Decentralized social network
Mastodon.social says it can’t comply with Mississippi’s age verification law — the same law that saw rival Bluesky pull out of the state — because it doesn’t have the means to do so.

This will be interesting...

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/mastodon-says-it-doesnt-have-the-means-to-comply-with-age-verification-laws/

Humanity is against the Bluesky Social Terms of Service.

#BlueSky #SiliconValley #BigTech #israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine https://mastodon.social/@joynewacc/115113184762671559

Unlike #bluesky, #mastodon is not blocked centrally in Mississippi.

Glad to hear it.

It wouldn't have been technically possible anyway, since #mastodon is decentralized.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/mastodon-says-it-doesnt-have-the-means-to-comply-with-age-verification-laws/

(Posting reply https://mastodon.social/@folkerschamel/115113652757352708, which wasn't bridged, again, but this time as new post to see if bridging is working then.)

#decentralization #activitypub #atproto #decentralizationwashing @canrith6696 @mmasnick.bsky.social @Gargron @stinerman @ikuturso @glyph @pluralistic

'No, Mastodon is not decentralized'

I have seen so much discourse the last week or two poking at Bluesky for falsely claiming to be decentralized, and pointing to Mastodon (rather than *the fediverse*) as being an example of true decentralized social networking. Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

https://victorwynne.com/mastodon/?utm_source=fedi

As the great firewall of America keep closing in on us things keep getting weirder and weirder.

We're on the verge of a digital dark ages.

#Mastodon #Bluesky #Privacy

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/mastodon-says-it-doesnt-have-the-means-to-comply-with-age-verification-laws/

Even if #Bluesky could count as decentralized, I don't see how that does it any good if its infrastructure is so abstruse and hard to understand.

If you can understand what a server is, then you can pretty much grasp decentralization and the fediverse.

Compared with BS's truck about PDS's, relays, AppView, the distinction between the company and the app, etc., doesn't mastodon come out as the "easy" decentralized platform?

Have we been the normies all along?!

"#Bounce adds an additional layer to [Bsky's #credibleexit]: you can now transfer your account to another protocol altogether.
In this way, the ability to use Bounce to migrate your #socialgraph from Bluesky to #Mastodon actually is a benefit to #Bluesky: it further cements their claim of providing a credible exit. This lowers the barriers for people who are unsure about trying out Bluesky, there is now a way back."

https://connectedplaces.leaflet.pub/3lxhywrnwnc2d/l-quote/1_0-2_109#1_0

Piccolo reminder: il fediverso non è mastodon, a volte serve ricordarlo, il fediverso è molto altro!

In molti vogliono “più decentralizzazione!” e poi aprono l’ennesimo Mastodon su Masto.host o un'account bluesky. Il risultato? milioni di iscritti solo su mastodon.social, masto.host e bluesky che hanno praticamente il controllo su tutto

Questa non è proprio la rivoluzione promessa, gestire #mastodon o #bluesky è difficile e si sta diventando clienti più che gestori.

@fediverso

Interesting problem with @librewolf, a Firefox alternative that I started testing yesterday. Uploaded images look broken in #Bluesky (only there, not here)

Is this a side effect of some advanced anti-fingerprinting measures?

#Scientists Are Flocking to #Bluesky

#Academics once loved #Twitter —but in the age of #X they’ve abandoned it in droves.
#Musk

https://www.wired.com/story/bluesky-now-platform-of-choice-for-science-community/

Will Bluesky Block Most Red States?

Digesting Sarah Perez's @Sarahp great TechCrunch article on #Bluesky blocking users from Mississippi (https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/28/mississippis-age-assurance-law-puts-decentralized-social-networks-to-the-test/), and noticing that almost all the "red" states have similar laws to Mississippi (see below).

So, will Bluesky soon be blocking users from these states? Do users want to take that chance?

It's easy to set up a truly decentralized Mastodon account, even if only as a backup >>> https://joinmastodon.org/

"ATmosphere developers I talk to are very very aware of these limitations. They just prefer to invest their time and energy in working to improve the situation rather than arguing about the semantics of "decentralization."" by @jdp23

https://privacy.thenexus.today/can-we-please-stop-arguing-about-whether-bluesky-is-decentralized/

#Bluesky users in Wyoming and South Dakota be aware you might be at risk of being cut off. Last week Bluesky blocked users from Mississippi in response to similar age verification laws.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/28/from-book-bans-to-internet-bans-wyoming-lets-parents-control-the-whole-states-access-to-the-internet/

Perhaps consider creating an account on the Fediverse: https://joinmastodon.org/

Mississippi, Bluesky, Blacksky, the ATmosphere, Mastodon, and the Fediverse

New on The Nexus of Privacy!

https://privacy.thenexus.today/mississippi-bluesky-blacksky-the-atmosphere-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

As well as a summary of the situation (both in the ATmosphere and the Fediverse) and links to a bunch of interesting discussions, there's also a discussion of just why age verification laws are so bad.

@fediversenews