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Bluesky, the social media site that has grown rapidly following an exodus of users from Elon Musk’s X, is in breach of EU regulations for not disclosing key details about the group, the European Commission said on Monday.
“All platforms in the EU . . . have to have a dedicated page on their website where it says how many users they have in the EU and where they are legally established,” said commission spokesman Thomas Regnier. “This is not the case for Bluesky as of today. This is not followed.”
The intervention comes as thousands of users, including commission president Ursula von der Leyen, have opened Bluesky accounts in recent weeks.
The site has benefited from Musk’s endorsement of US president-elect Donald Trump and decision to reduce content moderation — moves that appear to have driven many academics, journalists and left-leaning politicians to Bluesky.
Regnier said the commission, the EU’s executive arm, had written to the 27 national governments to see “if they can find any trace of Bluesky” such as identifying a EU-based office. It has not yet contacted the company directly, he added.
Bluesky did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Since US election day, app usage of Bluesky in the US and UK has jumped by almost 300 per cent to 3.5mn daily users, according to data from research group Similarweb.
Bluesky is a US public benefit company led by digital rights activist and software engineer Jay Graber. It was founded in 2019 for the purpose of developing a single standard, or protocol, upon which social platforms and other developers could build their own operations. It has come to resemble X with users posting short messages and images.
The EU move comes as regulators are increasing scrutiny over potential breaches of the digital rules by Musk’s X. Brussels has been investigating his social media platform since last year over accusations of non-compliance with its landmark Digital Services Act — mainly in relation to the alleged spread of illegal content and misinformation.
The commission is also probing Chinese shopping business Temu over worries that it is failing to do enough to curb the sales of illegal products.
Fresh probes on other platforms are also likely. Last month, EU regulators sent questions and requests for official documents to YouTube, TikTok and Snap on how the online platforms are monitoring the use of artificial intelligence in their algorithms over concerns that it could lead to illegal and fake content online.
Companies found in breach of the law face penalties of up to 6 per cent of their global annual revenues. Repeat offenders could even be banned from the bloc.
The commission cannot regulate Bluesky directly as it does not yet reach the threshold of more than 45mn monthly users in the EU to be designated a very large online platform. But Regnier said that if member states could identify a EU-based representative for the company, Brussels would “reach out to Bluesky”.
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