🦋 Bluesky Social

I tried it a bit ago, there's a lot of bots that cross post stuff (specifically 196 and lemmy.ca's front pafe.)

It also has the verified, but it is not surprising because the .app domain is owned by the search engine company

Half the posts in my discover feed are people freaking out a child would dare use an LLM to ask a question.

I’m very aware that LLMs in a capitalist system have myriad ethical problems but my feed really feels like the 2000s fearmongering that teens have access to cellphones and society will thus collapse. Or the 1980s dungeons and dragons moral panic. Or the 70s fearmongering when kids were watching too much TV. Like it feels a bit over the top reactionary. I kind of don’t want it on my feed anymore.

I have an account on sprk.so and I'm interested in migrating all my data to that account because I want to be less reliant on Bluesky PBLLC.

Is there an easy way to do this yet?

Bluesky has restricted access to 72 accounts and one post in Turkey, marking a shift for the decentralized social media platform that had previously resisted government censorship, according to a report by the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD).

According to İFÖD, Turkish court orders led to the blocking of 59 accounts at the internet service provider level. Separately, Bluesky voluntarily made 13 accounts and one post inaccessible in Turkey, likely in response to legal pressure.

Bluesky, known for its decentralized structure, which allows users to create and operate independent servers rather than relying on a central authority, had been seen as a free-speech-friendly alternative to mainstream platforms such as X.

Turkey has increased pressure on digital platforms in recent years, requiring companies to appoint local representatives and quickly comply with content removal requests or face fines and bandwidth throttling. In March Turkish authorities blocked access to 126 X accounts, including those of independent media outlets.

At the same time, press freedom in Turkey has sharply declined. Turkey, which is known as one of the top jailers of journalists in the world, ranks 158th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

Independent outlets face financial and legal pressure, while pro-government media dominate the landscape. The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) and other regulatory bodies have been used to sanction dissenting voices, further curbing freedom of expression.

Bluesky has not publicly commented on the recent restrictions.

Trust is everything. Social media has connected us in powerful ways, but it hasn’t always given us the tools to know who we’re interacting with or why we should trust them.

In 2023, we launched our first layer of verification: letting individuals and organizations set their domain as their username. Since then, over 270,000 accounts have linked their Bluesky username to their website. Domain handles continue to be an important part of verification on Bluesky. At the same time, we've heard from users that a larger visual signal would be useful in knowing which accounts are authentic.

Now, we’re introducing a new layer — a user-friendly, easily recognizable blue check. Bluesky will proactively verify authentic and notable accounts and display a blue check next to their names. Additionally, through our Trusted Verifiers feature, select independent organizations can verify accounts directly. Bluesky will review these verifications as well to ensure authenticity.

Blue checks issued by platforms are just one form of trust. But trust doesn’t come only from the top down; it emerges from relationships, communities, and shared context.

So, we’re also enabling trusted verifiers: organizations that can directly issue blue checks. Trusted verifiers are marked by scalloped blue checks, as shown below.

For example, the New York Times can now issue blue checks to its journalists directly in the app. Bluesky’s moderation team reviews each verification to ensure authenticity.

When you tap on a verified account's blue check, you’ll see which organizations have granted verification.

You can also choose to hide verification within the app — navigate to Settings > Moderation > Verification Settings to toggle it off. How to Get Verified on Bluesky

You can self-verify by setting your domain as your username. We highly encourage official organizations and individuals to do this.

During this initial phase, Bluesky is not accepting direct applications for verification. As this feature stabilizes, we’ll launch a request form for notable and authentic accounts interested in becoming verified or becoming trusted verifiers.

With regards to posts being blocked in Turkey, this would allow users to bypass them. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this and other tools are eventually blocked there.

Link to the article without the paywall

https://archive.ph/MnXLx

Source: https://mas.to/@osma/114346166890552471

Bluesky images can be embedded on Lemmy by linking directly to the jpeg file hosted on https://cdn.bsky.app/img/

Twitter videos can be embedded on Lemmy by linking directly to the mp4 file hosted on https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/.

For Bluesky videos, I found this potentially relevant GitHub thread, but the example links provided don't seem to embed on Lemmy.

Is there an equivalent way to embed Bluesky videos on Lemmy?

Do you think this action is justified or was it exaggerated?