Government censorship has come to #Bluesky.
LATEST:
On demands from the Turkish government, Bluesky restricted access to 72 accounts per a report from a Turkish NGO.
DETAIL:
Accounts are restricted for users in Turkey.
Accounts aren't banned from Bluesky's AT Protocol relays etc, but access is moderated at the official client level through geography-specific labels.
WORKAROUNDS?
Realistically impacted accounts are no longer visible to the majority of Bluesky users (most aren't on 3rd party clients) in Turkey.
However, since 3rd party client apps for the AT Protocol aren't forced to use geography-specific labels, they an still be used to view the content.
In theory, official client + VPN would also result in seeing the accounts.
LOOKING AT SOME DATA:
Bluesky has been publishing transparency reporting about legal & government requests. The most recent report covers 2024 and shows a relatively modest number of takedown requests, but about 50% response by Bluesky.
Unfortunately, the company doesn't differentiate between legal demands in civil litigation and *government* demands. This makes it hard to get a clear picture.
I hope Bluesky segments out these very different kinds of pressure in 2025 reporting so we can get a better sense of what's happening.
BIG PICTURE:
Looking ahead, governments are probing for new ways to enforce content restrictions. These are early days for Bluesky and it is likely that a lot more requests like this will be inbound as users head there to try and avoid the well-greased censorship machinery on legacy platforms like X.
Recommended reading & Sources:
Super-helpful-to-me TechCrunch article: 
Mastodon post confirming blocking with testing : 
Bluesky post with the notification email screenshot:
Bluesky 2024 Moderation Report: 
Bluesky post describing geography-specific labels as a content-removal technique:
LATEST:
On demands from the Turkish government, Bluesky restricted access to 72 accounts per a report from a Turkish NGO.
DETAIL:
Accounts are restricted for users in Turkey.
Accounts aren't banned from Bluesky's AT Protocol relays etc, but access is moderated at the official client level through geography-specific labels.
WORKAROUNDS?
Realistically impacted accounts are no longer visible to the majority of Bluesky users (most aren't on 3rd party clients) in Turkey.
However, since 3rd party client apps for the AT Protocol aren't forced to use geography-specific labels, they an still be used to view the content.
In theory, official client + VPN would also result in seeing the accounts.
LOOKING AT SOME DATA:
Bluesky has been publishing transparency reporting about legal & government requests. The most recent report covers 2024 and shows a relatively modest number of takedown requests, but about 50% response by Bluesky.
Unfortunately, the company doesn't differentiate between legal demands in civil litigation and *government* demands. This makes it hard to get a clear picture.
I hope Bluesky segments out these very different kinds of pressure in 2025 reporting so we can get a better sense of what's happening.
BIG PICTURE:
Looking ahead, governments are probing for new ways to enforce content restrictions. These are early days for Bluesky and it is likely that a lot more requests like this will be inbound as users head there to try and avoid the well-greased censorship machinery on legacy platforms like X.
Recommended reading & Sources:
Super-helpful-to-me TechCrunch article: TechCrunch
Government censorship comes to Bluesky, but not its third-party apps ... yet | TechCrunch
Government censorship has found its way to Bluesky, but there's currently a loophole thanks to how the social network is structured.Earlier this
Mastodon
Mastodon Migration (@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online)
Attached: 1 image
Confirmation: Bluesky Now Blocking User In Turkey In Response To Turkish Demands
Yesterday Arda Kılıçdağı @arda@micro.arda...
Bluesky Social
Ali Safa Korkut (@aliskorkut.com)
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Bluesky
Bluesky 2024 Moderation Report - Bluesky
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