This week, we discovered a concerning extortion issue related to Bluesky, which surfaced following the platform’s announcement that it would use domain name ownership to verify the identity of public figures.
While Bluesky hasn’t fully tackled the problem yet, it has taken preliminary steps to mitigate the challenges posed by scammers impersonating prominent individuals on the site.
Bluesky extortion issue
Cybersquatting, where individuals purchase domain names of recognizable figures to impersonate them or sell the domains at inflated prices, has long been a persistent issue.
However, Bluesky exacerbated the situation by declaring that it would utilize domain name ownership as a means of verifying rightful username ownership on the platform. For instance, if you own the domain johnnyappleseed.com, Bluesky would permit you to adopt that same name and domain within its network.
This new policy led to scammers attempting to extort well-known figures by registering their domain names and subsequently pointing out that they would be unable to use their own names on Bluesky unless they acquired the domains in question. Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen tweeted an example of one such extortion attempt:
Hello Conor. I control conorsen.com. As you’re likely aware, Bluesky is leveraging .com domains to validate Bluesky accounts. bsky.social/about/blog/4…. Currently, we are setting up an email sign-up sheet featuring your favicon at that domain.
If you decide to report and suspend bsky.app/. profile/cono… you will not be able to verify the domain on your own. It will appear as though the verified domain has been suspended. You can either make an offer for the domain or choose to do nothing.
TechCrunch highlighted a thread that unfolded, showcasing arguments between both authentic and fake profiles of Hustle founder Sam Parr.
Partial safeguards implemented
TechCrunch has reported that Bluesky has tackled one dimension of the problem by safeguarding your original username when you switch to a custom domain.
Bluesky is additionally providing protection against username squatting by reserving your initial Bluesky username with the (.bsky.social) suffix when you transition your username to a custom domain.
For example, if Johnny was initially registered as johnnyappleseed.bsky.social and later updated to johnnyappleseed.com, it would have been possible for another individual to claim the original username. Bluesky has now prevented this from occurring.
Your Mentions now have a dedicated tab
Additionally, the app has introduced a dedicated tab for Mentions, rather than hiding them within the Notifications tab.
New sorting methods for replies have also been implemented.
Users now have the option to choose between linear and threaded views for replies and can organize them using various filters like hottest, oldest, newest, most-liked, and random.
Bluesky recently achieved a milestone of 25 million users, yet Threads seems to be in a stronger position to succeed as a competitor to the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Photo by Yohan Marion on Unsplash
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