This photograph shows a smartphone screen displaying the logo of major social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Telegram, X, Bluesky, Tiktok and Whatsapp.
Martin Lelièvre | Afp | Getty Images
Government action to ban social media platforms risks further strengthening big tech’s grip on the industry, limiting access to smaller players, a BlueSky executive 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 is not opposed to regulation but that smaller players in the industry should be protected.
“I support the protection and safety of young people. The question then is at what cost, because what scares me is that in the long term we are heading towards a world where there are about three to five platforms, and extremely heavy regulation of those platforms, and basically the entire compliance teams of those platforms are 10 times bigger than our entire team,” Wang said.
“So basically we live in a world where it’s almost impossible for small entrants to come in and build healthier spaces,” she added.
The open source platform was created within X, formerly Twitter, in 2019 and endorsed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Bluesky was established in 2021 and quickly rose to prominence as a rival to Elon Muskplatform owned by. Since then, it has become 43 million users in March, which is still only about 10% of the estimate for 450 million users.
Bluesky has struggled to maintain its popularity, and by the end of October last year it was reportedly experiencing a 40% drop among daily active mobile users over the past 12 months. Wang said the company has about 40 employees.
“These platforms have led to a point where the bottom line is what determines what they do…so I understand why governments need to step in and regulate, because the platforms haven’t done anything right,” Wang explained.
While governments say they want to protect young people, tech companies have pushed backarguing that the measures won’t necessarily stop teens from seeing harmful content and will end up cutting them off from their friends and community.
Australia was the first country to impose a blanket social media ban on teenagers under 16 in December, with major social media platforms including The meta Instagram, ByteDance TikTok, The alphabet YouTube, Elon Musk’s X and Reddit forced to implement age verification methods such as facial estimation via selfies, uploaded identity documents or linked bank details.
Fines for non-compliance can reach up to A$49.5 million ($35 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply. Bluesky has also introduced age checks to keep under-16s away from its platform, according to Australian Electronic Security Commissioner.
Australia’s ban set a precedent, with several countries around the world seeking to propose similar legislation, including the UNITED KINGDOM, Spain, FranceAnd Austria. In the United States, state level legislation seems more likely than a national ban.
“I just want to end here by not saying that regulation is bad, but rather that regulation must go hand in hand with innovation,” Wang said.
“I think there needs to be fundamentally more channels between small and mid-sized players and small businesses with regulators, because they need to be protected, whereas the very large tech players that we know are circumventing regulation need to be regulated, and so I think that nuance can be found.”