Bluesky cracks down on impersonators with new verification and policy updates

Bluesky, the social media platform that has been taking off lately in spite of its slow beginnings, is now taking a stronger stance against impersonation. The company recently announced that it will be removing accounts that pretend to be other people or try to grab usernames they shouldn’t have. This comes after research showed that many of the most-followed accounts on Bluesky had fake copies, which is a problem because Bluesky doesn’t have a simple way to verify who’s really who.

Image credit — Bluesky Safety account

You can prove who you are on Bluesky, but it’s not as easy as just buying a checkmark like on some other platforms. You have to link your account to a website you own, which most people don’t do. Bluesky is working with famous people and companies to help them verify their accounts.

As one report explains, one of the tricky consequences is that when someone verifies their account, their old username becomes available again, which can be confusing. To stop people from pretending to be others, Bluesky is making accounts that are meant to be parodies or fan accounts say so very clearly. If they don’t, they could be removed.

They’re also stopping people from quickly changing their identity to avoid being banned. Bluesky is looking into other ways to make it easier to see who’s real and who’s not, but they haven’t said exactly what those will be yet.

Why all this matters? Well, without a way to know who’s really who, it’s easy for people to spread false information or trick others. These are issues that are rampant in other social media platforms such as X and even Threads. And now, with Bluesky seeing such exponential growth, it would be smart to nip this in the bud now, before it becomes too much of a monumental task.

It will be interesting to see how these changes will affect Bluesky users and how they use the platform. Maybe it will become a place where people feel more confident that they know who they’re talking to. One concern is how these changes might affect people who want to stay anonymous online. Sometimes people need to hide their real identity for safety or other reasons. I hope Bluesky finds a way to balance the need to stop impersonation with the need to protect people’s privacy.