Overview

• The U.S. Supreme Court declined to pause the law, keeping HB 1126 in force during ongoing legal challenges and prompting Bluesky’s move.
• Mississippi’s statute requires age verification for every user and parental consent for minors, with potential fines of up to $10,000 per account.
• Bluesky argues the mandate creates privacy risks by necessitating storage of sensitive information and tracking of which accounts belong to children.
• Some people outside Mississippi were incorrectly blocked due to carrier routing, and Bluesky’s CTO said an update to improve location detection is being deployed.
• The restriction applies to the Bluesky app built on the AT Protocol, and the company notes other apps on the protocol may choose different compliance approaches.