked my devices and changed passwords, just in case.

[Haggard Celine]

26. That's weird.

I've never had any problems here, either. Sounds like there are problems with laws and the site itself. I hope the courts strike down these laws, but who knows what SCOTUS would say about it.

[brush]

28. I've found the Blue Sky interface, at least how it displays here on DU, needs much improvement...

it is dominated by screen graphics designed to get one to sign on instead of giving viewers direct access to to videos promised. One has to figure out how to get to the video and I find it's not easy and not worth effort most of the time.

There's no display screen with a rounded corner red square with a white arrow click like You tube videos have...straight forward, easy to use.

What is up with that interface?

[Haggard Celine]

30. They're going to have to do some major tweaking on that site.

They still aren't quite ready for prime time, I think. I'm just aggravated about what my state has done in this case. It's stupid, and I know they're just doing this because it's some red state fad legislation.

[summer_in_TX]

29. The law Missouri passed requires age verification of every person from Missouri

who signs up, with a $10,000 per person fine if it is not done. As I understand it, it doesn't matter if the person is an adult for the $10K fine to apply.

Bluesky doesn't have the money to do it. While they've grown a lot this year, they don't sell ads or charge members. And they are MUCH smaller than X, although much superior, imo. Servers and personnel to handle the growth is expensive.

[Haggard Celine]

31. Oh, I'm not annoyed by what BlueSky did.

They have to protect themselves, but I'm pissed off at my state government. This is Project 2025 bullshit. The talibangelicals want to block porn and other content they don't like, and this is the first step toward that goal.

[LeftInTX]

32. BlueSky lacks infrastructure. Obviously, FB and Twitter aren't worried about repercussions.

When I lost my password, I could not reset it. The link to reset it wouldn't work. Nothing happened when I clicked it.

I emailed them and they emailed me back saying they would get back to me. They never did.


Somehow I found the password and logged in again. But if I hadn't found it on my own, I would have had to create a new account.