Bluesky said it’s working to comply with European Union rules after the bloc accused the fast-growing social media platform of flouting its digital regulations.
      • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
        271·
        18 days ago

        One more step

        Please complete the security check to access

        Its fine - using a phone is always hell.

            • can@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              8·
              17 days ago

              @LodeMike@lemmy.today (does this work as a ping?)

              Bluesky said it’s working to comply with European Union rules after the bloc accused the fast-growing social media platform of flouting its digital regulations.

              The company is consulting with its lawyer to follow the EU’s information disclosure rules, a Bluesky spokesperson wrote Tuesday in an email.

              Bluesky, which was started in 2019 as a decentralized version of Twitter, has exploded in popularity in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, as many X users have sought alternatives to the Elon Musk-owned platform.

              The EU’s executive arm on Monday said Bluesky didn’t provide information it was required to share under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which governs content on social media sites.

              “All platforms in the EU have to have a dedicated page on their websites where it says how many user numbers they have in the EU and where they are legally established,” Thomas Regnier, the commission’s spokesperson on digital matters, told reporters. “This is not the case with Bluesky, so this is not followed.”

              The company reported adding 1 million users in a single day on Nov. 15, and Bluesky Chief Executive Officer Jay Graber said last week the platform had surpassed 20 million users. Celebrities active on Bluesky include rapper Lizzo and comedian Ricky Gervais, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who created an account in recent days.

              Under the DSA, platforms with more than 45 million users in the bloc qualify as “very large online platforms” and need to follow stricter content moderation rules under the commission’s supervision. Breaches can result in fines of up to 6% of their global annual sales.

              The EU is carrying out high-profile actions against social networks X, TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc., as well as e-commerce services AliExpress and Temu, as it leans into its role of global tech enforcer.

              Smaller platforms are still required to comply with the law, but are regulated by the EU country where they have a legal presence. That’s so far unclear in the case of Bluesky, which was created expressly to avoid a centralized ownership structure.

              The commission asked EU member countries’ national authorities to investigate “and see if they can find any trace of Bluesky” in their jurisdictions, Regnier said.

          • can@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            17 days ago

            Thank you. I’ll take a look.

            Edit: instructions:

            With Firefox 122+ (& Android 10+) you can still install/sideload this add-on by downloading xpi-file of latest release from GitFlic (with automatic add-on updates) when you enable the debug menu (settings > about > tap Firefox logo 5 times > return to settings): you’ll get new menu item Install extension from file

  • Drunemeton@lemmy.worldEnglish
    49·
    18 days ago

    “Breaches can result in fines of up to 6% of their global annual sales.“

    Well…since they don’t sell anything, and where exactly they’re getting their money from is an outstanding question, I’m sure once they get to 45 million users in the block they’ll be happy to pay 6% of zero.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.eeEnglish
      42·
      17 days ago

      Dont sell anything, yet. I’m sure they will a start selling things sooner or later, seeing as it’s not a charity, and its platform is expensive to run.

      That 6% is the gross of sales, not revenues profit as well. It can work out to a company’s entire profit margin. Its an incredibly serious fine you dont want trained on you at any point.

      • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        17 days ago

        That 6% is the gross of sales, not revenues as well.

        I think you mean “that’s 6% of revenue, not profit”. Revenue is gross income before expenses and other tax deductions. Sales is revenue generated by selling products and services, as opposed to interest and investment proceeds. Profit is revenue minus expenses and tax deductions and is where corporations often cheat.

    • joelghill@lemmy.mlEnglish
      13·
      18 days ago

      They actually sell a service where you can buy a domain name and have it set as your username.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    311·
    17 days ago

    i doubt they were doing it maliciously its just the cost of their sudden rapid expansion thanks to threads and twitter collapsing that caused them to prioritise issues differently

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    18 days ago

    So how would this work if say, people were streaming over to Mastadon instead of bluesky? Like its not clear to me that even the larger fediverse instances would have the money/ access to lawyers to support something like this.

    • 0x0@programming.devEnglish
      71·
      18 days ago

      “All platforms in the EU have to have a dedicated page on their websites where it says how many user numbers they have in the EU and where they are legally established,”

      I think that’s standard on mastodon and pleroma instances.

      Under the DSA, platforms with more than 45 million users in the bloc qualify as “very large online platforms” and need to follow stricter content moderation rules under the commission’s supervision.

      Clearly defined rules? How interesting… but moderation is a thing on the fediverse so, meh… maybe mastodon.social has to worry about it.

      Smaller platforms are still required to comply with the law, but are regulated by the EU country where they have a legal presence. That’s so far unclear in the case of Bluesky, which was created expressly to avoid a centralized ownership structure.

      And yet they’re not decentralized yet… if ever. Anyway, servers are physical.

      A while back i was looking for instances in the EU and while a few claimed to be from a few different countries, their servers were all in Helsinki…

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        17 days ago

        A lot of instances are hosted by Hetzner which has servers in Germany and Finland. Although that might not be what they mean by “legal presence”.

        • 0x0@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          17 days ago

          That’s what i thought, but what does it count as legal presence?

          I can be a company with headquarters in France and using Hetzner as my provider, the server i use being in Finland. Do i follow french law or both?

          Not a lawyer.

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      38·
      18 days ago

      Fines levied by the EU can be pretty damn stiff though, so I doubt Bluesky can afford to just ignore the DSA