Banning social media for teenagers threatens to strengthen the dominance of Big Tech: Bluesky

The government’s move to block social media risks further strengthening Big Tech’s grip on the industry, and reducing the reach of smaller players, a BlueSky official has warned.

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief executive, told CNBC on the sidelines of SXSW in London on Wednesday that the small open platform is not against the law but that smaller players in the industry should be protected.

“I support the protection and safety of young people, the question we have at that time is what is the cost, because really what I fear is that in the long run, we are headed for a world where there are about three to five platforms, and extremely heavy regulation of those platforms, and basically all the compliance teams of these platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team,” said Wang.

“So, in reality, we live in a world where it is almost impossible for small entrants to come in and build healthy communities,” he added.

The open source platform was created within X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2019 and was approved by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Bluesky came out in 2021 and soon after it gained fame as a rival to Elon Musk’s platform. It has since grown to 43 million users since March, which is about 10% of X’s estimated 450 million users.

Bluesky has struggled to maintain popularity, and at the end of October last year, it was reported that it had seen a 40% drop in daily mobile users over the past 12 months. Wang said the company has about 40 employees.

“These platforms have led to a place where the bottom line is what drives what they do … so I understand why governments have to step in and regulate, because the platforms haven’t done anything right,” Wang explained.

While governments say they are looking to protect young people, tech firms have pushed back, saying the measures will not prevent young people from seeing harmful content and will ultimately cut young people off from friends and society.

Australia became the first to enforce a ban on social media for under-16s in December, with major social media platforms such as Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, Letters of the alphabet YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, and Reddit who is forced to use age verification methods such as facial recognition with selfies, uploaded ID documents, or linked banking information.

Fines for non-compliance can reach 49.5 million Australian dollars ($35 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply. Bluesky has also introduced age verification checks to block under-16s from their site, according to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.

Australia’s ban has set a precedent, as several countries around the world want to introduce similar legislation, including the UK, Spain, France, and Austria. In the US, state-level legislation seems more likely than a national ban.

“I want to conclude here by not saying that regulation is bad; that the law needs to work together and innovate,” Wang said.

“I think there needs to be more channels between small players, medium-sized and small businesses with regulators, because they need to be protected, and the Big tech players that we know are breaking the law need to be regulated, so I think that could be affected.”