Bluesky has blocked access in Mississippi, citing privacy and free speech concerns over a new law requiring all social media users to undergo age verification with fines of up to $10,000 per violation.
The problem isn’t that the state is blocking it; its that they threatened to impose a $10,000 fine for each user who can access the site without first proving their age.
You can afford that risk if you live outside the US. Not if you’re a US corporation
Something I do wonder about these laws: could a person self-hosting a private fedi instance that only they have an account on, argue that they meet age verification requirements by virtue of personally knowing the age of the only user? Or at that point would the whole network of federated servers count as the “platform” rather than the instance?
Its probably more difficult to block multiple mastodon instances than the single bluesky site.
The problem isn’t that the state is blocking it; its that they threatened to impose a $10,000 fine for each user who can access the site without first proving their age.
You can afford that risk if you live outside the US. Not if you’re a US corporation
If a minor hosted their own instance for friends, would the state fine them $10,000/pop?
Yes
Something I do wonder about these laws: could a person self-hosting a private fedi instance that only they have an account on, argue that they meet age verification requirements by virtue of personally knowing the age of the only user? Or at that point would the whole network of federated servers count as the “platform” rather than the instance?
This kills the fediverse.
Missisippi lawmakers are too idiotic to know what the reducers is and their law enforcement is too busy to learn what a fediverse is to enforce it
And that’s where you’d be wrong. It’s the fediverse’s time to shine, really.
I assume the hoster would know the age of his friends? Or is the law more spesific in how the verification must happen.