Bluesky Strengthens Impersonation Policy as Celebrity Presence Grows

Bluesky, a growing social media platform, is facing issues with impersonation and user verification as more celebrities and influencers join. The Bluesky Safety team announced that it has updated its impersonation policy. It will now be stricter and will remove impersonation accounts and handle-squatting accounts.

Bluesky has increased its moderation team size fourfold to address impersonation reports more swiftly. However, the influx of new users has led to a backlog of reports. Users are expressing confusion over who is a real person or a parody account, as Bluesky does not have a verification badge like Twitter (now X). Instead, it verifies accounts through signals like domain names in user handles, such as “bsky.team” for official Bluesky accounts.

The platform is working to help organizations and public figures create verified domain handles. Bluesky allows parody and fan accounts, as long as they clearly identify themselves in their display name and bio. The platform prohibits “identity churning,” which means accounts cannot switch identities to avoid being labeled as impersonators.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber mentioned that the company may enhance verification options and allow other organizations to offer their own verification systems. The Bluesky Safety team acknowledged user requests for more identity verification methods and is exploring additional options to improve the process.