A new Bluesky update aims to tamp down on the cybersquatting and fake account problem that has plagued the app.
In an update rolled out on Thursday evening, users who have verified their account by using a domain name automatically reserve their default username to prevent impersonators from taking it.
Bluesky is having a moment as a alternative for those who feel like X has become toxic. Since the U.S. election, millions have migrated to Bluesky in search of a better online experience and meaningful engagement instead of right-wing trolls. Currently, Bluesky has over 25 million users, amassing 5 million of those users in less than a month.
But in the midst of meteoric growth, Bluesky has seen a rampant increase in fake accounts. Previously, there was nothing stopping scammers or trolls from taking the default username given to users when they first sign up, then switch to a verified domain name. Users are automatically given @[username].bsky.social when they make an account. But if they own a domain, they can change it to @[domainname.com] by providing the private domain registrar information given to all websites. So Wikipedia could change its handle from @wikipedia.bsky.social to @wikipedia.org, which effectively verifies Wikipedia's account. But scammers would have been able to take over the @wikipedia.bsky.social handle and impersonate the account.
Now, users that verify their account by linking their domain name get to automatically keep the default @username.bsky.social username. That doesn't stop cybersquatters from buying the rights to someone's domain name and using it for themselves on Bluesky, but that's beyond the app's control. But this will hopefully curtail some of the rampant impersonations and scams. Previously Bluesky shared its efforts to crack down on impersonators with a "more aggressive" policy on labeling parody accounts.
As part of the new update, Bluesky has also added a Mentions tab in Notifications to better keep up with replies and conversations and a new setting for prioritizing replies.
