X competitor Bluesky unveils new blue checks for credible accounts

Bluesky, the social media platform at competition with Elon Musk's X, announced Monday that it will introduce blue checks to verified accounts, ensuring users are authentic.

In a blog post, the company stated that it aims to "proactively verify authentic and notable accounts and display a blue check next to their names."

"Trust is everything," the team said in the post.

This move echoes a feature previously implemented by Twitter, which Musk acquired in 2022 and renamed "X".

After taking over, Musk eliminated traditional verification processes, opting instead to grant blue check marks only to subscribers of the X premium tier.

"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," the Bluesky team said in its post.

Bluesky was created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as a side project in 2019.

Dorsey pulled five engineers aside to build a decentralised alternative to Twitter.

He said at the time that centralised attempts to police abuse and misinformation on a platform like Twitter were unlikely to work, and that he wanted to give users more control of personal data and content moderation.

Bluesky did not see the light of day until 2023, the year after Twitter was bought by Musk, a key ally of United States President Donald Trump who has pushed misinformation on his platform since his takeover.

Bluesky said in a post early this year that it had grown to more than 30 million users.

The burgeoning social media network already lets individuals and organisations verify who they are by letting them use their website addresses as their user names, and more than 270,000 accounts use that option, according to the platform.

Bluesky is starting such "trusted verifiers" with blue checks and plans to eventually launch a request form for accounts seeking the mark of authenticity, the team said.

Bluesky's chief operating officer Rose Wang said in a recent interview with AFP that she was optimistic about the social network's trajectory.

"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."