Teen social media ban risks strengthening Big Tech dominance: Bluesky

The government’s action to ban social media platforms risks further strengthening Big Tech’s grip on the industry and limits the reach of smaller players, an executive from BlueSky has warned.

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, told CNBC during the SXSW session in London on Wednesday that the smaller open source platform is not averse to regulations, but smaller players in the industry need to be protected.

“I support the protection and safety of young people, so the question we have is how much is it going to cost, because what I really fear is that in the long run, we’re heading towards a world where there are about three to five platforms and extremely strict regulations on those platforms, and basically the entire compliance teams of those platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team,” Wang said.

“So basically, we live in a world where it’s almost impossible for small participants to come in and build healthier spaces,” he added.

The open-source platform was created in 2019 within X, formerly known as Twitter, and is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Bluesky left in 2021 and soon rose to prominence as a rival to Elon Musk’s platform. It has grown since then 43 million users As of March, this is still only around 10% of X’s estimate. 450 million users.

Bluesky has struggled to maintain its popularity, and by the end of October last year, it reportedly saw a surge. 40% drop Number of daily mobile active users in the last 12 months. Wang said the company has about 40 employees.

“These platforms have taken it to a place where the bottom line is what drives 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 back, arguing the measures won’t stop young people from seeing harmful content and will ultimately alienate young people from friends and community.

Australia became the first country to impose a blanket social media ban for young people under 16 in December, with major social media platforms including Meta’s Instagram and ByteDance’s TikTok. alphabet YouTube is Elon Musk’s X and reddit They are forced to implement age verification methods such as facial estimation through selfies, uploaded identity documents or linked bank information.

Fines for non-compliance can be up to A$49.5 million ($35 million) if “reasonable steps” are not taken to avoid compliance. Bluesky has also introduced age checks to keep those under 16 off its platform. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.

Australia’s ban set a precedent; Many countries around the world, including the UK, Spain and France, want to propose similar legislation. Austria. In the US, state-level legislation seems more likely than a national ban.

“I want to wrap this up without saying that regulations are bad; regulations need to work together with innovation,” Wang said.

“I think there needs to be more channels fundamentally between small, mid-sized players and small businesses that have regulators, because they need to be protected, but also the Big tech players that we know are circumventing regulations need to be regulated, and so I think that nuance can be eliminated.”