Bluesky Battles Impersonation Scams As User Base Surges To 20 Million

Bluesky Battles Impersonation Scams As User Base Surges To 20 Million

Bluesky’s Impersonation Problem: A New Challenge in the Decentralized Era

As Bluesky’s user base soared to over 20 million in recent months, a new challenge emerged: impersonation scams. The platform, which has been criticized for its lack of verification measures, is struggling to keep up with the influx of malicious accounts masquerading as prominent users.

Knight and Marx, two high-profile figures on Bluesky, confirmed that they have been battling impersonator accounts for weeks. Their experiences are not isolated, as tech journalist Sheera Frankel and researcher Molly White have also fallen victim to similar scams. In fact, research by Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, found that over 74% of impersonated accounts belonged to a named person.

The sudden surge in new users, which has more than doubled since September, has put Bluesky’s moderation team to the test. The platform’s decentralized nature makes it difficult to tackle impersonation, as users have more control over their content and communities. Competitors like X and Threads rely on centralized teams to moderate unwanted behavior, but Bluesky’s approach allows for greater user autonomy.

Despite efforts to improve its policies, Bluesky still faces a significant backlog of moderation reports due to the influx of new users. The company has quadrupled its safety team, but it appears that kicking out impersonators remains a challenge. As Hunter Walker, an investigative journalist, noted, “the lack of verification measures on Bluesky is creating a Wild West atmosphere where anyone can pretend to be anyone.”

In response to the growing concern, some users have taken matters into their own hands by setting up initiatives to verify journalists and high-profile individuals. However, these efforts are limited, and users are still relying on third-party websites or blue ticks from paying customers to establish credibility.

Bluesky’s failure to implement a verification system similar to Twitter’s old model has raised questions about the platform’s ability to protect its users. The company’s safety team has acknowledged the issue, stating that it has updated its impersonation policy to be more aggressive and quadrupled its moderation team.

While Bluesky continues to navigate this challenge, the debate surrounding decentralization and user control remains. As the platform looks to address its impersonator problem, one thing is clear: a more robust verification system is essential to maintaining trust on the platform.

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