Bluesky, the emerging social media platform developed as an alternative to X (formerly Twitter), has announced the introduction of blue check marks for verified accounts in an effort to build trust and combat impersonation.
In a blog post shared on Monday, the company revealed it would begin proactively verifying high-profile and legitimate users, placing a blue tick beside their usernames to signify authenticity.
“Trust is everything,” the Bluesky team stated in the post, drawing parallels with the original verification system once used on Twitter, which helped users identify genuine accounts.
Unlike Twitter’s former verification process, however, Elon Musk scrapped the traditional system after acquiring the platform in 2022, instead introducing a paid subscription model — X Premium — which offers blue check marks to paying users, regardless of identity.
Commenting on the decision to implement verification, Bluesky said: “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.”
Bluesky was conceived by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in 2019 as a side project aimed at decentralising social media. Dorsey believed that centralised moderation efforts would ultimately fail to address issues like abuse and misinformation. The platform, which only launched publicly in 2023 — a year after Musk’s takeover of Twitter — was intended to give users greater control over content moderation and their personal data.
Earlier this year, Bluesky disclosed it had surpassed 30 million users. The platform already enables users to verify their identities by linking their account names to official websites, a feature currently adopted by over 270,000 users.
The platform’s new blue check system will initially focus on “trusted verifiers”, but Bluesky intends to open up the verification process through a formal application system in the future.
Bluesky’s chief operating officer Rose Wang expressed optimism about the platform’s momentum in a recent interview with AFP.
“We really see this as our coming-out year,” she said. “People want to know what’s happening in the world and need a safe, moderated space to discuss it, have fun, and make friends. Right now, they’re not finding that anywhere else.”
