Teen social media ban risks strengthening Big Tech dominance: Bluesky

Government action to ban social media platforms risks strengthening Big Tech’s grip on the industry further, limiting access for smaller players, an exec at BlueSky has warned.

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, told CNBC on the sidelines of SXSW in London on Wednesday that the smaller open-source platform isn’t opposed to regulation but that smaller players in the industry should be protected.

“I support the protection and the safety of youth, the question that we have then is at what cost, because essentially what I’m scared of is in the long term, we’re headed to a world where there’s about three to five platforms, and extreme heavy regulation of those platforms, and basically the whole compliance teams of these platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team,” Wang said.

“So, basically, we’re living in a world where it’s almost impossible for smaller entrants to come in and build healthier spaces,” she added.

The open-source platform was created within X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2019 and endorsed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Bluesky spun off in 2021 and soon after gained prominence as a rival to the Elon Musk-owned platform. It’s since grown to 43 million users as of March, which is still only around 10% of X’s estimated 450 million users.

Bluesky has struggled to maintain popularity, and by the end of October last year, it had reportedly seen a 40% drop in daily mobile active users over the past 12 months. Wang said the company has around 40 employees.

“These platforms have led to a place where the bottom line is the thing that drives what they do… so I understand why governments have to step in and regulate, because the platforms have done nothing right,” Wang explained.

While governments say they’re looking to protect young people, tech firms have pushed back, arguing that the measures won’t necessarily prevent teens from seeing harmful content and will ultimately cut off teens from friends and community.

Australia was the first to enforce a blanket social media ban for teens under the age of 16-years-old in December, with major social media platforms like Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, and Reddit forced to implement age verification methods such as facial estimation through selfies, uploaded ID documents, or linked bank details.

Fines for not complying can reach up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($35 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply. Bluesky also introduced age assurance checks to keep under-16s off its platform, according to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.

Australia’s ban set a precedent, with several countries worldwide looking to propose similar legislation, including the U.K., Spain, France, and Austria. In the U.S., state-level legislation is looking more likely than a national ban.

“I just want to end here with not saying that regulation is bad; it’s that regulation needs to work together with innovation,” Wang said.

“I think that there needs to be basically more channels between the smaller, medium-sized players and small businesses with regulators, because they need to be protected, while also then the very Big tech players who we know are circumventing regulation need to be regulated, and so I think that nuance can be struck.”