Bluesky Introduces New Verification System

The decentralized social media platform Bluesky announced a new verification system this Monday, as a strategy to gain users’ trust and align with other platforms’ authenticity requirements. The company introduced new blue check marks for verified accounts and a trusted verifiers program.

According to the official announcement shared by Bluesky on its blog, the company explains its historic process of including multiple verification systems to gain users’ trust. In 2023, the platform allowed users and organizations to use their domains as verification systems and handles as well. Since then, especially after the U.S. elections, Bluesky has gained millions of new users, and is including new layers of account verification.

Starting this week, the company is introducing a blue check next to the user’s name—similar to what other platforms such as X, Instagram, and TikTok use—for accounts verified by them, and a new title, Trusted Verifiers, for users and organizations who can issue blue checks directly.

“Bluesky will proactively verify authentic and notable accounts and display a blue check next to their names,” states the document. “Additionally, through our Trusted Verifiers feature, select independent organizations can verify accounts directly. Bluesky will review these verifications as well to ensure authenticity.”

Bluesky’s moderation team will review every account to validate the information. The company explained that trustworthy accounts, such as The New York Times, will be able to assign a blue check to their journalists through the app. Users will be able to recognize trusted verifiers by the scalloped blue checks next to the username.

For now, Bluesky is working on reaching out to potential trusted verifiers and verifying selected accounts, but it won’t accept verification requests. Users can also opt out by turning off the verification mode through the app settings.

A few weeks ago, Bluesky released a free photo-sharing app called Flashes that allows users to share up to 4 photos per post and runs on Bluesky’s AT Protocol.